Professor Ross’s Article in Vox

Posted on August 2, 2016December 13, 2024 by McConnel, Mark

An article by Professor Stephen Ross, co-authored with Stephen Billings and David Deming, has been posted on the Centre for Economic Policy Research’s policy portal, Vox:

Neighborhood spillovers in youth crime: Social interactions matter

In the article, Professor Ross and his co-authors discuss recent research on the mechanisms behind the neighborhood concentration of crime. They focus on their recent NBER and HCEO working paper, in which they show that social relationships at school play a very important role in mediating neighborhood effects in youth crime.

UConn Ranks High for Economics Departments in CT

Posted on July 27, 2016July 27, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

A recent report from Zippia featuring the best Economics departments in Connecticut ranks the University of Connecticut near the top of the list, just below Yale:

These Are The 10 Best Colleges For Economics Majors In Connecticut

The report reviewed a total of 103 institutions of higher learning in Connecticut, and considered Career Results (earnings for graduates), Economics Emphasis (majors as a percentage of a graduating class), and School Performance (admissions, graduation rates, and cost).

Sungoh Kwon at Harvard University

Posted on June 22, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

Graduate student Sungoh Kwon has been invited by Prof. Gautam Rao (Harvard University) as a visiting student in Department of Economics at Harvard University for the fall 2016 semester.

While at Harvard, Sungoh will be pursuing his research interests on intergenerational mobility and dowry payments in India.

Professor Ray wins Lifetime Contribution Award

Posted on June 21, 2016June 21, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

The International Data Envelopment Society (iDEAs) selected Professor Subhash Ray as this year’s winner of the William W. Cooper Lifetime Contribution Award in the field of Data Envelopment Analysis at the DEA2016 Conference recently held in Wuhan, China.

Professor William Cooper and his lifelong collaborator Abraham Charnes, along with their graduate student Eduardo Rhodes, developed Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in 1978 as a nonparametric method of measuring efficiency that is especially useful for evaluating performance of non-profit organizations and government departments through benchmarking.

In 1979, while still a PhD student, Professor Ray started working on DEA and applied the newly developed method in a UNDP project to measure efficiency of primary health care centers in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Over the past decades Professor Ray’s methodological and empirical contributions to the DEA literature have been published in leading Economics and Operations Research/Management Science journals including American Economic Review and Management Science.

His book Data Envelopment Analysis: Theory and Techniques for Economics and Operations Research published by Cambridge University Press in 2004 still continues to be a popular reference book for researchers in the field. He is a Senior Editor of The DEA Journal.

Professor Baggio publishes in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

Posted on June 2, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

Professor Michele Baggio’s paper “Optimal management with reversible regime shifts” with Paul Fackler has been published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

The paper examines the management of a natural resource, a fishery, subject to regime shifting dynamics.

2016 Economics Graduate Reunion and Forum

Posted on May 16, 2016May 16, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

On Thursday, May 5, 2016, the Department held an all-day Economics Graduate Reunion and Forum. Our Graduate Alumni gathered to reconnect with classmates and professors, and to establish new connections with current graduate students and newer members of the faculty.

Our alumni shared their current research, their thoughts about the graduate experience, and their experiences since leaving the University of Connecticut. We look forward to continuing to make this a regular event, scheduled every three or four years. The program for this year’s event is included below.

Special thanks to Andreas Karapatakis (PhD, 1992) for his generous support of the 2016 Economics Graduate Reunion and Forum.

*2016 Economics Graduate Reunion and Forum*

8:30 AM	Coffee & Greet
9:00 AM	Welcome
		Stephen Ross, Department Head Subhash Ray, Director of Graduate Studies

9:30 AM	Alumni Research Papers
		Moderator: Chuck Martie, Education Consultant, CT Dept. of Education
		Gulgun Bayaz, New York City College of Technology “Intertemporal Poverty Among Older Americans”
		Juan-Pedro Garces-Voisenat, Siena College “The Role of Virtue in Economic Development”
		Monika Lopez-Anuarbe, Connecticut College “Intergenerational Transfers and Caring for Families in the United States and Abroad”

