Professor Mike Shor, who among his many talents is an amateur photographer, has had one of his photos purchased for a book cover. Evelyn Waugh’s “Officers and Gentlemen” uses a photo from a three-photo series on the cover of the French translation. You can see the series the picture was taken from here.
Author: kak11010
Congratulations to Alumnus Marius Jurgilas
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė recently signed a decree appointing Marius Jurgilas to the 5-member Board of the Lithuanian Central Bank. Marius was recommended for this appointment by the Advisory Council, a group of prominent economists in the field of finance. He will assume his new responsibilities on May 15.
Marius’ appointment to the Board reflects his extensive background, experience, and expertise in the banking sector. He began developing this expertise during his time as a finance major in the Department of Economics at Vilnius University in Lithuania. In 2001, he joined the Economics Department here at UConn, where he earned his PhD in 2007 with a field in monetary economics. Christian Zimmermann, who is now at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, was his major advisor. His dissertation was on “Interbank Markets under Currency Boards.”
After finishing his PhD, Marius was an assistant professor at Elon University for a year but left Elon to take a position at the Bank of England, where he worked for three years. Most recently, he has worked in the Financial Stability Research Department at the Norwegian Central Bank. He has also spent time at the European Central Bank, SEB Vilniaus Bankas, and Lithuanian Savings Bank, and has been a visiting professor at ISM University of Management ant Economics in Vilnius.
Marius’ research covers a wide range of topics relating to banking and housing. Some of his recent publications include:
JURGILAS, M. & Lansing K. J., (2012 June 25 issue) “Housing bubbles and homeownership returns”, FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
GUPTA, R., JURGILAS, M., KABUNDI A. & MILLER M. S. (2012), “Monetary Policy and
Housing Sector Dynamics in a Large-Scale Bayesian Vector Autoregressive Model” International Journal of Strategic Property Management, Vol 16(1): 1-20
GUPTA, R., JURGILAS, M., MILLER, M.S., & WYK, V.D. (2012 January), “Financial Market Liberalization, Monetary Policy, and Housing Sector Dynamics”, International Business and Economics Research Journal, Vol. 11(1).
For more information about Marius’ appointment, click here.
2013 Spring Awards Banquet
On April 19, the department convened for an awards banquet to recognize the best among undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. This year’s award recipients are:
Omicron Delta Epsilon inductees:
Andrew Feisher
Allyson Rose
David Greenberg
Nicholas Hynd
Matthew LeBel
Kellyn Maher
Emily Seyle
Alison Zielinski
Undergraduate Awards
Louis D. Traurig Scholarship
Diana Cooke
Natalie Cooke
Michael DiMaio
Sritheja Gulukota
Stephen Jablonowski
Lydia Kowinko
Yuriy Loukachev
Benjamin Simmons-Telep
Paul N. Taylor Memorial Prize
Stephen Jablonowski
Rockwood Q. P. Chin Scholarship
Joel Sinofsky
Yuqi Xing
Ross Mayer Scholarship
Michele Carroll
Yuriy Loukachev
Economics Department General Scholarship
Antonio Russo
Julia & Harold Fenton and Yolanda & Augustine Sineti Scholarship
Diana Cooke
Kathryn A. Cassidy Economics Scholarship
Benjamin Simmons-Telep
Graduate Awards
W. Harrison Carter Award
Jesse Kalinowski
Albert E. Waugh Scholarship
Paul Tomolonis
Abraham Ribicoff Graduate Fellowship
Bryce Casavant
Economics Department General Scholarship (for 2013: Recognition for Excellence as a Teaching Assistant)
Rebecca Germino
Eric Gibbons
Matthew Joseph Histen
Tao Song
Timothy A. and Beverly C. Holt Economics Fellowship
Bryce Casavant
Elizabeth Kaletski
Zheng Xu
Peijingran Yu
Rong Zhou
Yishu Zhou
Faculty Awards
Grillo Family Research Award
Kenneth Couch
Grillo Family Teaching Award
Susan Randolph
Congratulations to everyone!
