Professor Xenia Matschke has joined Universität Trier in Germany as a full professor of International Economic Policy starting August 1, 2010, where she will actively participate in the establishment of graduate programs in economics. Founded by the Romans, Trier is the oldest city in Germany and is located in the wine-growing Moselle region, near the Luxembourg border. After spending 6 years at UConn, Professor Matschke feels ready to take on new challenges; also, she wants to be closer to family and see her kids grow up in Germany. The decision to leave UConn was not an easy one and she will miss her colleagues, students, and friends there. The Department laments the loss of an outstanding young faculty member, but also extends its very best wishes for a smooth transition and continued success.
Announcements
UConn hosted RePEc Author Service reaches 25000 registered authors
The RePEc Author Service, which is hosted at the UConn College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and managed by Prof. Zimmermann has just welcomed its 25,000th registered author. This service allows economists to build an on-line profile with all the works they have authored and that are listed in RePEc. A part from having this profile displayed and linked to from individual works on RePEc services like EconPapers and IDEAS, this allows authors to obtain monthly statistics about the popularity of their works, along with new citations discovered by the CitEc project. Collected data is also used to computed various rankings. Note that the 25,000 count only includes registered people who have at least one work listed in the profile. There are about 7,000 other registrations with empty profiles from people who have either overlooked this feature or not yet published some works. A listing of all registered authors is available on EconPapers and IDEAS.
Joseph Rebello joins department as Assistant Professor in Residence
Joseph Rebello, PhD candidate from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Political Science BA from the University of Rhode Island, will be joining the department this Fall as Assistant Professor in Residence. A specialist of political economy, economic methodology, history of economic thought and macroeconomics, his research “combines a critique of essentialist dualisms in monetary thought and the surplus notion of class in order to develop a Marxian account of non-commodity money.”
At UConn, he will be teaching some large principles classes as well as some upper level undergraduate Economics classes for our majors.
Mikhael Shor to join department
Mikhael Shor, currently Assistant Professor of Economics at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, will be joining the department in Fall 2011. He specializes in the study of behavioral game theory and its applications to firm-level decision making. Professor Shor has authored many scholarly articles on auctions, behavioral aspects of marketing, and electronic commerce. His research has appeared in such journals as Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Management Information Systems, Economic Theory, Journal of Economic Psychology, and Contemporary Accounting Research. He has participated in merger analysis and strategic game theory consulting for the Federal Trade Commission and several companies. research interests are in game theory, industrial organization, and experimental economics. His current theoretical research is on the implications of mergers in auction markets, and my experimental research (supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health) is on decision making when faced with an overwhelming number of options.
Professor Shor has taught game theory, industrial organization, pricing strategies, economics of networks, and law and economics. His educational innovations and materials have been featured in Science, Scientific American, and The Wall Street Journal. Professor Shor holds a BA from the University of Virginia and an MA and PhD from Rutgers University. He is living in Coventry with two kids, Eliana and Jacob, and a soon-to-be-added pound puppy. His wife is an Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering at UConn.
Prof. Cosgel named department head
Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), has announced that Prof. Metin Cosgel has been named head of the department of Economics, starting July 1, 2010. He says:
Professor Cosgel has been a member of the CLAS faculty since Fall of 1989. He has written extensively on the political economy of religion and has an ongoing project to study the economic history of the Ottoman Empire. In 2007, he received the Barkan Article Prize for the best article in the field of Ottoman and Turkish Studies awarded by the Turkish Studies Association. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the journal “Economic History of Developing Regions” and is a CLAS representative to the Provost’s International Executive Council.
Attention Grad Alumni
In March 2008, the Department hosted a Graduate Reunion and Forum at the Bishop Center. At the one-day event, some of our former PhD students presented their recent research, while others employed by government or the private sector described their work in professional experience panels. We are planning to host a similar event on Friday, April 2, 2010, preceded by two other events you may wish to attend.
The first is the Philip E. Austin Forum on Economics and Public Policy, which will be held at 4:00 on Thursday, April 1, 2010, in the Student Union Auditorium. This is an inaugural event, which will feature a lecture on climate change policy by Harvard environmental economist Robert Stavins (see details in separate blog entry).
After the Austin Forum, at 7:00 PM on Thursday evening, the Department will hold its Annual Awards Banquet at the Bishop Center. In addition to recognizing the achievements of some of our outstanding undergraduates and graduate students, we’ll be honoring Bill Lott, who will be leaving the Department this spring after 40 years of outstanding service to the University.
We currently are looking for volunteers to present papers and participate in the professional experience panels, so please let us know if you would be interested in taking part. A brief note to Dennis.Heffley@uconn.edu will suffice. We’ll be forwarding more information by email, so if you think you may not be on our current list, or if you have recently changed your email address, please contact us.
Finally, if you would like to catch up on (and keep up with) the activities of the Department’s students, faculty members, and alumni, continue to visit the Blog. At the bottom of each page, you can scroll back to earlier entries, which also can be accessed by clicking on the links listed on the left side of this page.
We hope to see you in April!
