Archived news from the Department of Economics

The Giffuni Prize, awarded for an outstanding thesis in economics, was shared by Kevin Czerniak and Jamie Lee (pictured above). Czerniak, also a Scholar of the College, had been awarded the John McCarthy, SJ Award in the Social Sciences in a ceremony on May 1. The McCarthy prizes, given in natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and history are awarded to the most distinguished Scholar of the College projects.

Federico Mandelman, a native of Argentina, defended his dissertation on May 1. He wrote "Business Cycles: A Role for Imperfect Competition in the Banking System" advised by Prof. Fabio Ghironi. Dr. Mandelman has accepted a position as a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Todd Prono, a native of USA, defended his dissertation on May 9. He wrote "GARCH-Based Identification of Endogenous Regressors" advised by Prof. Arthur Lewbel. Dr. Prono will be working in the Supervision, Regulation and Credit Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Salter, who this academic year is studying at the London School of Economics, said that the Truman Scholarship will enable him to further his interest in addressing global poverty through sustainable development. He plans to pursue an interdisciplinary doctoral degree in development studies, one that would incorporate social and natural sciences.

"This interdisciplinary degree would provide me with a broad knowledge of global development issues, beyond the scope of a doctoral degree in economics, and more fully prepare me for a career with a leading development nongovernmental organization," said Salter, an economics major. "Because many of the major concerns facing developing countries today involve issues of ecology, climate change, sustainability, gender inequality, health care, and education, the solution must go beyond the scope of economic liberalization."

Amrita Bhattacharyya, a native of India, defended her dissertation on March 29. She wrote "Theoretical and Empirical Studies of Advertising in Specialized Markets" advised by Prof. Frank Gollop. Dr. Bhattacharyya has accepted a position at The Brattle Group in Cambridge.

Emmanuel Lartey, a native of Ghana, defended his dissertation on March 31. He wrote "Capital Inflows, Dutch Disease Effects and Monetary Policy" advised by Profs. Fabio Ghironi and Peter Ireland. Dr. Lartey will be a tenure-track assistant professor at Cal State-Fullerton this fall, teaching open economy macroeconomics and growth.

Jamie Lee, class of 2006, learned that he was one of those selected for the award in a field of nearly 40 applicants. His Economics senior thesis project, on which his winning application is based, is "Did it Work? A Look at the Effects of Welfare Reform Nearly a Decade Later", advised by Prof. Richard McGowan, SJ. Lee is a student employee of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Lee has been invited to the Academy's annual dinner in Washington, DC on April 23 and a symposium the following day at the National Press Club.

A reviewer of Lee's paper found the study "to be be a well thought out and conducted analysis of the effects of governmental policies on labor market indicators," describing Lee's methodological approach as having "a well conceived empirical approach to this problem, carefully addressing possible methodological issues and dealing with them in a thoroughly rigorous way." The relevance of Lee's findings are highlighted in the summary comments: "The conclusions of this research provide useful insights into the way that individuals respond to the incentives inherent in governmental policies aimed at reducing the reliance on welfare. This study also allows for the various aspects of governmental policies to have individual effects, which allows one to determine which policies have the largest impact on the target population. In particular, in controlling for alternative governmental policies, the author concludes that welfare reform policies have some effect in reducing welfare claims. However, it is found that the earned income tax credit has a far greater impact on the employment level and poverty level of this target group."

In the Second District College Fed Challenge--a competition held November 17 at the New York Federal Reserve Bank--a Boston College team of six undergraduates: Genna Ghaul, Jamie Lee, Nikki Tyler, Andrew Varani, and returning members Mark Irvine and Greg Wiles won fourth place and a $5,000 prize. Last year, the College Fed Challenge involved a single round of competition in New York to accede to the District Final Four, and the BC team finished the district competition in third place. Expansion of the competition this year led to a preliminary New England round held at the Boston Fed on November 9. In that competition, BC and Harvard teams beat six other teams in two rounds of judging to advance to the New York round. In the New York Fed competition, the BC team advanced through another round of judging to compete in the final round of four, following SUNY-Geneseo, Rutgers (defending District champion) and Seton Hall in the rankings. Teams from Columbia, Cornell and Harvard were eliminated in earlier rounds. The BC Fed Challenge team was advised by Assistant Prof. Fabio Ghironi and Associate Prof. Robert Murphy.

The College Fed Challenge is intended to help students become more knowledgeable about the Fed and the decision-making process of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy-setting group. It is intended to promote greater understanding of the Federal Reserve's role in developing and implementing monetary policy; greater interest in economics and finance as a subject for advanced study and as the basis for a career; research, presentation, critical thinking, and cooperation skills; and a closer relationship between colleges and the Federal Reserve System.

Teams consist of three to five undergraduates from the same college or university. A team's participation involves two parts: a 20-minute presentation and a 15-minute Q&A session led by a panel of judges (usually economics professionals, college faculty and/or Fed officials). Presentations include a discussion of current economic and financial conditions; a near-term forecast of economic and financial conditions that affect monetary policy; identification of risks that threaten the economic well-being of the country; and a recommendation as to the action the Fed should take with regard to short-term interest rates. During the Q&A session, judges may ask questions about arguments made or data addressed in the team's presentation; how policy-makers might respond to hypothetical economic scenarios; and the Fed's monetary policy-making and implementation process.

