Faculty activities

Professors Harmon and Alpert Present Papers at the Southern Economic Association Meetings

Professors Harmon and Alpert presented two papers at the Southern Economic Association meetings in November.

Harmon presented their paper with Robert Szarka, Using Google Apps in Economics Courses” and Alpert presented their paper “Who Takes Online Courses at Public Universities?”

Harmon and Alpert also organized two sessions and discussed papers at two sessions. As a capstone Harmon organized and Professor Harmon chaired a panel discussion entitled Labor Market Transitions in the Great Recession featuring Professor Kenneth Couch and including Dr. Robert K Triest, of the Federal Reserve of Boston.

Professor Mike Shor participates in Science Salon on Climate Change

Last Thursday, eighty Hartford-area residents met at NIXS in Hartford for cocktails and a discussion of climate change, part of UConn’s ongoing Science Salon series.

Professor Shor discussed his latest research about how people process (and ignore) scientific evidence in favor of preconceived notions. One audience member (failing to appreciate the irony) told the entire panel of scientists that he does not believe a word of what they are saying but their “so called facts” conflict with his prior view.

Background:

For the first Science Salon (including Dick Langlois): http://econ.uconn.edu/2015/06/08/professor-langlois-at-uconns-first-science-salon/

Ken Couch of UConn visits RAND and USC

couchKenneth Couch from UConn visited the Pardee Graduate School at RAND in Santa Monica, California in September where he made a research presentation.

While in Los Angeles, he also visited with one of his research collaborators, Julie Zissimopoulos, and a Co-Editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Elizabeth Graddy, at USC. Professor Graddy serves as Vice Provost of Academic and Faculty Affairs for USC.

Couch Serves on APPAM Strategic Planning Committee

couchProfessor Kenneth Couch is participating in a Strategic Planning Committee of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM).

APPAM is a scholarly association representing roughly 90 member institutions and 2000 individual members. The committee is charged with developing a five-year strategic plan for APPAM and is chaired by a Harvard Professor and the Chief Economist of the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Other members of the committee include representatives of Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Howard University, Mathematica, MDRC, Pepperdine and the University of Minnesota.

Professor Harmon on ‘Nontraditional Magic’ Panel

ProfessorAAUP Harmon took part in the panel “Nontraditional Magic: Online and Service-Learning Pedagogy and Teaching,” joining panelists: Diana Rios, UConn Professor of Communication and El Instituto, and UConn Professor Carl Salsedo, Extension Educator, Horticulture, at the 2015 American Association of University Professors Conference on the State of Higher Education, Washington, D.C. June 11, 2015.

The roundtable focused on reconfiguring traditional “live” ways of learning and lecturing into another kind of “magic.” Contemporary “magic” refers to dynamic inspiration to share knowledge and to instigate learning among Millennials.

Prof. Ahking presents paper at conferences

ahking-e1405970870634-150x150Prof. Ahking presented a paper “The Economies of the Great Lakes States” at the 54th Meetings of the Southern Regional Science Association in Mobile, AL, March 26 – 28.  He also presented the paper at the 2014 Southern Economic Association Annual Meetings in Atlanta, GA, in November 2014. The conference paper is available for download from ResearchGate.

Prof. Naknoi has paper accepted by JME

JMEProf. Naknoi and co-author YiLi Chien (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) have their paper “The Risk Premium and Long-Run Global Imbalances” accepted for publication in the Journal of Monetary Economics. The paper examines the sustainability of U.S. trade deficits, given the assumption that U.S. investors take on more aggregate risk than foreign investors. It predicts that half of US trade deficits is sustainable. A copy of the working paper is available for download from RePEc.