Dr. Ronald Balvers, professor of finance at the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics, will be available to speak to reporters after Jeffrey Lacker’s Tuesday, Feb. 14, speech. Lacker is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond .

Lacker is giving his first speech since the retirement of Alan Greenspan late last month. It is titledTransition and Continuity at the Federal Reserve in 2006,and is set for 7 p.m. in room 459, Business and Economics Building .

Dr. Balvers specializes in the variables that effect stock market indices in an environment of incomplete information and the optimal response of investors. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pittsburgh and an undergraduate degree in economics from Tilburg University , The Netherlands.

He is also an ad hoc reviewer for American Economic Review; The Economic Journal; International Economic Review; Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control; among others.

Lacker’s speech is part of the Acordia/Royal&SunAlliance Distinguished Lecture Series within the WVU College of Business and Economics. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception.

Lacker joined the Federal Reserve Bank in 1989 as an economist in the banking area of the Research Department. He was named research officer in 1994, vice president in 1996 and senior vice president and director of research in May 1999. Lacker took office Aug. 1, 2004, as the seventh chief executive of the Fifth District Federal Reserve Bank at Richmond .

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond is one of 12 District Reserve Banks that together with the Board of Governors in Washington , D.C. , make up the Federal Reserve System. The Richmond Fed serves the Fifth Federal Reserve District, which encompasses the District of Columbia , Maryland , North Carolina , South Carolina , Virginia , and most of West Virginia .