When Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) broke out in Hong Kong in 2003 some media outlets predicted economic calamity for the city. But by one financial measure -- real estate prices -- Hong Kong hardly suffered according to research by Grace Wong a Wharton real estate professor. In two papers titled ”Has SARS Infected the Property Market? Evidence from Hong Kong” and ”Is SARS a Poor Man’s Disease? Socioeconomic Status and Risk Factors for SARS Transmission ” Wong looks at SARS’ impact on real estate values and analyzes the role of income in determining who contracted the disease. Underlying her research is the recognition that in a global economy infectious diseases such as SARS will likely spread farther and faster as people travel all over the world in search of new business opportunities.