Furtado

Professor Furtado in UConn Today: Impacts of Immigration on Nursing Home Care

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Professor Delia Furtado is featured in the current issue of UConn Today:

UConn Professor Examines Impacts of Immigration on Nursing Home Care

Study finds that local immigration reduces mortality and improves quality of life for nursing home residents

The United States is on the brink of a crisis in elder care. Reports of an aging population have not been exaggerated – it is no longer the case that a relatively small population of older adults can be supported physically and financially by a much larger population of working adults. Thanks to both the Baby Boom and lifespan-enhancing advances in medicine, these groups are now more similar in size. 

Where does that leave older adults today – especially those who struggle with ADLs, or activities of daily living? 

Many older adults are cared for in nursing homes. These facilities are exorbitantly expensive (the average yearly price for a private room in a nursing home in Connecticut exceeds $200,000, according to CareScout) and often understaffed.

professional headshot“You’d think that with that amount of money, staying in a nursing home should be like staying in a five-star hotel, but no,” says Delia Furtado, professor of economics.

Furtado is interested in how an unexpected variable – immigration — may impact the quality of care that nursing home residents receive. 

“I’ve been working on immigration my entire career — over 20 years now,” says Furtado. Her previous research has explored the assimilation process of immigrants and their impacts on the native population via their work in childcare and housekeeping. 

Furtado’s recently published research in the Journal of Human Resources found that when more people immigrate to a certain geographic area, it leads to better care outcomes for nursing home residents in that area...

Read the full article at UConn Today:

UConn Professor Examines Impacts of Immigration on Nursing Home Care

Spotlight on Alumni: Nicholas Jolly, PhD ’08, Promoted to Full Professor

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Nicholas (Nick) Jolly, PhD ’08, was recently promoted to full professor of economics at Marquette University, effective beginning in the 2026–27 academic year. A labor economist, his research focuses on the labor market outcomes and adjustment processes of workers who experience involuntary job separations and work-limiting disabilities. He has also published research on collective bargaining agreements in professional sports.

Although nearly two decades have passed since Nick defended his dissertation, he remains closely connected to the department. Most recently, he coauthored a paper with Professor Delia Furtado in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy examining how immigrant labor may help address eldercare worker shortages in the United States. He also contributed, with several coauthors, a chapter on regional variation in COVID-19 vaccination rates to the Handbook on Inequality and COVID-19, edited by Professor Ken Couch.

Nick remains a devoted Huskies fan. He regularly returns to Connecticut during the summer to visit family and can often be spotted in the UConn Bookstore restocking his Husky gear. During his visits, he typically stops by the department and is always generous with his time meeting current PhD students and faculty. If you would like to connect with Nick — or simply congratulate him on his promotion — feel free to reach out to him.

To our other UConn economics alumni: if you have exciting career news to share, please contact economics@uconn.edu. We would love to hear from you.

Professor Delia Furtado Awarded Russell Sage Foundation Grant

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Russell Sage Foundation logoAlong with collaborators at Syracuse University, Johns Hopkins University, UC Merced, and Georgetown University, Professor Delia Furtado has been awarded a research grant from the Russell Sage Foundation.

The project, “Immigrant Labor, Staffing Shortages, and Job Quality in the Long-Term Care Sector,” examines how the availability of immigrant labor influences staffing shortages and working conditions in nursing homes—an issue of growing importance as the U.S. population ages.

Founded in 1907, the Russell Sage Foundation is a leading social science research foundation dedicated to strengthening research methods, data, and theory to better diagnose social problems and inform public policy.

Karen Lau ’25 Featured on UConn Today

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Profile picture of UConn student Karen Lau

As part of her University Scholar project, Karen Lau ’25, who is triple majoring in economics, history, and Asian American studies (individualized), spent the summer going through archives at NYU’s Tamiment Library and interviewing women involved in the 1982 International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) strike in Manhattan. For the economics part of her project, with the guidance of Professor Delia Furtado, she will use Current Population Survey (CPS) data and state-of-the-art empirical techniques to estimate the causal impacts of the strike on labor market outcomes of New York City garment workers.

When asked if she had advice for other economics majors considering applying for the University Scholar program, she responded,

“While applying for University Scholar, I had no experience with STATA or any knowledge of which data sources to use, but I had ideas, and I knew which faculty members whose research I found interesting that I could ask for support. Meet with faculty members in different departments to share your ideas. Their feedback and experience will help you distill your ideas, which may be too broad or too ambitious, into a specific, understudied topic to which your research could contribute original findings. Professor Furtado motivated me to take Econometrics II, learn unfamiliar techniques, and develop a mixed-methods approach, allowing my data analysis and regressions to corroborate my qualitative research. Don’t be intimidated by the “Q” in Econometrics I and II! Learning to use STATA can be challenging at first, but taking these courses will help you develop quantitative skills that can serve you beyond college and help you contribute to the literature on a topic you are passionate about. In Econometrics II, I learned about difference-in-differences regression, a method I am using to analyze how a labor shock impacted workers’ wages. The more comfortable I felt using STATA, the more confident I felt carrying out a thesis project with techniques drawn from economics. The University Scholar program is looking for interdisciplinary-minded students who are not necessarily the most experienced researchers, but who are most willing to challenge themselves to build new skills and bring multiple fields into conversation.”

