Professor Steve Ross has been reappointed for a second three-year term to the Board of Editors of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy by the American Economic Association Executive Committee.
For more about the journal, see:
Faculty achievement
Professor Hallwood and the Scotland Act
Professor Paul Hallwood’s work has been seen to have influenced the Constitutional settlement for Scotland – i.e. the Scotland Act of 2016.
“Have the wheels come off the plan to make Scotland a global player?” The Herald, 7th April 2012
“One paper, an eighth lecture – the [Allender] series was extended after the first seven – was delivered by the Scottish economist Ronald MacDonald and the American Paul Hallwood, and became the subject of intensive political scrutiny. They argued that greater fiscal autonomy for the Scottish Parliament might encourage better economic decision making”.
The Scotland Act of 2016 indeed incorporates many of their ideas for greater tax raising powers being devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
The Scottish Parliament’ s new powers are being delivered by the Scotland Act 2016 [1] :
- Scotland has new powers as part of a secure UK.
- The Scotland Act 2016 delivers the UK Government’ s commitment to the people of Scotland.
- It brings a better balance to Scotland’ s devolution settlement.
- The new powers give the Scottish Parliament much greater tax raising powers.
- In future, Holyrood will be responsible for raising more than 50% of what it spends – making it one of the most powerful devolved parliaments in the world.
- The Scottish Parliament will set the income tax rates and thresholds for earned income in Scotland.
- This represents annual income tax revenues of around £11 billion.
- The Scottish Parliament will retain around 95% of the income tax collected here.
- The Scotland Act gives the Scottish Parliament the power to make decisions on important areas of daily life in Scotland
Posted by the Scottish Office: GetInOnTheAct
Hallwood, P and R MacDonald (2009) The Political Economy of Financing Scottish Government, Studies in Fiscal Federalism and State-local Finance, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Hallwood P and R MacDonald (2006), “A Restatement of the Case for Scottish Fiscal Autonomy”, Quarterly Economic Commentary, Fraser of Allender Institute, 31, 49-53.
MacDonald R and P Hallwood (2006), “The Economic Case for Fiscal Autonomy with or without Independence”, The Policy Institute, Edinburgh.
[1] Scotland_Act_tax_factsheet.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Professor Prakash named Associate Editor with Journal of Development Economics
Professor Nishith Prakash has been named an Associate Editor with the Journal of Development Economics, which publishes “original research papers relating to all aspects of economic development – from immediate policy concerns to structural problems of underdevelopment.”
Information about the Journal, and about the Editorial Board, may be found online at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-development-economics/about
Professor Agüero has a Top 10 Most Cited Paper in World Development
Professor Jorge Agüero’s paper “COVID-19 and The Rise of Intimate Partner Violence” is now a Top 10 most cited paper in World Development, considering all publications since 2018.
The paper may be found online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105217
The abstract is below:
Title: COVID-19 and The Rise of Intimate Partner Violence
Abstract: Stay-at-home policies have been implemented worldwide to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, there is a growing concern that such policies could increase violence against women. We find evidence in support of this critical concern. We focus on Peru, a country that imposed a strict nationwide lockdown starting in mid-March and where nearly 60% of women already experienced violence before COVID-19. Using administrative data on phone calls to the helpline for domestic violence (Línea 100), we find that the incidence rate of the calls increased by 48 percent between April and July 2020, with effects increasing over time. The rise in calls is found across all states and it is not driven by baseline characteristics, including previous prevalence of violence against women. These findings create the need to identify policies to mitigate the negative impact of stay-at-home orders on women’s safety.
Professor Smirnova receives CLAS Broader Impacts, Service, and Visibility Award 2022
During the 2019-2021 academic year, the College undertook a collaborative strategic planning process. Among other things, the resulting plan articulated four overarching goals for the College to work toward in the coming years. The Strategic Goal Awards recognize recognize the efforts of faculty members in these areas:
- Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award
- Innovative Scholarship Award
- Teaching, Learning, and Student Success Award
- Broader Impacts, Service, and Visibility Award
Dr. Smirnova has received the 2022 Broader Impacts, Service, and Visibility Award.
This award is granted for “outstanding initiatives that visibly impact the welfare of Connecticut and beyond, including but not limited to facilitating community engagement, developing strong connections to government or nonprofit agencies, and/or leveraging alumni networks”.
As a faculty liaison of the Early College Experience – Economics program, Dr. Smirnova oversees course comparability, academic programming, and professional development and evaluation of the UConn ECE instructors teaching ECON 1000, ECON 1201, ECON 1202 in high schools. The ECE Economics program is an important component of department’s academic outreach to the community, a part of the department’s recruitment strategy, and an important way to connect our colleagues in high schools with the University. The ECE Economics program is the largest at UConn. It serves on average 55 instructors who offer 66 ECE economics courses annually.
The impact on students who take ECE Economics courses is many-fold. They get acquainted with the academic rigor of CLAS, gain familiarity with the University as a whole, and publicize the prominence of UConn across the nation and around the world when gaining acceptance to institutions of higher education.
The community impact of the ECE Economics program is immense. Our partner schools serve urban and rural communities, inner-city pupils, immigrant populations, and first generation students. As Dr. Smirnova helps the ECE instructors build their courses with rigor and innovation, all these groups have the opportunity to learn economics concepts, develop economics way of thinking, and get their first exposure to the college-level curriculum. This opportunity has a profound positive impact on learners and their communities.
