Alumni

Econ Undergraduate Students Present at the Boston Fed Challenge

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Congratulations to the undergraduate students from the Storrs campus who took part in the College Fed Challenge!

Tyler DiBrino, Gabriel Hack, Max Karsanow, Ari Nishimura-Gasparian, John Roberts, Alexander Rojas, Joaquin Sanchez, and Timothy Sullivan all participated on behalf of the University of Connecticut – Storrs in the 2017 Fed Challenge held at the Boston Fed on Friday, November 3rd. The students, and their faculty advisors Derek Johnson and Owen Svalestad, are shown at left in Boston.

Sponsored by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the “College Fed Challenge is a team competition for undergraduate students. Teams analyze economic and financial conditions and formulate a monetary policy recommendation, modeling the Federal Open Market Committee.”

Graduate Students Presenting Their Work at Conferences

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Graduate students working on immigration issues with Professor Delia Furtado have been traveling quite a bit in the past few months.  Samantha Minieri was in Chicago presenting her paper, “Norms and Parental Leave: Do Home Country Policies Affect Immigrants,” at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA).

Tao Song has presented his job market paper, “Honey, Robots Shrunk My Wage! Native-Immigrant Wage Gaps and Skill Biased Technological Change,” at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)’s Workshop on Spatial Dimensions of the Labour Market in Mannheim, Germany; the Society of Labor Economists’ annual meeting in Raleigh, NC; and the Western Economics Association International (WEAI) Annual meeting in San Diego, CA.

Also at the Western meetings, Tian Lou presented her paper, “Ethnic Segregation, Education, and Immigrants’ Labor Market Outcomes,​” and Haiyang Kong presented his paper, “What is the Impact of Industrial Structure on Immigrants’ English Language Fluency?”

Econ Alumnus promoted to Full Professor at the University of Reading

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Anupam Nanda, an ’06 PhD graduate of the Department of Economics, is being promoted to full professor at the University of Reading.

Here is his current biography:

Dr. Anupam Nanda is Associate Professor in Real Estate Economics and Academic Director of the Centre for intelligent Places at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK. He is also a Research Associate at the Walker Institute for Climate System Research. Previously, Anupam worked with the Market Intelligence group of Deloitte & Touche in Mumbai (Apr. 2008-Nov. 2009), where his focus area covered real estate and private equity sectors. He was at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in Washington DC (Apr. 2006-Apr. 2008), as Senior Research Economist, where his responsibilities included developing and implementing housing market research studies and was a member of the team forecasting state and metro area housing markets in US. Anupam has also taught undergraduate Economics and Public Finance at the University of Connecticut.

 

2017 Spring Awards Banquet

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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!

 

HCEO Research Spotlight on Racial Profiling Research

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Professor Stephen Ross and his coauthors, Jesse Kalinowski at Quinnipiac University and Matthew Ross at Ohio State University (both former Ph.D. students at UConn), have recently released on new working paper on racial discrimination in police traffic stops in Connecticut.

This research was selected by the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group at the University of Chicago to be featured in their research spotlight series. The spotlight article can be found at:

https://hceconomics.uchicago.edu/news/research-spotlight-endogenous-driving-behavior-veil-darkness-tests-racial-profiling

Two Economics Undergraduate Students Selected as 2017 University Scholars

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Congratulations to Economics students Rebecca Hill and Lucas Silva Lopes, who are among the twenty-three University of Connecticut undergraduates who have been selected as the 2017 University Scholars:

Rebecca Hill
Major: English/Economics
Project Title: The Western Madwoman: A Feminist History and Economic Study in Novel Form
Committee: Ellen Litman, English (chair), Veronica Makowsky, English & Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Delia Furtado, Economics

Lucas Silva Lopes
Major: Political Science/Economics
Project Title: Presidential Interruptions and Interim Presidents: How Do Latin American Countries Re-Equilibrate Both Politically and Macroeconomically After a Presidential Interruption?
Committee: Matthew Singer, Political Science (chair), Veronica Herrera, Political Science, Derek Johnson, Economics

“The University Scholar Program is one of the most prestigious programs for undergraduates at the University of Connecticut. Available to students from all of the University’s schools and colleges, the University Scholar Program allows students to design and pursue an in-depth research or creative project and to craft an individualized plan of study that supports their intellectual interests during their final three semesters. Each student is mentored by an advisory committee of three faculty.

No more than 30 University Scholars are selected each year. Admission is based on an application submitted during the first semester of a student’s junior year. Applications are reviewed by an interdisciplinary faculty committee that looks for innovative projects and academically rigorous course selection. Graduation as a University Scholar recognizes a student’s exceptional engagement in research and/or creative endeavors.”

universityscholars.uconn.edu

 

Econ Undergraduate Students Present at the NY and Boston Fed Challenges

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Stamford Econ Undergraduates Present at NY Fed ChallengeCongratulations to the undergraduate students from the Stamford and Storrs campuses who took part in the College Fed Challenge this month!

Sponsored by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the “College Fed Challenge is a team competition for undergraduate students. Teams analyze economic and financial conditions and formulate a monetary policy recommendation, modeling the Federal Open Market Committee.”

The Stamford team (above left) participated in the NY Fed Challenge, competing against forty-one other schools.

The Storrs team (below right) presented at the Boston Fed Challenge, competing against twenty-four other New England schools.

Storrs Econ Undergraduates Present at Boston Fed ChallengeCongratulations to both teams on all of their hard work in this competition!

