Professor Miceli’s new book, The Economic Theory of Eminent Domain, is featured on UConn Today.
http://today.uconn.edu/
Announcements
Parag Waknis defends, heads to UMass-Dartmouth
On Friday, September 9, 2011, Parag Waknis defended his dissertation titled “Essays on Economics of Leviathan Monetary and Fiscal Policies” under the supervision of Professor Christian Zimmermann.
Here is a short description of his dissertation:
Time and again situations arise in various countries where fiscal policy drives the monetary policy. This might happen as a result of unusual situations like the current financial crisis or because of lack of sufficient tax revenues. There is not much literature modeling such policy environment using a money search framework. This dissertation aims to bridge this gap by modifying a much often-used money search model to include a Leviathan or a utility maximizing central bank. The first essay studies the nature of optimal monetary policy of this monetary authority. The analysis suggests multiple outcomes with actual realization depending on context specific factors. For example, fiscal profligacy is associated with higher inflation- a fact borne out by many actual examples. The second essay evaluates a thought exercise in institutional design to control inflation in such a context. It extends the model in the first essay to create an environment with currency competition and then shows that doing so leads to a better inflation outcome under reputation concerns. The third essay looks at the political economy of fiscal policy. To account for a typical developing country setting a model with differentiated political platforms and credit-constrained voters is laid out. The credit-constrained voters depend on local public goods provision for smoothing consumption in the presence of shocks. The model’s implications are then tested with data on 17 Indian states for the period of 20 years. The data does lend substantive support to the contention that political cohesiveness affects the nature of spending. Put together, the three essays form a body of theoretical and empirical research shedding light on a monetary policy environment that features close connection with the fiscal policy.
Parag started his tenure track position on September 1, 2011, and relocated from New York City to New Bedford, MA. Congratulations, Parag!
Professor Randolph featured on UConn Today
Professor Randolph is featured in an article on the homepage of UConn Today. You can read more about her work evaluating economic and human rights here.
Paramita Dhar defends, heads to CCSU
On 17th June, 2011, Paramita Dhar defended her dissertation entitled “Essays on the Economics of Housing” under the supervision of Prof. Stephen L. Ross. Paramita’s dissertation examined two different questions about housing and location choice. In her first essay, she analyzed the impact of school quality on property values using a differences-in-differences strategy. In the other two essays of her dissertation, she focused on the issue of discrimination against minority homebuyers that might lead to the segregation of neighborhoods. In both of these essays she used fair housing audit data from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study on three large minority groups in Los Angeles to examine the causes of spatial variation of the nature of discrimination.
This fall, Paramita will be heading to Central Connecticut State University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Economics.
Ken Couch gives talks at NSF, Econometric Society, and Fed Conferences
Ken Couch, an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics has been busy this summer with research presentations. During May, he presented a paper at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco regarding economic outcomes of divorce. In June, Ken made a presentation at the Econometric Society Summer Meetings in St. Louis, MO of a paper co-authored with a recent UConn Ph.D., Tao Chen. That paper examines the ability of econometricians to recover the results of a social experiment when random data are not available. In June, Ken also made a presentation at a National Science Foundation conference in Fairfax Virginia on the use of interoperable administrative data for administrative and research purposes.
Professor Couch Renews Research Contract with Social Security Administration
Prof. Kenneth Couch has renewed his annual research contract with the Social Security Administration to conduct joint studies on Unexpected Lifecycle Events. This work focuses on a variety of unexpected lifecycle events on short and long-term economic well being. One line of research considers the impact of recessions on short and long-term economic well being along with preparedness for retirement. Other topics, such as the impact of changes in family structure on economic well-being and preparedness for retirement, are also being examined as part of the research. The contract allows Professor Couch to travel to Washington, DC regularly to work with researchers within the Social Security Administration on these projects.
CCEA provides economic analysis that justifies massive state investment in UConn Health Center & Dempsey Hospital
On Tuesday, May 17, 2011, in the atrium of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine/Dentistry, Governor Malloy announced a $900 million investment to transform the Schools into an international leader in biomedical research, an investment that will generate more than nearly 3,000 construction jobs in the near term and 16,000 new jobs by 2037. Critically, the investment will generate sustained economic growth that delivers so much net new tax revenue to the state that the bonding is entirely self-financing–with a large revenue bonus for the state. The Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis provided the dynamic (REMI) economic analysis on with the Governor relied. Prof. Fred Carstensen, Director of CCEA, attended the event and provided both electronic and print media backup explanations of the details on the economic analysis. The Center currently employs three department graduate students and two more are participating in its summer work.
Prof. Aysun to leave department
Prof. Uluc Aysun will be leaving the department this Summer for the University of Central Florida, in Orlando. There, he will be joined by Melanie Guldi, currently Economics faculty at Mt. Holyoke College.
Prof. Aysun has been teaching macroeconomics, international economics and money and banking at the Stamford campus, as well as PhD international finance on the Storrs campus. His recent research has concentrated on financial frictions, emerging markets and the banking sector. We all wish Melanie, Uluc and the triplets a happy continuation in Florida.
Yonghong An to join the department
Yonghong An will be joining the department this Fall as assistant professor. A graduate from Johns Hopking University and a Chinese citizen, he is an econometrician with a particular interest in applications to industrial organization, for example the estimation of the distribution of buyer valuations in auctions, issues in the estimation of structural functions and measurement error in self-reported data. He has also published in the Journal of Econometrics.
Kasey Kniffin to join administrative staff
The department is pleased to announce the addition of Kasey Kniffin to the administrative staff of the economics department beginning on Monday, March 7th. Kasey’s primary responsibility will be to serve as the chief administrator of the graduate program, but her capabilities and experience will no doubt make her a valuable presence, along with Rosanne and Margie, in the overall operation of the department.
Since 2006 Kasey has been working as a legal administrative assistant at Diana, Conti, and Tunila, a law firm in Manchester. During that time she also worked as a sales associate at L.L. Bean and Pier 1 Imports, and previously she worked as a visitor assistant at Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. Kasey received her paralegal certificate from UConn in 2005 and her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2004. Please stop by and welcome her next week.