Professor Enrico Zaninotto of the University of Trento, Italy, is visiting the Economics Department for the Spring semester 2012. Enrico was educated at the University of Venice and at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve. He joined the University of Trento in 1994, after stints at the University of Venice and the University L. Bocconi in Milan. At Trento he has served as vice rector and dean, and helped start what is now a well-regarded doctoral program in Economics. Enrico’s research interests are in the economics of organization, especially coordination theory and entrepreneurship and firm dynamics. (His resume is here.) Enrico is in Room 418 Monteith. Please stop by and introduce yourself.
Professor Ross Receives NIH Funding
Professor Ross receives NIH funding to study the effect of friendship networks on the health behavior of adolescents. Professor Ross with Professors Fletcher at Yale University and Cohen-Cole at the University of Maryland were awarded a major R21 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Under this award, they will develop and implement new approaches to identify the causal effect of the friendships that a student forms in school on key health related behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, weight gain and sexual relations. In the proposed research, the authors will attempt to isolate the causal effect of friends from confounding factors, such as students sorting into specific friendships based on their unobservables or choosing friends who exhibit similar behaviors by exploiting across grade differences in the environment experienced by students whose families selected into the same school, but who happened to have children of slightly different ages. One aim of their study will be to compare students who made very similar friendships as other students in the same school, but due to their grade were exposed to friends who exhibited different levels of smoking or drinking. In another aim, their study will the examine differences in friendship network structure between adjacent grades and the impact of those differences on health behaviors.
Shalini Mitra Defends, Heads to University of Liverpool
Shalini Mitra recently defended her PhD dissertation titled, “Essays on the Volatility of Borrowing Constrained Economies” under the supervision of Professor Christian Zimmermann.
Her dissertation tries to explain using different channels the increasing firm level volatility even in the presence of lower and decreasing aggregate volatility as seen during the period of the Great Moderation. She specifically looks at financial development and organization specific capital in explaining recent trends in aggregate and firm level volatilities. She also studies the role of an informal sector, which is relatively more borrowing constrained, on the macroeconomy. Her findings suggest that financial development as well as firm specific investments are associated with higher and increasing volatility at the firm level and non-increasing volatility at the aggregate with the divergence being more pronounced in the later case. She also finds that a more borrowing constrained informal sector has little effect on economic volatility.
Shalini starts her tenure-track position on February 1, 2012 and is relocating to Liverpool, England.
Yuriy Loukachev to Receive SHARE Award
Economics undergraduate student Yuriy Loukachev has been selected to receive a 2012 SHARE (Social Science, Humanities, and Arts Research Experience) Award for undergraduate research. Yuriy will be studying the economic theory of auctions with Professor Mike Shor in the Spring of 2012. He will receive a stipend from the Office of Undergraduate Research, and will present the results of his research at a poster exhibition to be held in the Spring of 2012.
Congratulations Yuriy!
Prof. Carstensen on Swedish Television
On Tuesday, December 7, Prof. Carstensen hosted more than a dozen foreign journalists at the request of the U.S. Department of State. The journalists represented China, Bosnia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden, and a slew of other countries. Prof. Carstensen provided an overview of Connecticut’s economic performance and the new initiatives the Governor has implemented; he highlighted the importance of the Biosciences Connecticut development and the commitment of Jackson Labs to developing a major research facility in Farmington at UCHC. Prof. Carstensen also discussed the current national economic situation and the complex situation with the euro narrowly and European economic health broadly.
Among those participating, was a film crew from Swedish television. At the end of the lively discussion with the foreign journalists, the Swedish crew filmed a five minute interview with Prof. Carstensen, which was sent to Sweden for inclusion in a national news program.
CCEA, Geography SUNSHOT DOE Award
The Connecticut Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA, formerly CCEF) has asked CCEA to help developing a grant proposal for the Department of Energy (DoE) Sunshot Grant Program. The objective of the grant is to provide tools and strategies to reduce the non-hardware costs of solar photovoltaic systems, and it is meant to be developed as a multi-phase multi-disciplinary program. The proposal involves a very broad cooperation with private entities and other institutions, among which CEFIA itself and Yale University.
CCEA with the support Prof. Willig (CESE) has recruited and will work along with the Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) and the Dept. of Geography. UConn participants will be Prof. Fred Carstensen (CCEA, Director), Prof. Daniel Civco (CLEAR, Dirctor), Prof. Jeffrey Osleeb (Dept. Geography, Head) and Prof. Chuanrong Zhang (Geography). The proposal was one of the winners, and UConn has a proposed budget of about $149,000 for the first year, with additional $169,000 for Phase II, which will take place over two years.
Oskar Harmon featured in article written by MA student Andrew Sparks
On Wednesday, November 16, 2011, UConn Today featured an article about Professor Oskar Harmon’s innovations to traditional class methods. The article was written by one of the department’s MA students, Andrew Sparks.
Andrew’s article outlines Prof. Harmon’s efforts to makes his lectures and class discussions available online and on mobile devices. For example, Prof. Harmon has re-formatted his lectures so that they can be played on smart-phones, and has opened class discussion threads on Facebook so that his students can choose to learn and participate on mobile devices. Andrew notes the significance of this, as Prof. Harmon recognizes the need to give students several options for participation beyond email, HuskyCT forums, and in-class lectures. Prof. Harmon saw a new opportunity in mobile media (smart-phones, tablets, etc.) and rolled out the new formats this semester.
The link to the article is here: http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2011/11/smartphones-can-make-you-smarter-when-used-as-mobile-teaching-tools/
Be sure to check UConn Today for future articles on the Econ department faculty, also written by Andrew.
Panel presentation featured on UConn Today
The panel discussion held on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 was featured in articles on UConn Today and in the Daily Campus. Professors Carstensen, Lanza, Minkler, Ross, and Wright led a discussion (moderated by Department Head Metin Cosgel) about the state of the U.S. economy and possible improvements.
Kathryn Parr cited in Hartford Courant
Jeff Jacobs cites Kathryn Parr’s research in the CCEA as part of his opinion piece about revamping the XL Center to bring economic changes to Hartford.
Read more here: http://www.courant.com/sports/hockey/hc-whale-xl-center-1116-20111115,0,3405456.column?page=1
Prof. Hallwood in the Scotsman
Professor Hallwood’s article “The Case for Fiscal Autonomy for Scotland with or without Independence,” was recently quoted by a reader in the Scotsman.