Questions concerning whether Democratic Presidential nominee Michael Dukakis’ Massachusetts economy is strong enough for the United States could be answered at a lecture today.

Roger Schmenner, associate professor at the Indiana University School of Business, Indianapolis, will lecture on “Economic Development: As Massachusetts Goes, So Goes the Nation?”

The lecture is sponsored by the NIU graduate school and the departments of geography and economics and is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. in Davis Hall, room 121. The public is invited.

Andrew Krmenec, assistant professor of geology, said he does not know the specifics of the lecture, but the focus of Schmenner’s speech will be whether Dukakis’ economic work is viable in atmospheres other than just Massachusetts. He said Schmenner has spent time in Massachusetts and has researched that state’s economy under Dukakis.

Another lecture by Schmenner will begin at 3 p.m. in the same room and will discuss “Research on Economic Development Issues.”

Schmenner received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University in 1969 and his master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Yale University in 1971 and 1973, respectively.

Schmenner began teaching at Indiana University in 1986. He has also taught at Yale, the Harvard Business School, the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies and Duke University.