Douglas S. Massey, the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, will present the Spring 2017 Philip E. Austin Chair Lecture on Economics & Public Policy:
America’s Immigration Policy Fiasco
The lecture, co-sponsored by the Philip E. Austin Chair, the Department of Economics, the Department of Geography, the Department of Sociology, the Urban and Community Studies Program & the journal Urban Geography, will be held:
Thursday, March 23rd
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Dodd Center Konover Auditorium
Professor Amy Ellen Schwartz, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Chair in Public Affairs at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, will present The Impact of Universal Free Meals on Student Outcomes as the speaker at the first biannual Austin Seminar in Education Policy.
The lecture, co-sponsored by the Center for Education Policy Analysis, the Neag School of Education, and the Department of Economics, and presented jointly with the Health, Labor and Development seminar series of the Department of Economics, will be held:
Tuesday, October 25th
3:00 – 4:30 pm
Gentry 142, 144
A reception will follow the seminar.
The Abstract: This paper investigates the academic effects of providing school meals free of charge to all students. Using detailed data on NYC public school students, we estimate the impact of “Universal Free Meals” (UFM) on standardized test scores, participation in school meals, obesity and BMI.
Using a difference in difference design and novel student-level transaction data, we explore the heterogeneity of the impact by student race/ethnicity, poverty, and, critically, prior participation in school lunch. Most important, we find that UFM significantly increases academic performance of middle school students by as much as 0.1 sd, large enough to pass a commonly used threshold for a successful academic intervention.
UFM increases lunch participation by roughly 5.2 percentage points for poor students and larger effects of 13.5 percentage points for non-poor students. Similarly, the effect of UFM is larger for students with low baseline participation, than those with high baseline participation. Finally, we find some evidence of reductions in weight and obesity for non-poor students driven, perhaps, by the better nutritional value of school lunch compared to competitive alternatives.
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)
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.
Professor Oskar Harmon has arranged for the screening of the film “Agents of Change” at the Stamford Campus (2/24 at 6:15 pm) and at the Konover Auditorium on the Storrs Campus (2/25 at 4:30 pm).
Admission is free, open to the public and will have a reception and post screening discussion with the co-producer Abby Ginzberg and writer Ibram Kendi. Also on 2/25 at the Storrs Campus, Abby will present a seminar on documentary film making, and Ibram will present a seminar on racism and diversity.
The film premiered Feb 11 at The 24th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival in Los Angeles, and won The Best Documentary Award
The event is co-sponsored by 12 UConn groups: Institute for African American Studies, Human Rights Institute, American Studies, Dodd Center, AAUP, Humanities Institute, El Instituto: The Institute of Latino, Caribbean and Latin American Studies, Digital Media Center, UCONN Stamford, UCONN Student Government Association, The Connecticut Information Technology Institute and School of Business, and the UConn Stamford Economics Club.
On October 30 Professors William Alpert and Mikhael Shor presented a workshop to 20 members of the Early College Experience faculty.
Early College Experience (ECE) is an opportunity for students to take UConn courses while still in high school. Every UConn ECE course is equivalent to the same course at the University of Connecticut. There are approximately fifty courses in over twenty disciplines made available to partner high schools. Courses are taught on the high school campus by high school instructors who have been certified as adjunct faculty members by the University of Connecticut.
The Economics Department now offers Connecticut High School students three introductory economics classes at almost 30 high schools throughout the state. The workshop highlighted Professor Shor introducing the teachers to current thinking about behavioral economics and included discussions of best practices of integrating the political landscape into economic study, the economics of migration and immigration, the distributions of income and wealth, and current thinking about macroeconomics and money.
During the last decade ECE has grown to over 11,000 FTE students and from 2 economics instructors to 25. Professor Alpert is the ECE Economics Department Coordinator.
Photo L to R: Dennis Heffley, Perry Shapiro, Subhash Ray
Prof. Dennis Heffley retired from the Department of Economics after 41 years at the University of Connecticut, including 4 years as the Department Head, 2005-2009. About 45 family members, current and former colleagues, many former graduate students, and Dennis’s major adviser, Perry Shapiro, who traveled from California, gathered for a retirement party and to celebrate his many achievements in late December at the end of the fall semester.
Dennis expects to keep busy in his retirement and would love to hear from everybody. We thank Dennis for his many years of service to the Department and the University and wish him and his family the very best.
On April 17, 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:
Kaylyn Caliri
John Giannone
Sam Katz
Meiling Kry
Paul Morris
Freida Parsons
Pooja Patel
Muhammad Razzaq
Undergraduate Awards Louis D. Traurig Scholarship
Xueqi Ban
Dillon Pierce Bushby
Xia Hua
Monica Mula
Kenneth Perez
Johnny Hua Pham
Shravan Rao
Emily Seyle
Ross Mayer Scholarship
Salman Sherwani
Farha Choudhury
Paul N. Taylor Memorial Prize
Kateri Ciccaglione
Albert E. Waugh Scholarship Robert Roche
Economics Department General Scholarship
Robert Roche
Lilian Cheung
Julia & Harold Fenton and Yolanda & Augustine Sineti Scholarship Paul Morris
Kathryn A. Cassidy Economics Scholarship Michael Cinque
Zachary Mitchell
Graduate Awards W. Harrison Carter Award
Rebecca Germino
Abraham Ribicoff Graduate Fellowship
Huanan Xu
Economics Department Graduate Fellowship
Jesse Kalinowski
Chao Zheng
Tao Song
Aaron Cooke
Timothy A. and Beverly C. Holt Economics Fellowship
Rong Zhou
Zheng Xu
Peijingran Yu
Bryce Casavant
Yishu Zhou
Chao Zheng
Tao Song
Farrell Oral History Project Sadullah Yildirim
Faculty Awards Grillo Family Research Award Talia Bar
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
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.