Kameliia Petrova, a native of Bulgaria, defended her dissertation on October 20. She wrote "Essays on Entrepreneurship, Motivation and Autonomy" advised by Prof. Peter Gottschalk. Dr. Petrova is working for BC's Research Services unit this fall.

Asli Leblebicioglu, a native of Turkey, defended her dissertation on July 27. She wrote "Essays on Financial Integration and Growth" advised by Prof. Fabio Schiantarelli. Dr. Leblebicioglu will be an assistant professor at one of BC's new ACC rivals, North Carolina State University, this fall.

Susanto Basu, a macroeconomic theorist, received his PhD from Harvard University in 1992 following his undergraduate degree at that institution. Basu most recently served as a Professor of Economics at The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He joined Michigan in 1992, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998 and Professor in 2003. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Harvard's Economics Department in 1997-98 and 2002-03. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and, during 2002-04, a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Prof. Basu has published notable works in the field of technological change, aggregate productivity, and business cycles. His most recent paper, "Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?", coauthored with M.S. Kimball and J.G. Fernald, is forthcoming in the American Economic Review. His works have also appeared in the European Ec. Review, QJE, JPE, JME, AER and JMCB. He will be teaching Macroeconomic Theory in the first year PhD program and serving as co-supervisor of the Dissertation Seminar this fall.

Tayfun Sönmez, a microeconomic theorist, received his PhD from the University of Rochester in 1995. He also holds a M.A. from Rochester and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Bilkent University in Ankara. Since 2000, he has served as an Associate Professor of Economics at Koç University in Istanbul. Sönmez also has experience in Ann Arbor, having served as an Assistant Professor at Michigan in 1995-1999, moving to Koç at that time. During the 2004-2005 academic year he was on leave from Koç as a Research Fellow of Harvard Business School.

Sönmez' work has largely been in game theory and mechanism design, with the theoretical constructs leading to highly relevant and practical public policy choices. His two most recent papers in the American Economic Review Papers and Proceeedings, joint with several coauthors, deal respectively with "The Boston Public School Match" and "A Kidney Exchange Clearinghouse for New England." His work on school-pupil matching mechanisms has influenced the New York City Board of Education's matching scheme. Other published papers have appeared in Journal of Economic Theory, Economic Theory, Econometrica, QJE, AER and Social Choice and Welfare. He was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2003. Sönmez is teaching an undergraduate elective in Game Theory this fall and co-teaching Advanced Micro Theory with Prof. Hideo Konishi next spring.

We are delighted to welcome these two distinguished scholars to Boston College.

István Kónya leaves BC

Assistant Prof. István Kónya has resigned to take a position at Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Hungarian Central Bank) in Budapest. We wish him and his family well.

Kolver Hernandez, a native of Mexico, defended his dissertation on June 1. He wrote "State-Dependent Nominal Rigidities and Economic Fluctuations" advised by Prof. Peter Ireland. Dr. Hernandez will be an assistant professor at the University of Delaware this fall.

Rasim Özcan, a native of Turkey, defended on June 8. He wrote "Essays on Auctions: Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," advised by Prof. Richard Arnott. Dr. Özcan will be a lecturer in the Department of Economics at Northwestern University this fall.

Andrew Samuel, a native of India, defended on June 15. He presented "Essays on the Economics of Corruption," advised by Prof. Richard Arnott.

Interviewed by the Boston College Chronicle, Lewbel said that the establishment of the Roche Chair "...shows how well the department and Boston College in general are doing. I've been here since 1998, and just how much the department and the University have improved in that time is great to see. It's great to be part of that."

Arthur Lewbel joined the Boston College faculty as a Professor in 1998. He earned the Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 and served as a professor at Brandeis University for several years, as well as a visiting professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Boston University. He serves on a number of editorial boards and has received several grants supporting his research from the National Science Foundation. He was honored by the prestigious Econometric Society in December 2003, being named a Fellow of that international organization. Lewbel received the Distinguished Research Award from Boston College in May 2004; the only other economics recipient was Neenan Professor James Anderson in 1999. Further details on Lewbel's career and research accomplishments are available on his personal web page.

The abstract of List's paper describes his interesting research topic: "Since 1975, Social Security retirement benefits have been tied to the Consumer Price Index to adjust for inflation. The CPI measures price changes for a market basket of goods and services designed to replicate the average consumer's expenditures. The elderly, however, consume a market basket different from that of the average consumer. In particular, the elderly tend to purchase more medical services than other consumers. Because the price of medical care has increased more rapidly than other prices, the inflation rate experienced by the elderly is actually higher than what the CPI measures. Therefore, using the Consumer Price Index to adjust Social Security benefits does not adequately protect the real purchasing power of retirement benefits. This paper demonstrates that the elderly indeed experience a higher rate of inflation than other consumers. Furthermore, the inflation rate the elderly experience tends to increase as they enter the later stages of retirement."

Paola Zerilli, a native of Italy, defended her dissertation on May 3. She wrote "Essays in Asset Pricing," advised by Roche Prof. Arthur Lewbel and Prof. Jerome DeTemple of Boston University. She will be a Lecturer at the University of York, England, this fall.

Shihe Fu, a native of People's Republic of China, defended on May 6. He wrote "Essays on Urban Agglomeration Economies," advised by Prof. Richard Arnott.

