Professor McNamara's research interests in regional economics and economic impact analysis include: analysis of factors influencing manufacturing growth, impacts of infrastructure investment on regional economic growth, and linkages between agriculture and the non agricultural economy. Dr. McNamara works with federal, state, and local government officials, development organizations, and industry groups as well as other faculty to research rural economic growth alternatives and evaluate development policy options.

Current research includes: farmland price analysis, Indiana and regional growth trend analysis, food manufacturing industry growth analysis, and assessment of manufacturers’ technical assistance needs. Dr. McNamara is currently an advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education for capacity building in agriculture and veterinary science education. He resided in Afghanistan in 2005 coordinating programming for a $4.2 million grant. Among the activities he completed were contracting for renovation of the agriculture and veterinary science buildings, establishment of linkages between Afghan and Indian universities for student and faculty training/exchange, development of a strategic planning process to guide redevelopment of agriculture and veterinary science higher education, creation of faculty and student English language training as a key education modernization program. Dr. McNamara is continuing to provide leadership to the Ministry of Higher Education’s agriculture education efforts with USAID and USDA funding support.

Recent authored and co-authored publications include:

"Cost Factors, Market Structure, Agglomeration, Infrastructure, and Local Growth of Food Industry in Germany." Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft,2001;

"Market Power in Regional Retail Gasoline Markets? An Empirical Analysis." Journal of Economics and Statistics, 22(1): 1-13, 2001. McNamara, Kevin T., Christoph R. Weiss, and Antje Wittkopp. “Market Success Of Premium Product Innovation: Empirical Evidence From The German Food Sector” Dept. Of Food Economics & Consumption Studies, University Of Kiel, Olshausenstr. 40, 24118 Kiel, Germany. 2003. Mcnamara, Kevin T., and Christoph R.Weiss. “Farm Household Income and On- and Off-Farm Diversification.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 37,1(April 2005): 37-48, 2005. Lambert, Dayton M, Kevin T. McNamara, and Megan I. Garrett. “An Application of Spatial Poisson Models to Manufacturing Investment Location Analysis.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economic, 38,1 (April 2006): 105-121, 2006. Mayén, Carlos D., and Kevin T. McNamara. “Economic Importance of the Indiana Poultry Industry.” Purdue Agricultural Economics Report, pg 8-15, August 2006 Mayén, Carlos D., and Kevin T. McNamara. “Economic Importance of the Indiana Dairy Industry.” Purdue Agricultural Economics Report, pg. 15-20, August 2006 Mayén, Carlos D., and Kevin T. McNamara. “Indiana’s Egg Industry.” Purdue Agricultural Economics Report, pg. 6-10, January 2006 .