Read more on UConn Today.

 

Spotlight on Alumni: Huskies in Sewanee

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Professor Furdate with PhD alumni Huarui Jing and Tao Song.
Professor Furtado with UConn PhD alumni Huarui Jing and Tao Song at Sewanee

This past spring, Prof. Delia Furtado gave the Georgescu-Rogen Lecture at Sewanee: The University of the South while visiting with UConn PhDs, Huarui Jing and Tao Song.

Sewanee is among the nation’s top national liberal arts colleges and is consistently ranked as one of the top five in the South. While Professor Furtado enjoyed walking around the beautiful campus, often spotting students and faculty in their academic gowns, her favorite part of the trip was catching up with former UConn students.

Sewanee: The University of the SouthHuari’s research interests are in asset pricing, financial econometrics, macro finance, and machine learning.  At Sewanee, she teaches the courses, Investment Finance, Derivatives and Fixed Income Securities, Financial Modeling, and Financial Engineering.

Tao’s research interests are in labor and urban economics with a particular focus on immigration. He has taught Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Econometrics as well as the field courses Labor Economics, Urban Economics, and the Economics of Immigration. This month, he was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor. Congratulations, Tao!

Interior of building at at Sewanee: The University of the SouthCurrent UConn PhD students, do reach out to Huari and Tao for advice on building a successful academic career at a liberal arts college.

Former UConn PhD students, we would love to know where you are and what you’re up to! Contact Lisa Bono at lisa.bono@uconn.edu.

Economics Faculty Delia Furtado and Tianxu Chen Receive Promotions

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Congratulations to Economics faculty Delia Furtado, who has received promotion to Professor, and Tianxu Chen, promoted to Associate Professor in Residence!

The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees approved the promotions at their Board meeting on Wednesday, April 17th.

UConn Celebrates Promotion and Tenure of 91 Faculty

 

Professor Furtado Takes On New Editorial Roles

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Professor Furtado is now a co-editor at the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (JEBO) and a specialized co-editor at Economic Inquiry.

From the journals’ webpages:

Cover of the Journal of Eocnomic Behavior and Organization“The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization is devoted to theoretical and empirical research concerning economic decision, organization and behavior and to economic change in all its aspects. Its specific purposes are to foster an improved understanding of how human cognitive, computational and informational characteristics influence the working of economic organizations and market economies and how an economy’s structural features lead to various types of micro and macro behavior, to changing patterns of development and to institutional evolution.”

Cover of the journal Economic Inquiry“Economic Inquiry is a highly regarded scholarly journal in economics publishing articles of general interest across the profession. Quality research that is accessible to a broad range of economists is the primary focus of the journal.”

For both journals, Professor Furtado is handling papers in labor and demographic economics.

Economics GA Training Seminar – Fall 2023

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The 2023 Fall Economics Graduate Assistant (GA) Training Seminar was held in Herbst (Previously Oak) 312 on November 1, 2023. The GA training seminar was designed to help student instructors and graduate assistants in the Economics Department succeed in their teaching roles at UConn, and to help promote their professional development.

During the event, Professor Talia Bar, Professor Tianxu Chen, Professor Delia Furtado and Professor Derek Johnson shared their teaching experiences, and addressed a variety of issues/questions raised by our student instructors and GAs. Specifically, the topics addressed in the seminar included (1) responsibility of instructors, (2) evaluation of teaching, (3) improving attendance, (4) responding to students’ emails, (5) suggestions for first time teaching, and (6) disputes between instructor and student.

Student instructors teaching in Fall 2023 and other GAs participated in the seminar. They also shared their teaching experiences, and the challenges they face, with the faculty and their peers. The event was a big success, and provided valuable support for our student instructors and GAs. The seminar was coordinated by Professor Chen, who is also the instructor for ECON 6492: Teaching Economics, the newly designed course for first-time student instructors.

 

 

PhD Students Studying Migration on the Move

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Treena Goswami presented her paper, “Immigrants and Labor Market Decisions of Older Natives“ at the Population Association of America (PAA) Annual Meeting held in April this year in New Orleans. She will start a position at the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute in the Social and Decision Analytics Division.

In May, Abdulmohsen Almuhaisen presented his paper, “Immigration Enforcement and the Institutionalization of Elderly Americans ,” coauthored with Professor Delia Furtado and Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes from UC-Merced, at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Labor Economists (SOLE) in Philadelphia. He will return to Saudi Arabia to work at the Saudi Central Bank in the late summer.

Both were hooded at this year’s Commencement Ceremonies by advisor, Professor Delia Furtado.

Congratulations and good luck, Treena and Abdulmohsen!

PhD Students Hooded in University’s Commencement Ceremony

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On a picture perfect Spring evening, several doctoral students participated in the University’s Commencement exercises. Major advisors hooded their students while friends and family members watched either in person from the Jorgenson or online from thousands of miles away at very inconvenient times given different time zones.

The joyous occasion was at times quite somber given the recent passing of Professor Jorge Agüero. As Professor Agüero’s student, Miranda Mendiola Valdez, crossed the stage, special recognition was given to honor the moment. The entire Jorgensen clapped as Professor Delia Furtado hooded Miranda. Miranda will begin a tenure track position at North Central College in the fall.