Bedri Tas, a native of Turkey, defended on Friday the 13th (!) before a board chaired by Prof. Peter Ireland. He wrote on "Asymmetric Information, Stock Returns and Monetary Policy: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis." Bedri will be joining a new university, TOBB: Economics and Technology University in Ankara this fall as an assistant professor.

Fr. Neenan holds a Ph.D. in Economics from The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and served on the faculty of that institution. He first came to Boston College's Department of Economics as the inaugural holder of the Gasson Chair in 1979. He remained at Boston College, serving as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1980-1987 and Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculties for 1987-1998. Since that time, he has been Vice President and Assistant to the President, and has played an active role in the University's capital campaigns.

"Fr. Neenan is a revered member of the Boston College community," said Tom Vanderslice. "It is only fitting that he be honored by a chair. In perpetuity, as long as Boston College is in existence, Fr. Neenan's name and contributions will be remembered. An endowed chair is forever."

"I am very grateful to Peggy and Tom Vanderslice for their great generosity toward Boston College," Fr. Neenan said, "and for their personal friendship for me, which really means a lot. As a young Jesuit--just ordained and beginning my Ph.D. work in economics, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought--even vaguely--that my name would be associated with Boston College's economics department in such a positive way. I am extremely gratified by that association and very proud of the strength of the Economics Department at Boston College."

Anderson, a 1969 recipient of the Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison, has spent his entire professional career on the Boston College faculty. This semester, he is a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Anderson said "I am very grateful for the recognition of my professional accomplishments which the Neenan Chair represents. I am even more grateful to Boston College for having provided me with the supportive environment over the years which enabled me to do the work deemed worthy of this recognition."
 

In the Second District College Fed Challenge--a competition held November 10 at the New York Federal Reserve Bank--a Boston College team of five undergraduates: Mark Irvine, Matt List, Barry Mills, Greg Wiles, and Anna Zervou won third place and a monetary prize. The BC squad advanced to the final round of four, bettering teams from 17 other universities, including Barnard-Columbia, NYU Stern School, and Cornell. The second district competition was won by a team from Rutgers University. The BC Fed Challenge team was advised by Assistant Prof. Fabio Ghironi and Associate Professor Robert Murphy.

The College Fed Challenge is intended to help students become more knowledgeable about the Fed and the decision-making process of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy-setting group. It is intended to promote greater understanding of the Federal Reserve's role in developing and implementing monetary policy; greater interest in economics and finance as a subject for advanced study and as the basis for a career; research, presentation, critical thinking, and cooperation skills; and a closer relationship between colleges and the Federal Reserve System.

Teams consist of three to five undergraduates from the same college or university. A team's participation involves two parts: a 20-minute presentation and a 15-minute Q&A session led by a panel of judges (usually economics professionals, college faculty and/or Fed officials). Presentations include a discussion of current economic and financial conditions; a near-term forecast of economic and financial conditions that affect monetary policy; identification of risks that threaten the economic well-being of the country; and a recommendation as to the action the Fed should take with regard to short-term interest rates. During the Q&A session, judges may ask questions about arguments made or data addressed in the team's presentation; how policy-makers might respond to hypothetical economic scenarios; and the Fed's monetary policy-making and implementation process.

Professor Xiao will be teaching the first-year Ph.D. mathematical statistics course and the graduate time series course during the current academic year. We welcome Zhijie to Boston College.

The non-technical abstract of the grant proposal states "Our proposed research aims to bridge a gap between modern models of international macroeconomics and trade. International macroeconomic models do not typically study the entry and exit decisions of firms, and their decisions to serve export markets. We introduce all these firm-level features into such a model. Firms in each country must make an irreversible investment when entering their domestic market; they then produce with different productivity levels. Firms also face both per-unit and fixed (independent of export volume) trade costs. Only a subset of relatively more productive firms export, while the other less productive firms only serve their domestic market. We then study how macroeconomic shocks affect the pattern of firm entry across countries, and the firms' export decision. Improvements in a country's business environment induce higher rates of firm entry. Similarly, when export conditions improve, more firms start exporting; conversely, some firms exit the export market when those conditions deteriorate. These firm-level decisions alter the range of goods available for consumption in both countries. Our model captures the aggregate implications of this firm-level structure, as well as the feedback loop from the induced changes in the macroeconomic environment back to the firm-level decisions.

Incorporating these firm-level decisions provides some very important insights into the behavior of key macroeconomic variables. Our model explains why more productive countries (or less regulated economies) exhibit higher relative prices than their trading partners (through the impact of entry on labor costs). It also explains why productivity improvements can be associated with improvements in a country's terms of trade. These explanations critically rely on the new firm-level structure we have introduced (which implies that firms will predominantly choose to enter the market that provides the more attractive business environment). The firm-level dynamics also imply that the responses to macroeconomic shocks are very persistent, much more so than the shocks themselves. This provides some new explanations for the high persistence levels that are commonly observed in empirical work.

Our study also highlights some potential problems with the measurement of international relative prices. These relative prices are used to adjust important international statistics such as income per capita. However, the methods used may not properly account for the effect of firm entry and product variety, leading to biased cross-country comparisons. The policy implications of this issue are apparent, as these comparisons are used to make decisions such as the allocation of international aid. We will explore this question in future theoretical and empirical work. In addition, we will extend our model to incorporate nominal rigidity and a role for monetary policy. This extension will improve the empirical performance of our model. It will allow us to study how changes in monetary policy regime affect the economy (and consumer welfare) by altering firm entry and exit decisions."

