Professor Ross (IDEAS) has just been featured on the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network as he spoke about the regulation overhaul announced by President Obama. He strongly supported the proposal to increase the oversight and regulation of large “Too Big to Fail” non-bank financial institutions and to make the Federal Reserve responsible for regulating these institutions arguing that the Federal Reserve employs some of the best economists in the country. Ross has worked extensively on mortgage markets.
Faculty achievement
Article by Prof. Ross among most cited in Journal of Urban Economics
Professor Ross (IDEAS) has just won the Journal of Urban Economics Highly Cited Author Award 2004-2008 for his article Redlining, The Community Reinvestment Act, and Private Mortgage Insurance (with Geoffrey Tootell) for being one of the 10 most cited articles between 2004 and 2008 in this journal. The paper finds that lenders respond to the Community Reinvestment Act by favoring borrowers who obtain Private Mortgage Insurance in low income neighborhoods. In past research, this paper had masked differencing in lending across neighborhood and suggests that previous research has underestimated the importance of neighborhood in mortgage lending decisions. The paper has been of interest and cited by researchers across many fields including Economics, Finance, Real Estate, Geography, and Public Policy.
Prof. Segerson nominated to National Research Council Board
Professor Kathleen Segerson (IDEAS) has been invited to serve a 3-year term on the National Research Council’s (NRC) Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources. The National Research Council is the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Its mission is to improve government decision making and public policy, increase public education and understanding, and promote the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in matters involving science, engineering, technology, and health. The NRC commissions and publishes major reports on topics of broad interest, which are written by panels of experts in related fields. The BANR is the major program unit of the NRC responsible for organizing and overseeing studies on issues of agricultural production and related matters of natural resource development, including forestry, fisheries, wildlife, and land and water use. The Board is responsible for planning new studies, conducting oversight on projects carried out by its subsidiary committees, and making an annual appraisal of accomplishment and potential new initiatives.
Prof. Segerson was also recently inducted as the Philip E. Austin Chair of Economics. For pictures of the ceremony, see here
Prof. Matschke granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor
Prof. Xenia Matschke (IDEAS), assistant professor of economics, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure at the recent April 21 meeting of the UConn Board of Trustees. Her promotion and tenure come into effect August 23, 2009.
Professor Matschke, a native of Germany, joined the UConn Department of Economics in the fall of 2004. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently teaches microeconomics and international trade both at the undergraduate and graduate level at UConn. She and her husband Gautam Tripathi (IDEAS), who is an associate professor at the Department of Economics, live in Mansfield together with their two sons, ages 2 and 7.
In her research, Professor Matschke mainly focuses on questions of trade policy determination, although she has also worked in other areas of economics. Her research has been published in leading economics journals, such as the American Economic Review and the Journal of International Economics. In her 2006 piece in the American Economic Review, she and a coauthor find evidence that labor market considerations, and in particular labor lobby interests, play a significant role in shaping U.S. trade policy. While probably not surprising to the economic layman, these findings contradict previous work that claimed that trade policy is primarily shaped by capital owner interests and that the inclusion of labor market variables does not help us better understand trade protection at the industry level.
Economist Named to Austin Chair
Another story about Segerson’s Austin Chair, this time from the UConn Foundation:
When Philip E. Austin announced his retirement from the University presidency in 2007, longtime donors quickly came together to create a lasting tribute and preserve his legacy of service. In keeping with Austin’s dedication to education and research, a $1.5-million endowed chair was created in his name to memorialize his tenure and support the work of a nationally renowned scholar. The University of Connecticut’s Board of Trustees recently awarded the chair to Kathleen Segerson (IDEAS), a highly regarded professor of economics with 22 years at UConn.
Specializing in law and the environment, Segerson is at the cutting edge of scholarly inquiry and research into some of the most pressing questions of the twenty-first century. She is an expert in three areas critical to the future: natural resource and environmental economics; law and economics; and applied microeconomics. Support through the Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair will enable her to delve deeper into these focus areas.
“This position will allow me to enhance my own research on the links between economics and the environment and the design of public policies to address environmental problems. It will increase my ability to participate in interdisciplinary collaborations and exchanges, which are essential in my research,” says Segerson.
