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Professor Miceli’s The Economic Approach to Law, Third Edition

Stanford University Press has just published the third edition of Thomas J. Miceli’s Law and Economics textbook.

From the publisher:

“Master teacher Thomas J. Miceli provides an introduction to law and economics that reveals how economic principles can explain the structure of the law and make it more efficient.

The third edition of this seminal textbook is thoroughly updated to include recent cases and the latest scholarship, with particular attention paid to torts, contracts, property rights, and the economics of crime. A new chapter organization, ideal for quarter- or semester-long courses, strengthens the book’s focus on unifying themes in the field.

As Miceli tells a cohesive, analytical “story” about law from a distinctly economic perspective, exercises and problems encourage students to deepen their knowledge.”

The Economic Approach to Law, Third Edition

2017 Spring Awards Banquet

Uconn sealOn April 13, the department convened for an awards banquet that recognized the best among undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty. This year’s award recipients are:

Omicron Delta Epsilon inductees:

Matthew Braccio
Zachary Console
Matthew DeLeon
Jennafer Fugal
Benjamin Hamel
Henry Hooper
Daniel Rodrigues
Claudia Rodriguez
Nandhana Sajeev
Akwasi Sarpong
Michael Scalise
Austin Song
Connor Todd
Alexandra Torchigana


Undergraduate Awards

Louis D. Traurig Scholarship

Patrick Adams
Andrew Carroll
Joshua Essick
Kayla Joyce

Paul N. Taylor Memorial Prize

Matthew DeLeon

Rockwood Q. P. Chin Scholarship

William Johnston
Claudia Rodriguez
Alexander Rojas
Zihan Wang

Ross Mayer Scholarship

Tasneem Ahmed

Julia & Harold Fenton and Yolanda & Augustine Sineti Scholarship

Yiting Jiang

Kathryn A. Cassidy Economics Scholarship

Tianyi Li
Roy Masha
Di Wu

Charles Triano Scholarship

Jennafer Fugal


Graduate Awards

W. Harrison Carter Award

Tian Lou

Albert E. Waugh Scholarship

Andrew Ju

Abraham Ribicoff Graduate Fellowship

Mark McInerney

Timothy A. and Beverly C. Holt Economics Fellowship

Aaron Cooke
Michael DiNardi
Jingwei Huang
Samantha Minieri
Tao Song
Kevin Wood
Wei Zheng

Economics Department General Scholarship

Huarui Jing
Wensu Li
Xizi Li
Shilpa Sethia


Faculty Awards

Grillo Family Research Award

Nishith Prakash

Grillo Family Teaching Award

Talia Bar

Employee Appreciation Awards

Delia Furtado   10 years
Vicki Knoblauch   15 years
Kathleen Segerson   30 years

 

 

 

Congratulations to everyone!

 

Professor Shor publishes new explanation for the Allais paradox

jbdmThe Allais Paradox is one of the most enduring violations of expected utility theory, a hallmark theory of economics. Professor Mike Shor and coauthor Mark Schneider (a recent UConn PhD) have had their paper “The Common Ratio Effect in Choice, Pricing, and Happiness Tasks” accepted by the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.

In the paper, Professor Shor elicits preferences for the Allais paradox choice alternatives using three different methods: traditional choice, monetary valuation, and subjective happiness ratings. He finds that both the consistency and distribution of responses differs systematically across different elicitation methods, with modal choices replicating the Allais preference pattern, modal happiness ratings exhibiting consistent risk aversion, and modal valuations maximizing expected value. The paper finds support for a dual process framework in which people use either a “logical” or an “intuitive” thinking process depending on the task.

UConn Ranks High for Economics Departments in CT

A recent report from Zippia featuring the best Economics departments in Connecticut ranks the University of Connecticut near the top of the list, just below Yale:

These Are The 10 Best Colleges For Economics Majors In Connecticut

The report reviewed a total of 103 institutions of higher learning in Connecticut, and considered Career Results (earnings for graduates), Economics Emphasis (majors as a percentage of a graduating class), and School Performance (admissions, graduation rates, and cost).

Professor Jorge Agüero and Juan Campanario Receive 2016 ERAP Award

Professor Jorge Agüero (faculty) and Juan Campanario (student) are the recipients of the 2016 Undergraduate Economics Research Award Program (ERAP).

Their work on their project “Can Growth and Redistribution Reduce the Influence of Colonial Institutions? The Case of Peru’s Mining Mita” will be supported through the ERAP program, which is designed to  assist research apprenticeships and research collaborations between undergraduate economics majors and economics faculty members.

The ERAP program enables the student to enhance research skills relevant to the field of economics, while the faculty member guides the project and provides mentorship. Only one award is given each academic year, with the student receiving a $1,500 fellowship and the faculty mentor receiving a $1,000 grant added to their departmental research accounts.

Congratulations to the award winning team!

Professor Naknoi Presents Paper at Vanderbilt

naknoiProfessor Naknoi presented her paper titled “Tariffs and the Expansion of the American Pig Iron Industry, 1870-1940” in the International Economics Seminar at Vanderbilt University on April 8, 2016.

Her study examines the benefit of the protection of the American pig iron industry. She illustrates that the protection was critical for the industry before 1890.

Professor Naknoi Presents Paper at ASSA

naknoiProfessor Naknoi presented her paper titled “Exchange Rate Pass-Through and Market Structure in a Multi-Country World” in the ASSA Meeting/Econometric Society Meeting in San Francisco on January 4, 2016.

Her model proposes a theory that exporters take into account competing exporters’ currency appreciation in their price setting. In addition, her study provides evidence supporting her theory using data on prices of Canada’s exports to the U.S.

Information about her session is online at:

https://www.aeaweb.org/aea/2016conference/program/preliminary.php

Professor Prakash Receives World Bank Grant

prakashProfessor Nishith Prakash has received a $200,000 Knowledge, Learning and Innovation grant through the World Bank in support of the research project Performance-Based Incentives for Students – Answering Design and Operational Questions in Zanzibar. This is a joint project with Dr. Shwetlena Sabarwal (World Bank) and Professor Asadul Islam (Monash University).

This project will provide clear guidance to the Government of Zanzibar on how best to design and operationalize a results-based financing (RBF) approach for improving student performance in early grades of the secondary cycle, thereby reducing the high levels of student drop-out before secondary completion.

To this end, the grant will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of performance-based incentives targeted directly at students. Within this broad question, the evaluation will also examine the relative effectiveness of (i) different RBF design choices; and (ii) different RBF operational choices for most effectively mainstreaming such incentives using country systems.

The interventions are a part of a Government-led pilot that is being intensively supported by World Bank and is expected to help define the design of a new education project for Zanzibar.