Arthur Lewbel joined the Boston College faculty as a Professor in 1998. He earned the Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 and served as a professor at Brandeis University for several years, as well as a visiting professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Boston University. He serves on a number of editorial boards and has received several grants supporting his research from the National Science Foundation. Last year, he was named a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a signal honor in his discipline from this prestigious international society.

Lewbel becomes the second member of the economics faculty to have received the Distinguished Research Award from the University; Prof. James E. Anderson was one of the inaugural recipients of this award in 1999.

Her paper deals with an interesting topic: in the words of its abstract, "Do firms use autonomy to motivate workers, or do they give autonomous jobs to workers who are already especially motivated? A standard result in economics is that firms offer autonomous jobs to promote worker motivation. But surprisingly, little attention has been given to the details of this practice of giving autonomy to especially motivated workers: for example, does autonomy in fact trigger motivation? In contrast, findings from social psychology demonstrate that how people handle new information is closely related to what motivates them. I argue in this study that motivation may trigger autonomy, and thus that firms may benefit from screening for intrinsically motivated workers by offering autonomous jobs with possibly lower monetary incentives. I assume that workers differ in their degree of motivation, and that motivated workers have a lower cost of processing information than unmotivated ones. While a motivated worker concentrates on searching for available information, an unmotivated one focuses on ignoring certain information as irrelevant. Therefore, firms would gain efficiency from giving the more motivated workers a higher degree of autonomy."

According to a new set of rankings of economics departments in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, Boston College Economics has moved into the mid-twenties among U.S. departments.

The new rankings appear in the December 2003 issue of the Journal of the European Economic Association, which is devoted to a symposium of papers that rank economics departments by various schemes. The only paper that gives rankings based on the publications of a department's current faculty (that is, the stock of research human capital in the department) is "Where are the economists who publish? Publication concentration and rankings in Europe based on cumulative publications" by Pierre-Philippe Combes and Laurent Linnemer. In the Combes-Linnemer rankings, a department is ranked according to the journal articles published over the five-year period 1996-2000 by the current members of its faculty.

Combes and Linnemer provide several different rankings. One is essentially an updating of the Dusansky-Vernon (1998) rankings of U.S. economics departments (in which BC ranked 35th), with European universities included. This ranking uses the same journal weights as Dusansky-Vernon, with only a small number of elite journals receiving any positive weight. BC's ranking under this weighting scheme is 28. Four of the departments ahead of BC are European, and all of the departments ahead of BC are larger. When this ranking is adjusted for size, BC moves up to 22, this time with 3 European departments more highly ranked.

In a second ranking that Combes and Linnemer provide, every scholarly journal in the American Economic Association's EconLit database is assigned some positive weight, but the weights vary across journals by as much as twelve-fold. Under this weighting scheme, BC Economics ranks is 34, with eight of the more highly-ranked departments being European. When this ranking is size-adjusted, BC Economics' rank rises to 16, and in a size-adjusted US-only ranking, BC ranks 12th.

A list of recent publications of BC Economics' faculty members may be found on this web site.

From Il Sole 24 ORE, January 28, 2004, Numero 27, p. 20

Atop one of Boston's most beautiful hills, Chestnut Hill, there is a university founded almost one and a half centuries ago by Jesuits--Boston College--its brownstone buildings covered in this season by New England's coat of snow.

Last year, the department of economics had three job openings. The jobs went to three Italian economists, or, more precisely, to three Italian female economists. Their recruitment brought the number of Italian professors to six, out of a total of 26. "We are thinking of making Italian the second official language of the department", jokes Fabio Schiantarelli, the veteran of the Italian contingent, at Boston College since 1992 who specializes in macroeconomics and applied econometrics.

When in Italy one talks about the "brain drain", the tendency is to think of scientists, medical doctors, biologists and physicists. "I don't know if economists ever managed to fully deserve the label of scientists--says Luigi Zingales, one of the most accomplished Italian economists in the United States--but at the very least they fall within the 'brains' category. And there is no doubt that we are witnessing a drain of Italian economists." Almost all Italian economists in the U.S. received their Bachelors in Italy ("therefore a great part of their human capital was formed there", emphasizes Schiantarelli), and then a Ph.D. in the U.S., never to return. Why is that?

The case of Raffaella Giacomini, from central Italy, two Bachelors in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Bologna, who is one of the three new recruits of Boston College, is representative. "In Italy"--she says--"I didn't receive any particular encouragement. After obtaining--in a somewhat casual way--a post-graduate scholarship, I opted for the University of California, San Diego, where I knew there was an important center for the study of econometrics, my field of research." Already in her second year of Ph.D. at San Diego, Giacomini wrote a paper with Clive Granger, who last year won the Nobel Prize for Economics. "The responsibilities that you have from the beginning and the involvement in research at the highest levels"--she argues--"are the unrivaled elements of the American system. The other is the highly organized job market, which allows you to find a job even before completing your Ph.D.".

Like Raffaella Giacomini, the other Italians at Boston College (with the exception of Fabio Schiantarelli) are all young, a fact that may lead one to think that the brain drain of economists is becoming more pronounced.