She also notes that the endowment will have effects beyond her own research.
“The position brings recognition not only to the University but to the economics department as well,” she explains. “I hope the chair can be used to advance the contributions of the department, through, for example, fostering exchanges related to a variety of public policy issues, such as education, health care and housing.”
Segerson joined UConn as a visiting assistant professor in 1986. She holds a joint appointment in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where she headed the Department of Economics from 2001 to 2005, and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
In 2007, she was appointed to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. Last year, she was selected to be a fellow of both the American Agricultural Economics Association and the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
As a nationally recognized expert, Segerson’s counsel has been requested on a number of government and professional committees, including an expert panel on climate change economics for the U.S. General Accounting Office, the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences.
Her teaching and accomplishments have earned her recognition from students and colleagues alike. Segerson has received the Most Appreciated Faculty Award from the Association of Graduate Economics Students three times. She also has received the Research Excellence Award from the UConn chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching from the UConn Alumni Association.
Segerson earned a B.A. in mathematics from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in environmental natural resource economics from Cornell University.
As UConn’s thirteenth president, Austin led the University through a period of remarkable transition from 1996 to 2007. He oversaw UConn’s dramatic physical transformation and steep rise in national prominence for academic excellence. Austin’s tenure also was marked by a fivefold growth of the endowment.
“It is a real honor to be appointed to a chair that was endowed in recognition of President Austin’s many contributions to the University of Connecticut. Under his leadership, the University made great strides forward, and I am very pleased to be a part of honoring his legacy,” says Segerson.
UConn Board of Trustees names Segerson to chair
From CLAS in the news;
Kathleen Segerson (IDEAS), a professor of economics in CLAS, has been named by the Board of Trustees to fill the Philip E. Austin Chair for a three-year term.
The chair was established with contributions made in honor of Austin, who stepped down last year after 11 years as president of the University.
Segerson, who specializes in environmental and natural resources economics, law, and applied microeconomics, joined the University in 1986 and served as chair of the economics department from 2001 to 2005.
“Dr. Segerson is extremely qualified to serve in this position and brings to it an outstanding reputation as a researcher and teacher,” says Provost Peter J. Nicholls. “We are pleased to have someone in the chair who is regarded as a national expert in her field and who has dedicated her life not only to teaching and research but also to public service.”
A fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association and the Association of Environmental and Resources Economists, Segerson was nominated for the position by former CLAS Dean Ross MacKinnon, who recently retired.
Segerson was awarded both the American Association of University Professors UConn Chapter Research Excellence Award and the UConn Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching last year.
“It is a great honor to be chosen to fill the Austin chair in its first three years,” says Segerson. “President Austin was very dedicated not only to the University of Connecticut as an institution, but also more generally to research and teaching related to public policy and the use of economics to understand and solve social problems. It is my hope that I’ll be able to contribute to his legacy through my work in environmental economics and the support made possible through this chair.”
Segerson serves on the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and was recently a member of the U.S. General Accounting Office’s expert panel on climate change economics. She is the president-elect of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
Segerson holds a PhD from Cornell University and a BA from Dartmouth College. — Karen A. Grava, CLAS ’73
Samson Kimenyi discusses obstacles to delivering aid in Africa
Mwangi Samson Kimenyi (IDEAS) studies the African economy and the institutional factors that seem to thwart development on a continent renowned for its rich natural resources.
On July 2, he delivered the keynote address to a meeting of economists in the African Division of the World Bank in Washington, D.C., focusing on how to improve service delivery in fragile states that are characterized by low accountability.
Low accountability hinders economic development in many African countries, he believes.
Kimenyi, associate professor of economics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, coordinates a long-term study on institutions and service delivery in Africa on behalf of the Nairobi-based African Economic Research Consortium.
He also has served on the Public Universities Commission in his native Kenya, and is founding executive director of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis.
Many sub-Saharan African countries do not have the financial resources to pay their teachers and doctors or to build the infrastructure that would provide education, health, and sanitary services needed for an efficient economy, he notes.
They also lack qualified personnel to lead the effort, and their governments do not have the institutional capacity to deliver public services.
Some are also ethnically fragmented, which affects both their politics and their public service delivery, he says.
Read more in the UConn Advance