Professor Stephen Ross will be serving on the Universal Basic Income (UBI) working group for the City of Hartford, tasked with guiding a pilot program to evaluate the possible implementation of a UBI by the city.
The pilot program was featured this week in an article in the Hartford Courant:
City of Hartford exploring giving no-strings, monthly cash payments to single, working parents
Professor Stephen Ross has been named a Research Associate in the Education Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
https://www.nber.org/people/stephen_ross
The full announcement from NBER may be found online at:
NBER Appoints 15 Research Associates, 57 Faculty Research Fellows | NBER
Professor Jorge Agüero has published “The value of redistribution: Natural resources and the formation of human capital under weak institutions” in the Journal of Development Economics.
The paper is coauthored with Carlos Felipe Balcázar, Stanislao Maldonado and Hugo Ñopo.
Abstract: We exploit time and spatial variation generated by the commodities boom to measure the effect of natural resources on human capital formation in Peru, a country with low governance indicators. Combining test scores from over two million students and district-level administrative data of mining taxes redistributed to local governments, we find sizable effects on student learning from the redistribution. However, and consistent with recent political economy models, the relationship is non-monotonic. Based on these models, we identify improvements in school expenditure and infrastructure, together with increases in health outcomes of adults and children, as key mechanisms explaining the effect we find for redistribution. Policy implications for the avoidance of the natural resource curse are discussed.
The paper may be found online at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304387820301565
MSQE Program alumni Claudia Rodriguez (MSQE December 2019) and Jonathan Gonzalez (MSQE December 2019) participated in a virtual MSQE Alumni Networking Panel on April 29th.
Claudia currently works at Moody’s Investor Service, as a Structured Finance Associate Analyst, where she works on the Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities team, and the Collateralized Loan Obligations team.
Jonathan currently works for a Connecticut Non-Profit advocacy group. He is currently providing data analytics research support for advocacy of Connecticut Senate Bill 842 An Act Concerning Health Insurance and Health Care in Connecticut.
They spoke highly of their MSQE training in Python, and R, the value of networking and recommended applying for summer internships. In conversation about deadlines, it was mentioned that in industry meeting deadlines is crucial, not like class deadlines where professors’ give extensions.
The panel was moderated by Professor Harmon.
Professor Nishith Prakash and his work with the Association for Mentoring & Inclusion in Economics has been featured in the most recent UConn Today:
The field of economics, like many areas of academics and society, has struggled over time to bring a diverse range of people into the discipline.
To address some of these issues, a UConn professor has helped create a new organization with the goal of lessening gender, race, and socioeconomic-based gaps in economics through mentorship, resource provision, and the creation of a network focused on inclusion.
AMIE, the Association for Mentoring & Inclusion in Economics, was recently founded by Nishith Prakash, an associate professor of economics at UConn with a joint appointment in the school’s Human Rights Institute. The co-founder is Priya Mukherjee, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin.
The pair started informally working on this idea while they were both visiting scholars at Boston University’s Institute for Economic Development three years ago, and decided to formally launch AMIE this year.
Specific groups that are a focus of AMIE include underrepresented minorities, the LGBTQIA+ community, first-generation college students, women, and international students – both those studying in the United States and abroad.
The full article is online at:
New Association Co-Founded By UConn Professor Looks to Diversify Economics
Professor Oskar Harmon has been named a University Teaching Fellow by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning:
The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning University Teaching Awards are held annually to honor faculty and graduate students who show exemplary commitment to their teaching craft. The winners of these awards are leaders in their disciplinary pedagogy, innovation, and have an unequaled focus on student success.
The recipients who win this award are representative of exemplary practice and service to the university. Their commitment to teaching, demonstrated knowledge of pedagogy, and an interest in fostering innovative teaching practices is unparalleled. This award identifies recognition of excellence in and out of the classroom by students, peers, and administrators.
Oskar Harmon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics. He has taught at the university since 1994 and among many accolades, was the first faculty member to offer the “Principles of Economics” course in an online format in 2004. More information on Dr. Harmon can be found here.
Information about the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and the award, may be found online at:
https://cetl.uconn.edu/programs-and-events/awards/cetl-university-teaching-awards/
Professor Emeritus Alpha Chiang has published a new book, Tales from My First 90 Years
Alpha C Chiang, a renowned economist, and Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Connecticut, is best-known for his classic textbook — Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics.
In this memoir, he tells the entertaining, scary, embarrassing, glorifying and surreal tales that colored his life.