Boston College, which in the U.S. rankings of Economics departments figures around the 40th place [Note of Translator: the precise number in the Dusansky and Vernon (1998) was 35 for the period 1990-1994, and is now 24 for the period 1996-2000: see Combes and Linnemer (2003)], is such an interesting case that Alberto Alesina, the Chair of the Economics Department at Harvard, took it as an example at the recent opening of the academic year at Bocconi University in Milan (of which Alesina himself is a graduate), during a polemical address that painted a merciless portrait of the state of research in Italian economics departments. Whereas in the economics department at Boston College the average number of publications in refereed journals per professor is around thirty, in the recent Italian national competitions for faculty positions in Economics the average number of publications in international journals by not only the candidates, but the committee members as well, didn't reach 2, and was only 3 when including Italian journals.

Boston, with its many centers of research excellence, is a natural magnet for Italian talents in Economics. Beside the six at Boston College, there are two at Boston University, two at Harvard, one at Wellesley and one at the Federal Reserve, and two more at Boston College Business School and one at Harvard Business School. MIT, because of Franco Modigliani, has been for forty years the beacon for Italian economists crossing the Atlantic. The joint Harvard-MIT seminars are legendary in many sub-fields of Economics and "those alone are enough to make it worth being in Boston", says Giacomini.

Exploring the frontiers of research is the first reason cited by Zingales for why many Italian economists choose to remain in the U.S. after completing their Ph.D.'s. "The incentive to produce research is extremely strong"--argues the Chicago professor--"as well as the stimulating colleagues, the critical mass of cutting-edge research, the ease in hiring young researchers without having to face the hurdles of bureaucracy. And after doing a Ph.D. here, as well as perhaps a few years of subsequent work experience, it becomes difficult to go back to a rigid job market like the Italian one. The real problem is how to encourage the transition between the Ph.D and the return". In Italy, instead, recruitment tend to promote internal candidates and the flat pay scale does not reward productivity, when not directly favoring consulting at the expenses of research.

Many other Italian economists are scattered around the U.S. and, increasingly, Europe. "What should worry Italy"--argues Zingales--"is the rising emigration towards not only the U.S., but also other European research centers, no longer solely in England, but in places like Barcelona and Stockholm". According to the economist, Italy should put its efforts in creating one or two big centers for research excellence, and let the remaining economics departments focus on teaching. "In the U.S."--he says--"there are very serious teaching colleges that do only that and that have a positive function: it would be beneficial in Italy as well, where the percentage of graduates remains low". Several Italian economists cite the IGIER center at Bocconi University, as a praise-worthy, but not fully successful, attempt to encourage the re-entry of brains. On the other hand, a recent study on the quality of research at Bocconi, commissioned by the Italian university itself to a group of foreign experts guided by Roland Benabou from MIT, resulted in a less than flattering report. It is therefore hardly surprising that most of its best students, along with those from other Italian universities, continue to choose the American road.

Arthur Lewbel joined the Boston College faculty as a Professor in 1998. He earned the Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 and served as a professor at Brandeis University for several years, as well as a visiting professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Boston University. He serves on a number of editorial boards and has received several grants supporting his research from the National Science Foundation.

A recent study by Tom Coupé, based on the published works of the entire economics profession for 1990-2000, rates Arthur Lewbel as ranking 20 worldwide. A more narrowly defined study, focusing on the subdiscipline of econometrics (roughly speaking, the specialized branch of statistics employed in economic and financial research) rates Lewbel 16th among recently published econometricians. His most recent publications include "Calculating Compensation in Cases of Wrongful Death" (J. Econometrics, 2003); "Semiparametric Binary Choice Panel Data Models Without Strictly Exogenous Regressors" (Econometrica, 2002); "Nonparametric Censored and Truncated Regression" (Econometrica, 2002); "Demand Systems with and Without Errors" (American Economic Review, 2001); and "Semiparametric Qualitative Response Model Estimation with Instrumental Variables and Unknown Heteroskedasticity" (J. Econometrics, 2000). Full details are available on his personal web page.

After 33 years at the helm of the department's undergraduate program, Prof. Francis McLaughlin has relinquished the duties of the Assistant Chair to Senior Lect. Catherine Schneider. McLaughlin joined the department as an instructor in 1961, four years after receiving the Master's degree from Boston College, and three years prior to his earning the Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. He became an Assistant Professor in 1961 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1968, becoming Assistant Chair of the department in 1971. Frank is known to generations of BC undergraduates as the person who would straighten out their registration problems (back to the days of IBM-card registration!) and always welcomed their stopping in for a chat. He has taught labor economics and history of economic thought electives, and taught in the Perspectives program.

Dr. Catherine Schneider received the Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1980 and joined the department in 1982 as a lecturer, being promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1996. She has served as the advisor to the economics honor society, Omicron Delta Epsilon (ODE) for a number of years. Her teaching has included electives in public finance, economics and Catholic social teaching, economics of transportation and the large principles course. An avid horsewoman, Cathy is the academic advisor to the BC Equestrian Team.

Two join the company of scholars

The latest additions to the department's roster of Ph.D.s include Mirco Soffritti, who defended on November 20, and Zhining Hu, whose defense was held on November 25. Soffritti, a native of Italy, wrote on "Discretion versus Rules in a Small Open Economy", while Hu, a native of China, wrote "Essays on Monetary Economics and Macroeconomics." Both candidates' dissertations were advised by Prof. Peter Ireland. Our congratulations to Dr. Soffritti and Dr. Hu.

