You may not realize it, but every time you're faced with a choice, economics plays a role in the decision you make. That's something Dr. W. David Allen, a professor and researcher of labor and crime economics in UAH's College of Business Administration, does his best to help his students understand. "As soon as possible when talking to people who are new to economics, I want to let them know that economics - and particularly microeconomics - is the science of choices," he says. "We as economists are trying to think more carefully about how individuals and firms and other agents make decisions." Over the years, Dr. Allen's research has examined decision-making in a wide variety of contexts. His Ph.D. dissertation, for example, was about the duration and dissolution of marriages. And his most recent publication, "The Demand for Younger and Older Workers: Patterns from NFL Labor Markets," tackled NFL free agency and the draft.