Stamford Team:

Joanna Ksiazek
Chris McLaughlin
Amir Parikh
Shrey Patel
Alex Rojas
Ravinder Singh
Dr. Julia Coronado (Advisor)
Professor Oskar Harmon (Advisor)
Professor Steven Lanza (Advisor)
Professor Kanda Naknoi (Advisor)

Storrs Team:

Patrick Adams
Matt DeLeon
Erik Eason
Gabriel Hack
Ed Leardi
Stephen Mwangi
Matt Regan
Joe Roessler
Professor Owen Svalestad (Advisor)

Harmon, Svalestad and Tomolonis present at CTREE 2016 Conference

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PCTREErofessors Oskar Harmon and Owen Svalestad, and Paul Tomolonis (PhD Candidate) participated in the Sixth Annual Conference on Teaching & Research in Economic Education, June 1 – 3, sponsored by the  American Economic Association Committee on Economic Education.

Oskar Harmon moderated the  panel session “The Experience of Managing a Team in the FED Challenge Competition: Pointers and Pitfalls”, and Owen Svalestad presented “The First Timer Experience”.

Oskar Harmon and Paul Tomolonis presented the paper “Can Social Media be an Effective Tool for Discussion in the Online Classroom?”.  The paper makes a comparison between the use of social media and traditional Course Management System (CMS) discussion groups in a fully online (Microeconomic Principles) course.  Using the experimental design of a randomized trial, the paper tests the popular hypothesis that students using social media (Facebook discussion group here) have greater engagement with the class and higher learning outcomes relative to students not using that platform for coursework (the CMS control group here) because of the ease of use and student familiarity with social media.  Our findings were contrary to this popular hypothesis with lower levels of engagement and learning outcomes for the Facebook groups compared to the CMS discussion groups. We attribute this to the more casual and less formal environment of social media compared to the CMS since students postings were shorter via the social media discussions.

2016 Economics Graduate Reunion and Forum

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On Thursday, May 5, 2016, the Department held an all-day Economics Graduate Reunion and Forum. Our Graduate Alumni gathered to reconnect with classmates and professors, and to establish new connections with current graduate students and newer members of the faculty.

Our alumni shared their current research, their thoughts about the graduate experience, and their experiences since leaving the University of Connecticut. We look forward to continuing to make this a regular event, scheduled every three or four years.  The program for this year’s event is included below.

Special thanks to Andreas Karapatakis (PhD, 1992) for his generous support of the 2016 Economics Graduate Reunion and Forum.

 

2016 Economics Graduate Reunion and Forum
8:30 AM Coffee & Greet
9:00 AM Welcome
Stephen Ross, Department Head
Subhash Ray, Director of Graduate Studies
9:30 AM Alumni Research Papers
Moderator:  Chuck Martie, Education Consultant, CT Dept. of Education
Gulgun Bayaz, New York City College of Technology
“Intertemporal Poverty Among Older Americans”
Juan-Pedro Garces-Voisenat, Siena College
“The Role of Virtue in Economic Development”
Monika Lopez-Anuarbe, Connecticut College
“Intergenerational Transfers and Caring for Families in the United States and Abroad”
10:30 AM Coffee & Chat
11:00 AM Alumni Academic Experience
Moderator:  William Pace, Anthem, University of Connecticut
Paramita Dhar, Central Connecticut State University
Monika Lopez-Anuarbe, Connecticut College
Juan-Pedro Garces-Voisenat, Siena College
Paul Kozlowski, University of Toledo
12:00 PM Lunch & Emeritus Panel (Immanuel Wexler, Steve Sacks, Arthur Wright, Dennis Heffley)
1:30 PM Alumni Research Papers
Moderator: Nandika Prakash, CT Dept. of Economic & Community Development  
Leshui He, Bates College
“Adverse Classroom Peer Effects in Students’ Achievements: Evidence from a Quasi-Random Assignment”
Parag Waknis, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
“Competitive Money Supply in a New Monetarist Model”
Stanley McMillen, CT Dept. of Economic & Community Development (retired)
“Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Connecticut’s 2015 Bill to Recoup a Portion of Its Public Assistance Costs”
2:30 PM Coffee & More Chat
1:30 PM Alumni Professional Experience
Moderator: Natalia Smirnova, American Institute of Economic Research
 Jieling Chen, Merck Research Laboratories
 Ravinder Dhawan, Merck & Co.
Nandika Prakash, Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD)
4:15 PM Closing Remarks

Stamford Economics Faculty (Profs. Naknoi, Lanza, Harmon and Alpert) Host an Economics Alumni Networking Event

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Economics Alumni Four UConn Economics Alumni participated in a panel on the topic ‘Jobs and Careers’ at the UConn Stamford Campus, March 30, 2016.

The event was attended by 35 economics majors.

The participating alumni: Vitalie Alexandru ’13 (CLAS), currently Financial Analyst – Stress Testing, People’s United Bank; Michael Alpert ’90 (CLAS) Portfolio Manager, Stralem & Company; Pedro DeAbreu ’15 (CLAS) Gartner , Inc.; and Marketing Specialist; and Charles Triano ’87 (CLAS) Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, Pfizer, Inc.

All panelists graduated with a major in Economics, two from the Storrs Campus, and two from the Stamford Campus. All were generous with their time, advice regarding courses and participation in college life, and praise for the quality of the UConn undergraduate experience.

Matt Fraulino, CLAS Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Alumni Relations, provided invaluable assistance in organizing the event. The event was co sponsored by: UConn CLAS Alumni Relations, UConn Foundation, and the UConn Stamford Economics Club.