Econ major wins Rhodes Scholarship

Economics graduate Brett Huneycutt '2003 is one of the first two Boston College students to receive a Rhodes Scholarship in the 100-year history of the prestigious scholarship program. Huneycutt and Paul Taylor '2003 join 30 U.S. students who have been awarded the Rhodes in the 2003 competition. Approximately 95 Rhodes Scholars are selected worldwide, with 65 being reserved for Commonwealth countries and Germany. With this year's election, 3,014 Americans have won Rhodes scholarships, representing 306 colleges and universities. Huneycutt and Taylor are the first Boston College students to win the award, which provide full funding for two or three years of study at Oxford University. Harvard University students won four awards; other U.S. institutions with two scholars include the U.S. Military Academy, Stanford University, Williams College and Washington University in St. Louis.

Giacomini and Granger lead off Journal of Econometrics festschrift

An article authored by Assistant Professor Raffaella Giacomini and Prof. Clive W.J. Granger, "Aggregation of Space-Time Processes", appears as the lead article in the Journal of Econometrics' festschrift in honor of Manfred Deistler (Vol. 118, issues 1-2). Giacomini's coauthor, Clive Granger, was one of the supervisors of her doctoral dissertation at the University of California-San Diego, and is a 2003 Nobel Laureate in Economic Science.

Do geomagnetic storms affect stock markets?

BC Ph.D. Cesare Robotti and Ph.D. candidate Anna Krivelyova have authored a provocative paper, "Playing the Field: Geomagnetic Storms and International Stock Markets," appearing in the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's working paper series as paper 2003-5a. The abstract states 'This paper documents the impact of geomagnetic storms (GMS) on world and country-specific stock market returns. For the world index and for most of the international indices in our sample, we find that the previous week's unusually high levels of geomagnetic activity have a negative, statistically and economically significant impact on today's stock returns. Our results are consistent with psychological theories of "misattribution of mood," since GMS have been found to negatively affect people's judgment and behavior.' Robotti, a 2002 graduate, is a member of the Financial Team of research economists at the Bank.

This happens to be highly timely, as one of the largest geomagnetic storms in recent history has been recorded--and in October, rather an interesting month in the equity markets! See the Yahoo News story (Thanks, John Moore).

BC•EC 2003

CHESTNUT HILL, October 1: the 2003 issue of BC•EC, the Department's alumni newsletter, is now in the mail and available on the department's web site. The newsletter, in its 26th year of publication, contains news from the Department's faculty and alumni, both graduate and undergraduate. The editorial staff welcome comments on the newsletter's content at econ@econ.bc.edu.

Economics celebrates 50 years of the Ph.D.

With the completion of the 2002-2003 academic year, the Boston College Department of Economics marks its fiftieth year of doctoral studies. The inaugural doctoral programs in economics, education and history were established in the academic year 1952—1953. As the July, 1993 BC•EC stated, 166 doctoral degrees in economics were granted in the 1953—1993 period: an average just over four per year. In the fifth decade of the doctoral program's existence, an additional 64 degrees were granted: an average of five per year during 1994—1998, and 7.8 per year over the most recent quinquennium. The smallest class was that of 1998, with three degree recipients, and the largest was that of 2001, when 11 doctoral degrees were awarded. The higher numbers reflect the expansion of the program as part of the University Academic Planning Council initiative (see BC•EC, August 1998) which increased the number of first-year Ph.D. students with full financial support by 50 per cent.

The 230 recipients of the Ph.D. in economics from Boston College have followed varied career paths, from academic positions in research universities and liberal arts colleges to international organizations, research institutes, and the business sector. Many academic alumni have played an important part in the graduate admissions process by identifying candidates for the program, and publicizing the program's success to prospective applicants. The Department's track record of placing graduates in prestigious research positions, such as the IMF and World Bank Young Economist programs, reflects earlier graduates' success in those institutions.

The 64 members of Boston College's company of scholars who earned the Ph.D. in the last decade are: Xiaoqiang Hu, Alison Kelly, Olin Liu, Sr. Beth Anne Tercek ('1994); John Barkoulas, Basma Bekdache, Michael Fenollosa, Alpay Filiztekin, José Hernandez-Garcia, James Monks, Van Newby, M. Serif Sayin, Gülcan Unal ('1995); Meral Karasulu, Kathleen Lang, David Richardson, Michael Salve, Kristian Uppenberg ('1996); Wenjie Fan, James Fetzer, Salih Gurcan Gülen, John Jordan ('1997); Mustafa Caglayan, Kelly Chaston, Steven Pizer ('1998); Minh Huynh, Carol Kallman Kane, David Mishol, Ayla Ogus, Neslihan Ozkan, Srikanth Seshadri, Gregory Swinand ('1999); Silvia Ardagna, Oriana Bandiera, Benoit Durand, Emanuela Galasso, Michael Hansen, Martin Konan, Gurkan Oguz ('2000); Kevin Cahill, Metin Celebi, Nikolay Gospodinov, Charles Ian Mead, Antonio Menezes, Maria Laura Parisi, Mark Sarro, Niloufer Sohrabji, Soner Tunay, An Yan, Yuichiro Yoshida ('2001); Helen Connolly, Can Erbil, Vasso Ioannidou, Ümit Özlale, Cesare Robotti, Andreas Waldkirch, Maurizio Zanardi ('2002); and Tiziana Brancaccio, Michael Giandrea, Kamer Karakurum Özdemir, Rachida Ouysse, Özlem Sayinta, Xiaomeng Yang, and Eçe Yolas ('2003). Congratulations to all for their participation in the success of Boston College Economics.

