As UConn Today reports, Prof. Carstensen is participating in a major grant lead at the department of Chemistry to study the local production of biofuels. The goal of the $1.8 million grant from the US Department of Energy is to find local sources for biofuels as well as local catalysts and reactors useful for the production process. Prof. Carstensen’s role in the project is to study the economic viability of the biofuel industry in Connecticut, now and in the future.
Prof. Zimmermann to speak in Colombia
Prof. Zimmermann has been invited to speak next month at the annual meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) in Medellín (Colombia). LACEA has about 1000 members and its annual meetings are a large gathering where several prominent economists are invited to present the state of the art in their field.
Prof. Zimmermann will have a full session to discuss RePEc, the large bibliographic initiative in Economics he is helping lead. This project is particularly popular in Latin America, as it allows to access without subscription a bibliographic database, which also carries a large proportion of research that is freely available. In particular, Colombia has its own portal that allows journals and working paper coordinators to index their works in RePEc: DotEc.
Chinese PhD student visits department for the term
Xiaofang Dong, from the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in China, is visiting the Department for joint research with Professor Stephen Ross in the area of urban economics. During her visit, she will be working on developing theoretical models of agglomeration economies.
She has a bachelors degree in Mathematics and masters degree in Finance and is currently in the fourth year of her PH.D program. Her research focuses on both urban and labor economics, including housing policy, unemployment, public-private wage differences, entrepreneurship and agglomeration economies in China. She has published her research in the China Economic Review.
Prof. Ross elected to North American Regional Science Council
Professor Stephen Ross was elected to the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) as a Councillor at Large for a three year term beginning in 2011. The North American Regional Science Council promotes the scholarly exchange of ideas and knowledge that apply to urban and regional phenomena in North America and across the globe. Most significantly, the council organizes the North American Regional Science Association meeting, a large, international and interdisciplinary conference attended by Regional Scientists, Geographers, Economists, Planners, and many other disciplines. The annual meeting of the Urban Economic Association is also part of the North American meetings.
Prof. Segerson advises U.S. EPA
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.