Talia Bar to join Economics Department
Dr. Talia Bar will be joining the department this Fall as an assistant professor. She graduated with a PhD. in economics from Yale University in 2003. She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and her master’s degree in economics from the Hebrew University in Israel where she grew up. She has worked as an assistant professor at Cornell University, and as a visiting assistant professor at Binghamton University. Bar’s research interests include industrial organization and microeconomics, mostly she works on firms’ research and development strategies and patent policy as well as issues in economics of higher education. Bar has published articles in, for example, the Journal of Economics Perspectives, the Journal of Labor Economics and the International Journal of Industrial Organization.
Professor Michael Carter to Visit Campus
On Thursday, April 11, Professor Michael Carter will be on campus as the speaker for the annual Austin Forum on the Economics of Public Policy. Professor Carter directs the BASIS Program, a research consortium funded by USAID that studies rural poverty alleviation strategies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He has worked extensively on understanding poverty traps and poverty dynamics, and on the design and evaluation of programs to alleviate rural poverty.
In addition to giving his lecture at 4:00 p.m., Prof. Carter has graciously offered to speak in Prof. Randolph’s development course (2:00-3:15), as well as Prof. Furtado’s labor course (11:00-12:15).
At 4:00 p.m. in the Dodd Center, Prof. Carter will give a lecture titled “Global Poverty and Food Security: Perspectives and Options.” Faculty, staff, students, and non-university members are invited to attend.
Professor Mike Shor Co-Authors Textbook
Managerial Economics, a textbook co-authored by Professor Mike Shor, was released Monday for sale. The text is a succinct introductory economics textbook targeted primarily at graduate business students.
The book covers traditional material using a problem-based pedagogy built around common business mistakes. Models are used sparingly, and then only to the extent that they help students figure out why mistakes are made, and how to fix them. This edition’s succinct, fast-paced presentation and challenging, interactive applications place students in the role of a decision maker who has to not only identify profitable decisions, but also implement them. The lively book provides an excellent ongoing reference for students pursuing business careers.
Grad students who have had Professor Shor for core Micro Theory may be surprised by the shortage of equations.
Prof. Alpert presents to The Society of Economic Educators
Professor William Alpert presented by invitation a paper entitled, “The Alpha of A Survey of The Literature In Economic And Financial Literacy,” with Professor Oskar R. Harmon to The Society of Economic Educators. The Society is an elected professional group of economic educators (limited to 30 members who are selected by election). Professor Alpert has served the society as program chair (president elect), President and Past President and has been a member for more than a decade.
Michele Baggio to join the Department
Dr. Michele Baggio will be joining the department this Fall as an assistant professor. He graduated with a PhD. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland in 2012. Since 2010 he has worked as a senior researcher and lecturer at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. He is an environmental and natural resource economist who specializes in studying causes and consequences of ecosystem changes in the context of aquatic ecosystems. Professor Baggio has published articles in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the Journal of Economics, the Journal of Agriculture Economics, and has several papers under submission. The position he fills is a joint position with the Maritime Studies Program in Avery Point.
Kai Jackie Zhao joins Economics Department
Jackie Zhao will be joining the department this Fall as an assistant professor. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario in 2010, and has taught in the Management Program at Western Ontario since that time. He is a macroeconomist who specializes in examining the linkages between the health care market and the macroeconomy. Professor Zhao has published articles in the BE Journal of Macroeconomics and Applied Economic Letters and has several papers under re-submission in the Review of Economic Dynamics and the Journal of Monetary Economics. He won the T. Merritt Brown Thesis Prize for best doctoral dissertation in Economics at Western Ontario and was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in December of 2012.
Profs. Alpert and Harmon speak at Dept. of Public Policy’s Speaker Series
Professors William Alpert and Oskar Harmon were invited speakers at the Uconn Department of Public Policy Seminar Series, February 19, 2013.
Since Fall 2011, the Economics Department has been experimenting with instruction in fully online format (no in class meetings), and blended format (combination of online lecture and in-class discussion). In their talk, Professors Alpert and Harmon discussed strategy and course design for online/blended classes with large number of sections, and their working paper “The Effectiveness of Interactive Online Exercises across Delivery Format.” Their paper uses a fixed effects model and reports empirical estimates consistent with the hypothesis that participation in interactive learning exercises has a positive effect on exam score at a statistically significant level.