Marvin Kraus becomes chair

Following three very successful years of leading the department of economics, Prof. Peter Ireland has stepped down as chairperson, and Prof. Marvin Kraus is the department's new leader. Ireland presided over the department's move to new quarters in the Administration Building, as well as the department's authorization to fill an endowed chair, and was heavily involved with the "hat trick" that brings three new female faculty members to our ranks this year. Peter will now be able to concentrate on his research and teaching, leaving such details as the appropriate use of picture hangers in our new home to Marvin Kraus.

Marvin Kraus joined the department of economics in 1972, and received the Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in the following year. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1978, and to professor in 1990. Marvin served two terms as director of graduate studies, from 1982-1987 and 1995-1999, and has been heavily involved with the graduate micro sequence. He also has taught urban economics - his own field of research - at the graduate level. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, the Economics Bulletin, and (with Richard Arnott) the chapter on Transport Economics in Kluwer's Handbook of Transportation Science.

Three new faculty members join department

The department had a very successful recruiting season this spring. Three new faculty members join the department this academic year: Associate Professor Luisa Lambertini and Assistant Professors Raffaella Giacomini and Marina Pavan. By sheer coincidence, all three are Italian women, bringing the Italian contingent of our faculty to six.

Prof. Lambertini received the Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in 1995, and has most recently served on the faculty of UCLA. She has held visiting appointments at Princeton and the Institute for International Economic Studies in Stockholm. The lead article in the August 2003 Journal of International Economics, "Symbiosis of Monetary and Fiscal Policies in a Monetary Union", is coauthored by Avinash Dixit and Lambertini. Other recent publications in the area of international economics and political economy appear in the AER, the European Economic Review (with Dixit) and the Review of Economic Studies (with Costas Azariadis). Luisa will teach graduate international finance and macro theory.

Prof. Giacomini has just completed the Ph.D. at University of California - San Diego, advised by Clive Granger, Graham Elliott, and Halbert White. She is a time series econometrician studying issues in forecast evaluation. Her paper on "Aggregation of Space-Time Processes", with Granger, will appear in the Journal of Econometrics. Raffaella will teach graduate time series and undergraduate econometrics.

Prof. Pavan recently completed the Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, working with Antonio Merlo, Victor Rios-Rull, and Ken Wolpin. Her dissertation is titled "Consumer Durables and Risky Borrowing: the Effects of Bankruptcy Protection." She is a specialist in the design and application of dynamic equilibrium models, applying these structures in both macro and micro settings. She will be teaching a graduate course in advanced macro theory and undergraduate macro theory.

Four join the company of scholars

Four of our students have successfully defended the Ph.D. dissertation this summer, and join the company of scholars who have earned the University's highest degree in the field of economics.

Econ scholars win Fulbrights

Boston College students won a record 14 Fulbright awards for 2003-04, and the economics department was well represented among the recipients. The Fulbright Program, funded by the US State Department, was established at the end of World War II to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. Among the winners with economics connections:

IADB Conference Hosted at BC

Boston College was the location for a very successful international conference on the "Balance Sheet Effects of Exchange Rate Fluctuations in Latin America", sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Department of Economics at Boston College. The conference, held May 23-24, brought together six research teams of researchers from Latin America who have gained access to firm level data on the currency composition of debt. Using these data, the researchers have empirically investigated the importance for firms' investment decisions of the balance sheet effects of exchange rate fluctuations. Papers presented at the conference may be downloaded.

Seven Ph.D.'s awarded in University commencement

The 127th Commencement Exercises of Boston College were held on Monday, 19 May 2003, on the Chestnut Hill campus. Seven economics students were awarded the Ph.D., having completed all requirements for the degree since the 2002 commencement.

The latest members of BC Economics' community of scholars (and their advisors) include: Tiziana Brancaccio, "Essays in Labor Economics," (Peter Gottschalk); Michael D. Giandrea, "The Impact of Mergers on Productivity and Profits," (Frank Gollop); Kamer Karakurum Özdemir, "A Test of the Credibility-Enhancing Role of the IMF: The Case of Mexico," (Kit Baum); Rachida Ouysse, "Essays in Econometrics: Selection of Common Regressors in Large Panels and Finite Sample Analysis of Block Bootstrap in Nonlinear Models," (Jushan Bai); Özlem Sayinta, "Exchange Rate Risk, Contract Enforcement, and Trade-A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," (Jim Anderson); Xiaomeng Yang, "Essays in International Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics," (Peter Ireland); and Eçe Yolas, "Essays on Bank Franchise Value and Small Business Lending" (Joe Peek).

In addition, masters' degrees were conferred on Monami Basu, Amrita Bhattacharyya, Tom Connelly, Roman Kutsak, Federico Mandelman, Megan McDonald, Witold Smolen, Oleksandr Talavera, and Eçe Yolas. Our congratulations to all!

