Professor Kathy Segerson is a member of the Chartered Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), which meets regularly to provide EPA with scientific and technical advice about proposed regulatory changes, research and budget priorities, and other Agency activities. The SAB is an interdisciplinary board comprised primarily of academics, but also includes individuals who work for state governments or in the private sector. While most members have expertise in the biological, physical and health sciences, the Board also includes social scientists, reflecting EPA’s increasingly recognition of the important role that economic and social factors play in advancing its mission. Professor Segerson is currently in her second 3-year term on the Board. Among her most notable contributions while serving on the Board is her leadership as Vice-Chair of the Committee on Valuing the Protection of Ecological Systems and Services, which prepared a comprehensive report (pdf) for EPA that provides advice to the Agency on how it can improve valuation of the ecological effects of its various decisions and programs.
Korean professor visits department for the term
Dr. Sangmok Kang of Pusan National University in South Korea is currently visiting the Department for collaborative research with Professor Subhash Ray in the area of productivity and efficiency analysis. Dr. Kang is a a Professor of Economics back in his university in Korea and served as the Director of the Institute of Management and Economics there. In the past he has been a visiting scholar at Oregon State University, Purdue University, and University of Chicago. His principal areas of research are energy, the environment, and international trade policies. His applied research is focused on Korea and China. He has published a number of papers in well known journals including Journal of Productivity Analysis, Energy Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics, Ecological Economics, and Environment and Development Economics.
IDEAS reaches one billion page views
IDEAS, the RePEc service displaying bibliographic data about research in Economics through the web, has recently reached 1 billion page views since inception in September 1997. Currently, the site serves over 20 million pages a month, which averages to about 8 pages a second. Not all this traffic is entirely legitimate though, as the spidering robots of the major Internet search engines keep the server quite busy. Along with users doing repeat views of the same page, this accounts for about 75% of traffic. Still, this means IDEAS should have reached now about a quarter billion page views by humans. To give an idea of what this represents: According to Alexa.com, the repec.org domain, of which IDEAS is the major traffic contributor, has about the same global traffic rank as the uconn.edu domain.
IDEAS is managed by Prof. Zimmermann and hosted by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut.
Prof. Miceli listed among top real estate economists
A recent article published in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics ranked Professor Thomas J. Miceli 26th in the world based on publications in the top three real estate journals over the period 1973-2008. Professor Miceli’s research in this area has focused on the operation of the real estate brokerage industry, and property law as it relates to real estate markets. In addition to being professor of economics, Miceli is affiliated with the Real Estate Center in the Business School, which is ranked first in the world in terms of publications in the top real estate journals.
Jang C. Jin and Eden S. H. Yu, “World Rankings of Real Estate Research: Recent Changes in School Competitiveness and Research Institutions,” Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, forthcoming.
Department of Economics and Human Rights Institute seek to fill joint position
The Department of Economics and the Human Rights Institute (HRI) at the University of Connecticut seek to fill a tenure track faculty position in Economics and Human Rights at the Assistant or Associate Professor level beginning August, 2011. Candidates must demonstrate the potential for research excellence in Economics and Human Rights and willingness to contribute to the development of economics courses appropriate for the new human rights major. Teaching responsibilities on the graduate and undergraduate levels will be in both the Department of Economics and the Human Rights Institute.
Minimum qualifications include the completion of all requirements for a Ph.D. in Economics by August 22, 2011; demonstrated excellence in research in economics and human rights; the ability to develop appropriate courses for human rights curriculum; and a teaching background. Equivalent foreign degrees are acceptable. Preferred qualifications include the ability to contribute through research, teaching, and/or public engagement to the diversity and excellence of the learning experience.
This is a full time, 9 month, tenure track position. Salary and benefits are competitive. Rank and salary will be commensurate with background, qualifications, and experience.
To apply, please submit a letter of interest that describes how your work relates to human rights, a CV, three letters of reference, and a writing sample by December 1, 2010 to http://www.econjobmarket.org/. Screening will begin immediately, with interviews planned for the ASSA meetings in Denver.
