Cathy Schneider lauded at retirement dinner

Director of Undergraduate Studies Catherine Schneider was honored on the occasion of her forthcoming retirement at a gala dinner in Burns Library on April 16th.
 

Schneider, an adjunct associate professor, joined the BC economics faculty in 1982 after receiving her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1980. Her old gold academic gown graced many BC commencement exercises through the years. She has taught principles of economics in the large section format, public finance, micro theory, transportation economics, mathematical economics and an innovative course on economics and Catholic social teaching. For the past several years, she has served the department as assistant chair and director of the undergraduate program, working tirelessly to bring reforms to that program in the face of ever-growing enrollments and major declarations. She has also served as advisor to Omicron Delta Epsilon, the national honor society, and as the founding sponsor of the BC Equestrian Club.

Several faculty spoke warmly of Cathy's contributions to her students and colleagues over the years, and expressed how deeply she will be missed. She promises that if BC's Brighton Campus expansion plans include a stable for her beloved horses, she will return and take the reins!

We are very grateful for Cathy Schneider's dedicated service and efforts to improve our department and its offerings.

Dvir, Strasser, Ünver join the BC economics faculty

Last year's faculty recruitment season was exceedingly successful, with the department filling each of the three authorized positions with an excellent candidate. Two of the new faculty, Eyal Dvir and Georg Strasser, work in the field of International Economics. Eyal, who is completing his Ph.D. at Harvard, will be teaching the graduate trade course and the undergraduate course in international finance in the fall. Georg, who is completing his Ph.D. at Penn, will be teaching a new graduate course in international finance next year. Georg's course will be offered in the spring, as will Fabio Ghironi's graduate international finance course, leading to a new graduate field in international finance. Strasser will be teaching macro theory at the undergraduate level. Joining the faculty as an associate professor will be M. Utku Ünver, who is coming to BC from the University of Pittsburgh, where he has been an Assistant Professor since 2005. Utku is a microtheorist who specializes in market design. He is particularly well known for his joint research on kidney exchange with Tayfun Sönmez and Alvin Roth. Ünver will teach undergraduate micro theory and in graduate micro theory next year.

Five Ph.D.'s awarded in University commencement

The 133nd commencement exercises of Boston College were held on 18 May 2009. Five economics students received the Ph.D. since the last commencement. They are listed with their thesis topics and advisors. Yingying Dong, "Microeconomic Models with Endogeneity--Theoretical and Empirical Studies" (Arthur Lewbel); Nicola Lostumbo, "Essays in Applied Macroeconomics" (Peter Ireland); Margarita Rubio, "Housing Markets, Business Cycles, and Monetary Policy" (Fabio Ghironi and Matteo Iacoviello); Baris Yörük, "Three Essays on the Economics of Charitable Giving: Implications for Fundraising and Public Policy Towards the Non-Profit Sector" (Donald Cox); and Natalia Zhivan, "The Employment of Older Workers" (Alicia Munnell).

Twelve students were awarded the M.A. at the commencement exercises: Tamás Briglevics, Kyle Buika, Tuan Dao, Marketa Halova, Devlin Hanson, Zeynep Kabukcuoglu, Chiu Yu Ko, Gohar Minasyan, Brian Oles, Meghan Skira, Wei Zhang and Chuanqi Zhu.

Our congratulations to all!

Department rises in U.S. News rankings

The BC Economics PhD program is rated 31st in the nation in the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings of graduate programs, tied with Michigan State University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. BC EC's score of 3.2 has risen from 2.8 in 2001 (ranked 40th) and 3.0 in 2005 (ranked 36th). The steady improvement in the program's peer assessment ranking reflects the quality of new faculty hires, graduate student recruitment and the placement of completed PhDs.

The Economics PhD program is among the highest ranked in the graduate school, with sociology (ranked 41st) and psychology (ranked 66th) also showing gains in the 2009 peer assessment by faculty, deans and other academic administrators.

Four additions to the company of scholars

The latest additions to the department's roster of Ph.D.s are Olga Sorokina, Nicholas Sim, Chi Wan and Megan McDonald Way, who successfully defended their dissertations in the first week of June.

Olga Sorokina, a native of Russia, wrote "Essays in Credit Constraints and Education," advised by Prof. Don Cox. She will take a position at ERS Group, a consultancy specializing in litigation support, in Jacksonville, Florida.

Nicholas Sim, a native of Singapore, wrote "Modeling Quantile Dependence," advised by Prof. Zhijie Xiao. He will take an academic position at University of Adelaide, Australia.

Chi Wan, a native of China, wrote "Essays in Financial Economics," advised by Prof. Zhijie Xiao. He will take an academic position at Carleton Universty, Ottawa, Canada.

Megan McDonald Way, a native of USA, wrote "Essays in Intergenerational Transfers," advised by Prof. Don Cox.

Our congratulations to all!

BC EC 2008 and all prior issues available

The October, 2008 edition of BC EC, the department's annual newsletter, is now available in PDF format, as are all prior issues of BC EC back to Vol. 1, Issue 1 of 1978.

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