Econ Honors Theses in the Limelight

The Winter 2003 issue of Boston College Magazine featured the economics department's Senior Honors Thesis program in an article "Tapped Out". The article, which may be read online, highlights four 2002 graduates' theses: Nikolay Dakov's study of microbreweries (hence the title!), Claire Anderson's investigation of "Religion and Saving", Tony Bierne's intriguing study of the effects of obesity on wages, and Shannon Finnegan's analysis of the antidepressant market.

Econ major wins prestigious award

Economics major Brett Huneycutt, who was nominated last fall as a Junior Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, has won their Undergraduate Research Award. In the words of the Academy's award letter, His paper was judged to have "displayed an exemplary grasp of prior research on your topic; used methodology appropriately to answer the important questions that your paper raises; provided fundamental insights into ourselves as individuals, organizations, or communities; and/or helped illuminate how public policy might better achieve its ends." Huneycutt's paper was one of nine selected to receive this award out of 34 that were submitted by 2003 Junior Fellows of the Academy. He will be honored at the Academy's annual dinner in Washington, DC, on Sunday evening, April 13.

His paper, which is being completed as a Scholar of the College project in BC's College of Arts and Sciences, is an assessment of migrant remittances: the importance of funds sent back home by immigrants from El Salvador who are working in the United States. Brett considers whether these funds are critical to the development of microenterprises in El Salvador. Microenterprises--small informal small businesses--are widely viewed as vital sources of employment growth in developing countries.

A summary of Brett Huneycutt's paper is available in PDF format. Please join us in congratulating him on this signal achievement!

ODE sponsors Peer Advising session

Omicron Delta Epsilon, the economics honor society, is sponsoring a peer advisement session on Wednesday, April 9, at 5:00 P.M. in Carney 102. ODE members will discuss economics elective courses and the economics Honors Program. The session should be very useful to those thinking of majoring or minoring in economics, as well as potential Honors Program participants.

Arthur Laffer speaks at BC

Noted economist Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, chairman of Laffer Associates, will speak on "The President's Tax Plan for Dividends and Capital Gains, and the State of the Stock Market". This talk, originally scheduled for Tuesday, March 25, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 8 from 3:30-5:00 PM in Gasson 100. His speech is sponsored by the Development Office in collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences and the Carroll School of Management.

Laffer, an economist, policymaker and entrepreneur, is now founder and CEO of Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm in San Diego. Previously, he held a faculty position at the University of Chicago, and served as Chief Economist of the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration. At that time, his famous "Laffer Curve" -- representing the relationship between the tax rate and tax revenue -- underlaid many of the innovations in Federal fiscal policy. The curve implies that tax revenue may be maximized by reducing taxes to the point where disincentives to generate income are mitigated.

ODE sponsors Career Options Panel

Omicron Delta Epsilon, the economics honor society, is sponsoring "Career Options for Economics Majors," a panel discussion with some recent alumni who were economics majors as undergraduates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Reserve System, and economics consulting firms will be presented. The event will be held Tuesday, April 1, at 7:30 PM in the McGuinn 5th floor lounge. Refreshments will be served.

A new beginning...

New Year's Day, 2003 marked the Economics Department's relocation from Carney Hall to a new home on the fourth floor of the Administration Building on the lower campus of Boston College. This building, located just below O'Neill Library, is connected to the middle campus by a stone arch bridge to the Library atrium. For the first time in its history, all department faculty, staff, and graduate students are located in adjacent quarters, with ample space to support the department's mission of research and teaching.

Other academic departments joining Economics in the Administration Building are History, with whom we share the fourth floor, and Communication, on the fifth floor. At the end of the academic year, our former neighbors Philosophy and Theology will relocate to the third floor. The first floor of the new 155,000-square-foot structure contains the Hillside Cafe, BC Dining Services' latest venture, as well the Hillside Shop--a branch of the BC Bookstore--and the BC Campus Police. We invite you to stop by and tour our new departmental home!

Coincident with the relocation to the Administration Building, the Department has unveiled its new website. This website, making extensive use of PHP and MySQL web tools, provides easy access to all department information from every page. Clicking on the large Economics logo returns you to the department home page, while seven buttons below the logo provide ready access to major categories of specific information. A footer provides links to several Boston College sites, as well as to RePEc bibliographic information and the current Boston weather, and a search tool. Please note that links to the econ.bc.edu homepage and its data resources are restricted to the Boston College network. We invite your comments on the 'new look'.

and the end of an era!

December 20, 2002 was a bittersweet day in the corridors of Carney, as faculty, staff, students and friends from across the Boston College campus gathered to bid farewell to Mary Foley. Mary has served the department as Administrative Graduate Secretary for over 20 years as the heart and soul of the graduate program. Over 100 Ph.D. candidates received their 'smiley note' wishing them well in their doctoral defense over the years, and many of them have recounted the crucial role she played in helping them adjust to life far from home and the rigors of the graduate program during their years on the Heights.

Mary has retired to a condominium community on the Cape, and declined Frank Gollop's generous offer of a wireless headset with which to keep in constant touch during the spring admissions season. Frank, Marvin, Kit, Jim and all those who have directed our graduate program know just how invaluable Mary's efforts have been in ensuring that it runs smoothly and efficiently. We will all miss her deeply.

Updated: 2008/02/20
Maintained: Department of Economics
URL: http://fmwww.bc.edu/ec/newsarchive/newsold.php
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