The University of Connecticut is an EEO/AA employer. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, including minorities, women, and people with disabilities.
BA alumnus David Stockton receives UConn Distinguished Alumni award October 1, 2010.
The UConn Alumni Association will give the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award to David Stockton on October 1. After completing his BA and MA at UConn in just four years (1972-76), under the supervision of Professor Emeritus William McEachern, Stockton obtained a second MA and his PhD in Economics at Yale University. A Danforth Fellow, Yale Fellow, and member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, Stockton joined the Federal Reserve’s Division of Research and Statistics in 1981. Since 2000, he has served as the Director of Research and Statistics, overseeing the Fed’s large staff of PhD economists who conduct research and inform the Fed’s Board of Governors–the architects of U.S. monetary policy.
Both the current Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, and his predecessor Alan Greenspan have strongly praised Stockton’s expertise and advice on economic matters. In addition to his responsibilities for directing longer-term research projects at the Fed, Stockton presents regular economic forecasts to the Federal Open Market Committee–the group of officials that regularly meets to decide Fed policies and actions that shape banking operations and interest rates in the U.S. and abroad. Stockton’s public service career continues a family tradition. David’s father, Ed Stockton served as Mayor of the Town of Bloomfield, and later was named Commissioner of Economic Development under Governors Ella Grasso and William O’Neill. The Stockton family’s New Jersey ancestor Richard Stockton signed the Declaration of Independence.
Stockton will be officially honored at an Alumni Association event in the South Campus Rome Hall Ballroom, on October 1, 2010. Earlier in the day, he will meet with Honors students and give a talk in the Department of Economics.
For more about this event, the UConn Alumni Association write-up about David Stockton and the list of the other award recipients of the day. The UConn Alumni Magazine also ran a story about David Stockton.
Department is seeking to fill three faculty openings
The Department of Economics at the University of Connecticut seeks to fill three tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant Professor level beginning August, 2011 in the following subfields: Econometrics (Search# 2011149), Renewable Resources and Conservation/Environmental Economics (Search# 2011150), and Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics (Search# 2011151). Responsibilities include developing and/or maintaining a strong research program in the appropriate subfields and teaching/advising graduate and undergraduate students
Minimum qualifications include the completion of all requirements for a Ph.D. in Economics by August 22, 2011; demonstrated excellence in scholarly research in appropriate subfields; and teaching experience. Equivalent foreign degrees are acceptable. Preferred qualifications include the ability to contribute through research, teaching, and/or public engagement to the diversity and excellence of the learning experience.
These are full time, 9 month, tenure-track positions. Salary and benefits are competitive. Salary will be commensurate with background, qualifications, and experience.
To apply, please submit CV, sample of research (including thesis abstract for ABDs), and three letters of recommendation by December 1, 2010 online at http://www.econjobmarket.org/. Screening will begin immediately, with interviews planned for the ASSA meetings in Denver.
The University of Connecticut is an EEO/AA employer. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, including minorities, women, and people with disabilities.
Suleyman Kal joins department as Assistant Professor in Residence
S. Hilmi Kal from the Graduate Center of City University of New York (CUNY) has joined the department this Fall as Assistant Professor in Residence. His expertise is in financial economics, non-linear econometrics and macroeconomics. His research focuses on the implementation of non-linear econometric modeling to financial and foreign exchange markets.
At UConn, he is teaching intermediate macroeconomics as well as upper level undergraduate field courses such as international finance and labor economics.
Alumnus creates scholarship for Economics undergraduates
Most students begin their careers in earnest when they graduate from college. But Ross Mayer (BA Economics 1970) started his career in college, selling life insurance policies to students, Storrs residents and others in Connecticut and New York. He was so good at it that Connecticut General Life Insurance Company hired him right out of UConn, eventually making him a branch manager in Boston. Ten years later, he set out on his own.
His commitment to learning the business – and to connecting with his clients – defined his career. A full-service financial planner who is an associate of Commonwealth Financial Group, a MassMutual agency in Boston, he recently established a President’s Challenge Award for a UConn economics student in need.