Starting at the local community, the visibility of the University grows in the national and international arenas. After high school graduation, some students attend the University of Connecticut. They contribute to UConn’s diversity and bring knowledge gained in high school to UConn. Other students go to colleges and universities around the country and around the world. They contribute to the visibility of UConn by transferring UConn credits earned through the ECE program, by bringing the knowledge they gained, and by spreading the word about the ECE experience they have had. International students who attend ECE-partner private boarding schools bring the knowledge about the University of Connecticut to their home countries.
Congratulations, Dr. Smirnova!
Professor Segerson Elected to National Academy of Sciences
Congratulations to Professor Kathleen Segerson, who has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences!
“Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Current NAS membership totals approximately 2,400 members and 500 international members, of which approximately 190 have received Nobel prizes.”
“The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a private, non-profit society of distinguished scholars. Established by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the NAS for outstanding contributions to research. The NAS is committed to furthering science in America, and its members are active contributors to the international scientific community. Approximately 500 current and deceased members of the NAS have won Nobel Prizes, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, founded in 1914, is today one of the premier international journals publishing the results of original research.”
Information about the National Academy of Science and the newly elected 2022 members may be found online at: http://www.nasonline.org/
Professor Smirnova receives Career Champion Spotlight
The Center for Career Development features Professor Natalia Smirnova with their Career Champion Spotlight:
“The Career Champion Spotlight for May 2022 is Dr. Natalia V. Smirnova. Dr. Smirnova is an assistant professor in residence at the Stamford campus of UConn. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from UConn in 2004 and now teaches in the field of Economics, including courses like Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, and Financial Economics. She also teaches upper-level field courses in Economics. Her teaching approach is to focus on how economics is relevant to everyday decisions and to engage students in real-world applications and data-driven explorations.”
Read the full post online at:
https://career.uconn.edu/blog/2022/04/28/career-champion-may-spotlight-blog-natalia-smirnova/
Spring 2022 Awards
While the department is not able to celebrate with an awards banquet this year, we still are able to recognize the best among undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty!
This year’s award recipients are:
Undergraduate Awards
Economics Department General Scholarship
Shuo Han
Samuel Jackson
Tamara Shelley
Grace Smith
Khoa Tran
Yinuo Xiang
Ziyun Zhou
Kathryn A. Cassidy Economics Scholarship
Nidhi Nair
SeSe Nguyen
Rockwood Q. P. Chin Scholarship
Nadine Fernando
Prasad Gosavi
Pin Lyi
Choyang Wang
Louis D. Traurig Scholarship
Adem Aksoy
Allen Cazeau
Jeremy Salyer
Benjamin Scudder
Paul N. Taylor Memorial Prize
Erin McKeehan
Julia & Harold Fenton and Yolanda & Augustine Sineti Scholarship
Shuyi Bian
Charles Triano Scholarship
John Doran
Beatrix Jordan
Dr. Joseph W. McAnneny Jr. Scholarship
Erik Choi
Ryan Durrel
Gregory Elmokian
Kevin Gabree
Prabhas KC
Joshua Waxman
Justin Wu
Albert E. Waugh Scholarship
Annaliesa Wood
Ross Mayer Scholarship
Cole Ensinger
Jordan Leonardi
Graduate Awards
W. Harrison Carter Award
Ruohan Huang
Ziyun Wu
Abraham Ribicoff Graduate Fellowship
Lindsey Buck
Timothy A. and Beverly C. Holt Economics Fellowship
Matthew Brown
Shangyue Jiang
Keuncheol Lee
Kunze Li
Lulin Li
Ghania Shuaib
Sirui Qiu
Zhengxuan Wu
Economics Department General Scholarship
Anastassiya Karaban
Best Third Year Paper Award
Jiaqi Wang
Graduate School Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
Sirui Qiu
Zhengxuan Wu
Heshan Zhang
CLAS Summer Fellowship
Erdal Asker
Matthew Brown
Jingyun Chen
Jinsoon Cho
Zhenhao Gong
Shangyue Jiang
Keuncheol Lee
Lulin Li
Yizhi Zhu
Faculty Awards
Grillo Family Research Award
Grillo Family Teaching Award
Congratulations to everyone!
Professor Harmon Awarded AAUP Teaching Excellence Career Award
Professor Oskar Harmon has been awarded the 2022 Teaching Excellence: Career Award from the UConn-AAUP, one of only two recipients in the university. The recipients were chosen by the UConn-AAUP Excellence Awards Committee from a pool of excellent candidates.
The recognition of faculty teaching, research, and service excellence through UConn-AAUP awards began in 1997. The intention of the awards is to showcase academic excellence at UConn.
A virtual ZOOM ceremony to honor Professor Harmon, and other UConn-AAUP award recipients, will take place on Monday, April 25th at 12:00 noon. Any and all who wish to attend are welcome, and are asked to email Barbara Kratochvil to receive the ZOOM link.
UConn Faculty Member is AEA 5K Award Winner
Professor Delia Furtado participated in the AEA 5K for the first time this year and won the 75th percentile prize. She ran faster than 25 percent of the other runners! Yes, also slower than 75 percent but never mind that.
The AEA 5K started three years ago when a couple of economists organized a race at the ASSA meetings and made t-shirts commemorating the occasion. Since the meetings this year are again virtual, the race and awards ceremony were also virtual. The full awards ceremony is available online.
Professor Furtado says she is aiming for the Caplin and Nalebuff Award next year. This prestigious award, named for the 1988 Econometrica paper, “On 64%-Majority Rule,” is given to the runner at the 64th percentile. Guido Imbens won the prize in last year’s AEA 5K. A few months later, he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics.