Robert Edelstein holds the Maurice Mann Chair in Real Estate and is the co-director of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Development at the Haas School of Business. He is the author of the forthcoming book, "Explaining the Boom Cycle, Speculation or Fundamentals? The Role of Real Estate in the Asian Crisis," (M.E. Sharpe, Inc.) Edelstein has served as a consultant to the Philadelphia Finance Department, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Housing Development Corporation of New York City, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and U.S. Department of Energy. He served as president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association in 1996.