Mayer had made a planned gift to UConn earlier, after he received a diagnosis of terminal prostate cancer. But with the help of a UConn Foundation development officer, who, Mayer says, “really had the kids at UConn at heart,” he created the scholarship to have an impact now, during his lifetime.
For a complete story, see Our Moment, the UConn Foundation’s e-newsletter.
Fall 2010 issue of The Connecticut Economy examines key election issues
Flagging economic growth and concerns about high unemployment have created a sense of urgency for mid-term election candidates as well as voters. The Fall 2010 issue of The Connecticut Economy: A University of Connecticut Quarterly Review analyzes several topics high on voters’ to-do lists, including job growth, tackling the state’s budget problems, reducing transportation bottlenecks, and increasing the competitiveness of Connecticut manufacturers.
The two major-party gubernatorial candidates, businessman Tom Foley (R) and Stamford mayor Dan Malloy (D), outline their goals for the economy in the issue’s “Forward Look” feature. Both candidates also addressed attendees at the September 8th press release event at the UConn Stamford campus, as part of the morning-long Fairfield County Economic Summit & Outlook symposium co-sponsored by CBIA, the Stamford Chamber of Commerce and the University of Connecticut.
Connecticut lawmakers managed to meet the constitutionally required “balanced budgets” for the current biennium (FY 2009/10 and FY 2010/11), yet the state still faces persistent structural deficits of about $3 billion per year, plus a roughly equal amount of unfunded liabilities for pension and retiree health insurance benefits promised to state employees. Noting, “This is not a problem we can simply wish away,” co-editor Arthur Wright sees this challenge as “Job One” for all state candidates.
With more than half of the state’s 1.6 million jobs concentrated in the Hartford and Bridgeport-Stamford market areas, commutes to work in these regions are often difficult and costly. Exploring how to make the journey to work more cost efficient – essential to stronger job growth in the state – Edward Deak, a professor of economics at Fairfield University, suggests several innovative traffic management solutions.
In election season, claims resurface that Connecticut is unfriendly to business. But co-editor Dennis Heffley and two colleagues, Professor Subhash Ray and Assistant Professor in Residence Lei Chen, challenge the state’s high-cost reputation in a study of manufacturing competitiveness that measures “overall unit costs” (labor, materials and energy, capital, and other costs such as temporary staff, data processing, advertising, and taxes and license fees). Using data from the 2007 Economic Census, the authors show that “high average wages do not necessarily imply high production costs.” Despite having the 4th highest wages for manufacturing production workers, Connecticut’s cost of producing a dollar’s worth of manufacturing output is 43rd highest among the 50 states. Only Oregon, North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona, New York, Wyoming, and New Mexico have a lower overall unit cost.
Analyzing voter turnout in 2006 – the last time Connecticut elected both a governor and a U.S. senator – Scott Condren, an economics major and Quarterly summer intern, examines the determinants of the earlier voter turnout (educational attainment, party affiliation, socioeconomic conditions, income, marital status, population density, and age) and discusses why the relative importance of some factors might change this year. He concludes that “…lessons from 2006 may not apply for 2010.” The centerfold of the current issue also maps the voter turnout percentage from the 2006 election and gives each town’s party registration breakdown.
Connecticut has not posted any significant nonfarm job gains in two decades. But when the self-employed are included in the count, the state’s job growth story changes. Steven Lanza, the Quarterly’s executive editor, finds that since the mid-1990s the ranks of the state’s self-employed have grown by 27,000 jobs annually. That’s a job growth rate of 1.3% per year, only slightly below the comparable U.S. average of 1.7%. Lanza also examines regional differences and public policy implications that result from “Connecticut’s recent growth in jobs due almost entirely to a swelling in the ranks of the self-employed.”
Other features of the fall issue include tables, charts, and commentary on regional labor market activity within the state and a forecast that stubborn unemployment rates will keep the state’s economy weak for some time, although the impact on Connecticut’s real gross domestic product may be less severe – 4.3 % by the current forecast compared with 5.5% previously predicted.
For free access to this and other issues of The Connecticut, dating back to 1993, visit: http://cteconomy.uconn.edu/.