On the academic side, Alpha describes in detail his scholastic journey, including why and how he created one of the most popular books on mathematical methods in economics, as well as the experiences of his teaching career. On the nonacademic side, he describes his ventures into his many hobbies, the spices of his life, including Chinese opera, ballroom dancing, painting and calligraphy, photography, piano, music composition, playwriting, and even magic. Such tales round out the depiction of a colorful life.
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
Jasmine Kuyateh-Banks
Melissa Mendez
Kelly-Anne Moffa
Joslin Valiyaveettil
Clare Wieduwilt
Linge Yang
Michael Zhu
Kathryn A. Cassidy Economics Scholarship
Lauren Pawlowski
Rockwood Q. P. Chin Scholarship
Ryan Durrell
Cole Ensinger
Yue Sun
Louis D. Traurig Scholarship
Kader Akpinar
Susan Bailey
Prasad Gosavi
SeSe Nguyen
Paul N. Taylor Memorial Prize
Brendan Adams
Julia & Harold Fenton and Yolanda & Augustine Sineti Scholarship
Linge Yang
Charles Triano Scholarship
Matthew Petridis
Dr. Joseph W. McAnneny Jr. Scholarship
Kelly-Anne Moffa
Benjamin Scudder
Kira Smith
Alexander Taylor
Joslin Valiyaveettil
Clare Wieduwilt
Michael Zhu
Robert J. Monte Scholarship
Isadore Johnson
Ross Mayer Scholarship
John Peterson
Ajshe Zulfi
Graduate Awards
W. Harrison Carter Award
Jinsoon Cho
Jingwei Huang
Abraham Ribicoff Graduate Fellowship
Miranda Mendiola Valdez
Timothy A. and Beverly C. Holt Economics Fellowship
Yijia Gao
Anastassiya Karaban
Ha Kyeong Lee
Kunze Li
Ghania Shuaib
Jiaqi Wang
Yangkeun Yun
Albert E. Waugh Scholarship
Umesh Ghimire
Economics Department General Scholarship
Tiange Du
Xuejian Gong
Ruohan Huang
Benjamin Taraskevich
Ziyun Wu
Yizhi Zhu
Best Third Year Paper Award
Lindsey Buck, awarded for her paper “Head Start Improves Health and Welfare 25 Years After Participation”
Graduate School Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
Faisal Algosair
Abdulmohsen Almuhaisen
Erdal Asker
Birenda Budha
Dingxian Cao
Jingyun Chen
Zhenhao Gong
Treena Goswami
Huarui Jing
Chuang Li
Chun Li
Xizi Li
Tongan Liu
Deepak Saraswat
Rui Sun
Victor Volkman
Jinning Wang
Haoxiang Xu
Heli Xu
Heshan Zhang
Wei Zheng
Faculty Awards
Grillo Family Research Award
Grillo Family Teaching Award
Congratulations to everyone!
Professor Alexander Vaninsky, a long-time economics instructor at the Stamford Campus, recently published the article “Multiobjective restructuring aimed at green economic growth” in Environment Systems and Decisions (February 2021) https://rdcu.be/ch3UZ
ABSTRACT
This research introduces an approach to the structural optimization of national economies resulting in green economic growth. This study considers the comparative advantages of the sectors of the economy in the final product ratio, energy intensity, and carbonization of the gross output. The input–output model is transformed to a structured form, and the projected gradient of the gross domestic product (GDP) is derived. Factorial models of energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are developed and used to obtain the projected antigradients of these indicators. Each of these vectors determine the locally
optimal structural change for each dimension. Their components are found to be proportional to the sectoral deviations from the national average, thus revealing a sectorwise comparative advantage or disadvantage. This observation allowed us to characterize these components as Ricardian gradients. Although it is not possible to move in each of the three vectors concurrently, it is possible to direct the economic restructuring to make the least possible acute angles with each vector. Thus, the locally Pareto-optimal vector of structural change is formed. At each moment in time, the system is directed to move alongside this vector or by the boundary. The suggested approach is applied to simulate the economies of China and the United States. The obtained results reveal that the suggested changes in the structure of the gross output simultaneously allowed for an increase in GDP, a decrease in energy consumption, and the mitigation of CO2 emissions. Applications to international cooperation and trade are discussed.
The MSQE program website has a new look:
The updates include a description the recently developed 4+1 option for UConn undergraduates, and the option for the Certified Business Economist credential of the National Association of Business Economists (NABE).
The program will be advertised on LinkedIn beginning this week:
