Faculty publication

Prof. Ross’s work with Pat Bayer and Fernando Ferreira featured in the Atlantic and the Pacific Standard

Posted on March 1, 2016April 6, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

Professor Ross’s work with Pat Bayer and Fernando Ferreira has been featured in The Atlantic and the Pacific Standard

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/blacks-hispanics-mortgages/471024/

https://psmag.com/predatory-lending-is-another-form-of-american-housing-discrimination

This paper examines racial and ethnic differences in high cost mortgage lending in seven diverse metropolitan areas from 2004-2007. Even after controlling for credit score and other key risk factors, African-American and Hispanic home buyers are 105 and 78 percent more likely to have high cost mortgages for home purchases.

The increased incidence of high cost mortgages is attributable both to sorting across lenders (60-65 percent) and to differential treatment of equally qualified borrowers by lenders (35-40 percent). The vast majority of the racial and ethnic differences across lenders can be explained by a single measure of the lender’s foreclosure risk, and most of the within-lender differences are concentrated at high-risk lenders.

Thus, differential exposure to high-risk lenders combined with the differential treatment by these lenders explains almost all of the racial and ethnic differences in high cost mortgage borrowing.

Professor Ross Has Lead Article in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

Posted on February 3, 2016April 8, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

Professor Steve Ross’s paper “The Vulnerability of Minority Homeowners in the Housing Boom and Bust” with Patrick Bayer and Fernando Ferreira was the lead article in the February issue of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

In this paper, they find that African-American and Hispanic borrowers have substantially higher delinquency and foreclosure rates during the financial crisis even after controlling for detailed borrower and loan risk factors. These differences are concentrated heavily among homebuyers who purchased their home very near the peak of the market, even after controlling for negative equity associated with the timing of the purchase. For refinance mortgages, they find a similar pattern linked to when the home was purchased, rather than the date of the refinance mortgage.

They argue that the findings are consistent with higher risk borrowers, especially higher risk minority borrowers, being drawn into the market during the housing market expansion.

Professor Naknoi Publishes in the Canadian Journal of Economics

Posted on September 3, 2015September 17, 2021 by McConnel, Mark

Professor Naknoi’s paper titled “Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations, Wage Stickiness and Tradability” has been accepted for publication in the Canadian Journal of Economics.

Her study demonstrates that when factors of production is classified by their tradability, the relative wage of nontraded labor influences the real exchange rate through the relative cost of distribution services. She employs monthly data on the sector-level U.S.-Canada real exchange rate and the relative wage of service-producing labor. The relative wage accounts for 40% of the variability of the real exchange rate at a one-month horizon.

Furthermore, she constructs a measure of effective nontraded labor content to classify goods into nontraded and traded ones, and shows that the variability of the price of the nontraded-goods basket accounts for more than half of the variability of the real exchange rate.

Professor Hallwood’s Book Reviewed in Applied Economics Journal

Posted on July 6, 2015 by McConnel, Mark

Book Review

Paul Hallwood, Economics of the Oceans: Rights, Rents and Resources. Oxon and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 298 pages. ISBN: 978-0-415-63911-8.

“Economics of the Oceans fills a critical gap between broad environmental economics texts and marine resource texts focused on only one resource. Its major strength is the ease with which Paul Hallwood blends background information, case studies and economic theory.

“Over fifty percent of the book is on non-fish resources and includes important ocean resource topics such as coral reef protection, mineral extraction, ocean pollution, maritime piracy and shipwreck recovery. The major strength of the book is the ease with which the author blends background information, interesting case studies and economic theory. The book is a great example of just how applicable basic microeconomic principles are to a range of policy issues (even in the often anarchic world of the ocean).

“The general theme of Economics of the Oceans is that property rights are what really matter in the ocean. This will come as no surprise to economists but the stark differences in outcomes across settings that differ primarily in terms of rights may surprise even the most ardent Coaseans. As an illustrative example, Hallwood cleverly compares and contrasts oil with fish. Offshore oil is heavily regulated in most countries with clear property rights and generates significant rents for host governments. Fish populations are poorly regulated in the waters of many countries with unclear property rights and generate little economic rents. Why this has come about and what can be done to remedy this situation is one of the key lessons in Economics of the Oceans.”

John Lynham, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University. (Applied Economics Journal Vol. 21 No. 2 (December 2014): 105-108).5

Professor Baggio Publishes in Environmental and Resource Economics and in Ecological Economics

Posted on June 16, 2015October 2, 2015 by McConnel, Mark

Professor Michele Baggio has had two papers published this spring:

“Optimal Fishery Management with Regime Shifts: An Assessment of Harvesting Strategies,” in Environmental and Resource Economics

“Modeling adaptation in multi-state resource systems,” with co-author Charles Perrings, in Ecological Economics.

Professor Shor publishes in Operations Research Letters

Posted on May 12, 2015October 2, 2015 by McConnel, Mark

Professor Mikhael Shor has had his paper, “How collaborative forecasting can reduce forecast accuracy,” accepted by Operations Research Letters.

The brief article compares an independent supplier and retailer who each forecast consumer demand with a jointly-profit-maximizing supplier and retailer who share their forecasts of consumer demand. The move from non-collaborative to collaborative forecasting can have the unexpected impact of decreasing demand forecast accuracy while still increasing profit. Therefore, collaborating firms should maintain a focus on profits, not forecast accuracy, as the appropriate measure of success.

Profs. Harmon, Alpert, coauthors have paper accepted

Posted on February 11, 2015September 17, 2021 by Ahking, Francis

Profs. Harmon, Alpert, coauthors Archita Banik (UConn, Ph.D., 2013), and James Lambrinos have an article “Class Absence, Instructor Lecture Notes, Intellectual Styles, and Learning Outcomes” recently accepted for publication in the Atlantic Economic Journal.

Prof. Randolph Publishes Book

Posted on January 21, 2015October 2, 2015 by

One of the most ambitious legacies of the 20^th century was the universal commitment to ensure freedom from want as a human right. But to what extent are countries across the world living up to this commitment? Find out in Prof. Randolph’s new book with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Terra Lawson-Remer, Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015). Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights develops an innovative evidence-based index for comparing performance on education, food, health, work and housing across very differently situated countries over time and explores the factors influencing performance. In doing so, it provides empirical evidence to resolve some longstanding controversies over the principle of “progressive realization” and advances our knowledge about the status of and factors promoting social and economic rights fulfillment in the 21^st century.

Prof. Naknoi Publishes in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control

Posted on December 30, 2014October 2, 2015 by

Prof. Naknoi’s sole-authored paper titled “Exchange Rate Volatility and Fluctuations in the Extensive Margin of Trade” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. Her study provides new evidence that the extensive margin of trade fluctuates over the business cycle, using quarterly data of U.S. bilateral trade with 99 countries. Also, she shows that fixing exchange rates with the U.S. dollar, having a free trade agreement with the U.S., and an increase in country size is significantly associated with the stability of the pattern of trade with the U.S.

To read the article in its entirety, click here.