10:30 AM		Coffee & Chat

11:00 AM		Alumni Academic Experience
		Moderator: William Pace, Anthem, University of Connecticut
		Paramita Dhar, Central Connecticut State University
		Monika Lopez-Anuarbe, Connecticut College
		Juan-Pedro Garces-Voisenat, Siena College
		Paul Kozlowski, University of Toledo

12:00 PM		Lunch & Emeritus Panel (Immanuel Wexler, Steve Sacks, Arthur Wright, Dennis Heffley)

1:30 PM	Alumni Research Papers
		Moderator: Nandika Prakash, CT Dept. of Economic & Community Development
		Leshui He, Bates College “Adverse Classroom Peer Effects in Students’ Achievements: Evidence from a Quasi-Random Assignment”
		Parag Waknis, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth “Competitive Money Supply in a New Monetarist Model”
		Stanley McMillen, CT Dept. of Economic & Community Development (retired) “Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Connecticut’s 2015 Bill to Recoup a Portion of Its Public Assistance Costs”

2:30 PM	Coffee & More Chat

1:30 PM	Alumni Professional Experience
		Moderator: Natalia Smirnova, American Institute of Economic Research
		Jieling Chen, Merck Research Laboratories
		Ravinder Dhawan, Merck & Co.
		Nandika Prakash, Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD)

4:15 PM	Closing Remarks

Professor Zhao Presents His Research at the St. Louis Fed

Posted on May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

Professor Zhao presented his research on the impact of health insurance policies on aggregate labor supply as part of the 2016 Seminar Series at the St. Louis Fed, on May 4, 2016.

In his research, he investigates whether or not the different health insurance policies in the United States and Europe can explain the fact that Americans work more hours than Europeans.

For more information, see the St. Louis Fed website.

Professors Alpert, Couch and Harmon publish in the American Economic Review

Posted on May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

The work of University of Connecticut Professors William Alpert, Kenneth Couch, and Oskar Harmon, entitled “A Randomized Assessment of Online Learning”, appears in the May issue of the American Economic Review. The paper was selected for inclusion in the Papers and Proceedings issue after being submitted in response to a national call for papers on economic education.

The study provides the fourth randomized examination of online versus face-to-face education ever conducted for a semester length college course. In this case, the course studied was microeconomic principles. The study shows that students in a face-to-face course did about half a letter grade better than students in a purely online course developed consistent with best practices for online education. The study finds that there are no meaningful differences in performance when comparing students in a course with a blended versus face-to-face format.

Professor Harmon Participates in Voting Rights Panel

Posted on May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

Prof. Harmon was a panelist at an event celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The panel addressed voter disenfranchisement including current/past court challenges to the Voting Rights Act, and stricter voting requirements, following passage of this landmark legislation.

The panel was moderated by Professor Beth Ginsberg (UConn Political Science). The panelists were US Congressman Jim Hines; Scot X. Esdaile – CT NAACP State Chair; Professor Harmon; Khalilah L. Brown – Dean Quinnipiac University; Rev. Tommie Jackson – Faith Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church; Michael Pollard – Chief of Staff for Stamford Mayor David Martin; Jasmine Pierre – Future 5 of NAACP; and Peggy Reeves – CT Secretary of State Election Affairs.

The event (April 11) was attended by approximately 75 students and community members. It was held in the main concourse of the Stamford Campus. It was organized by the staff of Congressman Jim Hines; Terrence Cheng, Director of the Stamford Campus; Jack Bryant, President NAACP Stamford Chapter; and Professors Ginsberg and Harmon as part of their Spring 2016 Service Learning Courses.

Kenneth Couch Presents Research at Michigan, Northeastern, and SUNY-Albany

Posted on April 20, 2016 by McConnel, Mark

During the spring semester, Professor Kenneth Couch has made research presentations at the University of Michigan, Northeastern University, and SUNY-Albany.

Professor Couch has published a number of recent articles on the topic of Life Course Events and summarized that research in his presentations at Northeastern and SUNY-Albany. At Michigan, Professor Couch and his co-author presented their research regarding the impact of Social Security earnings statements on individual retirement timing as part of the Michigan Retirement Research Consortium (MRRC) annual meeting. The MRRC annual meeting is an invitation only conference for leading and emerging scholars working on issues related to the Social Security retirement benefit system.