Very best wishes,
Dennis Heffley
Department seeking to fill position in Economic Rights
The Department of Economics, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Human Rights Institute (HRI) – at the University of Connecticut seek to fill a tenure track faculty position in Economic Rights at the Assistant Professor level beginning August 23, 2010. Duties will include teaching, research and service. The successful applicant must demonstrate: (1) the potential for research excellence in Economics and Human Rights, (2) willingness to contribute to the development of economic courses appropriate for the new human rights major, (3) the drive to actively seek external funds to support their scholarly activities and (4) ability to contribute through research, teaching, and/or public engagement to the diversity and excellence of the learning experience Teaching responsibilities on the graduate and undergraduate levels will be in both the Department of Economics and the Human Rights Institute. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to participate in and help shape a range of interdisciplinary programs based at HRI and throughout the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Depending upon appointment, candidates may work at the University of Connecticut’s main campus located in Storrs, and/or the campuses at Avery Point, Hartford, Stamford, Torrington, Waterbury, and West Hartford, as well as the Health Center in Farmington.
Candidates must have completed all requirements for a Ph.D. in Economics by August 23, 2010. Equivalent foreign degrees are acceptable. Salary will be commensurate with background, qualifications, and experience.
Please submit letter of interest, CV, three letters of reference and writing sample by March 1, 2010 to: Economics-HRI Search Committee, Department of Economics, Unit 1063, University of Connecticut, 341 Mansfield Road, Storrs, CT 06269-1063 or send material as email attachment (one single pdf document) to: rosanne.fitzgerald@uconn.edu Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled. (Search # 2010231)
BA Alumnus endows fund for Honors Program
An alumni couple who felt compelled to give back to the University of Connecticut for the education they received will now make a similar difference in the lives of future honors students. Robert ’68 and Carlotta ’68 Holster have contributed more than $1 million to fund an endowment for the Honors Program.
“Building on the quality of our outstanding Honors Program is a key strategy to attract the very best and brightest students to the University of Connecticut. This wonderful gift will enable us to expand the opportunities for students to have a truly enriched experience, and will enable us to provide the quality of undergraduate education that our top students have come to expect,” says Provost Peter Nicholls.
A self-described “curious but indifferent” student when he started college, Mr. Holster was excited by the Honors Program. He credits his professors during his first year with inspiring a lifelong passion for learning and preparing him for success throughout his life.
“They were talented, engaged with their material and their students, and it was infectious,” Mr. Holster recalls. “Those freshman courses in economics, English literature and history armed me with models for thinking about things that assisted me later in the Army and in graduate school, and remain relevant to this day in business.”
After graduating from UConn with a B.A. in economics, Mr. Holster served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and then earned an M.B.A. from Columbia University, where he was a Samuel Bronfman fellow. He is chairman of the board and former chief executive officer of HMS Holdings Corp. HMS coordinates health care benefits between government entitlement programs (e.g., Medicaid) and the health insurance industry, working with more than 40 states and the federal government. Mr. Holster was elected to the UConn Foundation’s Board of Directors in 2009.
Read more at the University of Connecticut Foundation.
Timothy A. and Beverly C. Holt Economics Fellowship established
Timothy Holt ’75, chairman of the Board of Directors of the University of Connecticut Foundation, is supporting his two great passions—economics and Huskies basketball—with a major campaign gift. Holt and his wife, Beverly, have committed $401,000 including $150,000 to establish the Timothy A. and Beverly C. Holt Economics Fellowship and $251,000 toward the fund for a new basketball practice facility.
Holt, retired senior vice president and chief investment officer at Aetna, credits his education at UConn for helping with his professional success. He was elected to the Foundation’s board in 2001 and assumed the chairmanship in 2009. Additionally, he was inducted into the UConn School of Business Hall of Fame in 2005.
“I received my education at UConn, and I’m grateful for that. That’s why I’m giving back. I’d like to help other people receive as good an education as I did,” Holt says. “UConn stands out for its ability to give people the opportunity to receive an excellent education.”
Holt, who earned a B.A. in economics from UConn and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, wanted to support an area the economics department is seeking to expand. The Holt Economics Fellowship will provide essential support for graduate students who are conducting research, teaching undergraduate classes and preparing to be the next generation of leaders in the field.
“When I was an undergraduate student at UConn, I majored in economics, and so I wanted to do something that would benefit the economics department. We talked to them about what would be the most helpful in achieving their strategic goals. Graduate student support is one of their highest priorities,” Holt says.
Read more at the University of Connecticut Foundation
Update on Monteith building replacement
The building currently housing the Economics and Political Science departments, named for Henry R. Monteith, has been slated for replacement for many years. The building was erected in the 1950’s and was supposed to last twenty years, to accomodate the temporary increase in enrollments due to the GI Bill. Along with its twin, Arjona, it house five departments and 40 classrooms. Both buildings have structural issues, lack of energy efficiency, leaking roofs and an internal design that mixes classrooms and offices and creates a noisy environment.
Arjona and Monteith will be replaced by two buildings. The first, “West,” will be a pure classroom building with 17 classrooms and two large lecture halls of 200 and 400 seats. It will also feature a three story atrium. West will be located on the grounds of the former Pharmacy building, between the Student Union and the CUE building. A groundbreaking ceremony has now been scheduled for December 3, with construction set to complete in March 2011. Construction on the second building, “East,” should start right after this completion on the grounds of the old Co-op, between the Babbidge Library and the Hawley Armory. East will feature 18 classrooms, a 200-seat lecture hall and offices for five academic departments. East should be inaugurated in the Spring of 2013.