Raymond Lombra
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Raymond Eugene "Ray" Lombra (born 1946 in
Hamden, Connecticut Hamden is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The town's nickname is "The Land of the Sleeping Giant". The population was 61,169 at the 2020 census. History The peaceful tribe of Quinnipiacs were the first residents of the ...
) is an American economist and professor at
Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...
, where he is also the senior advisor to the Dean.


Education

Lombra graduated from
Providence College Providence College is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1917 by the Dominican Order and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, local diocese, it offers 47 undergradua ...
in 1967 with a BA in economics. He went on to graduate from Penn State in 1968 with a master's degree, and received his PhD there in 1971.


Career

Lombra worked as a senior staff economist at the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the mon ...
before joining the faculty at Penn State in 1977. He became Penn State's associate dean in 1992.


Research

Lombra has published over 75 scholarly articles and six books. In 1990,
Americans for Common Cents Americans for Common Cents is an organization based in Washington, D.C. that lobbies in favor of keeping the United States penny in circulation. It was established in 1990. The organization has conducted surveys and organized advertising campaigns ...
enlisted Lombra to produce evidence in support of continuing to make the
U.S. penny The cent, the United States one-cent coin (symbol: Cent_(currency)#Symbol, ¢), often called the "penny", is a unit of currency equaling one one-hundredth of a United States dollar. It has been the lowest face-value physical unit of U.S. currenc ...
. He subsequently testified before the
Senate Banking Committee The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (formerly the Committee on Banking and Currency), also known as the Senate Banking Committee, has jurisdiction over matters related to banks and banking, price controls, ...
that eliminating the penny would “impose a significant and regressive rounding ‘tax’ on the American public”. He has also said that eliminating the penny would have especially adverse effects on people without checking accounts. He later elaborated on these claims in a 2001 paper he published in the ''
Eastern Economic Journal The ''Eastern Economic Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of economics. It was established in 1973 and is published by Palgrave Macmillan on behalf of the Eastern Economic Association. The editors-in-chief ...
'' which stated that the direct and indirect effects of eliminating the penny would be “no less than $1.5 billion over five years and $2.5 billion over a decade”.


Personal life

Lombra and his wife, Bobbi, enjoy drinking fine wine and filling the resulting empty bottles with pennies.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lombra, Raymond Eugene Living people 1946 births People from Hamden, Connecticut Pennsylvania State University faculty Providence College alumni Pennsylvania State University alumni Economists from Connecticut 21st-century American economists