Economics
College of Arts and Sciences, American University
Fall 2014 Newsletter
Report from the Chair
Contents
Report from the Chair..........................1
Research in the Department............2-3
Recent PhD Recipients........................3
Department Notables.......................4-6
American University
Department of Economics
104 Kreeger Hall
4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20016-8029
202-885-3770
202-885-3970 (fax)
econ@american.edu
www.american.edu/econ
www.facebook.com/aueconomics
https://twitter.com/AU_Economics
The fall 2014 semester is well under way, and so far
we are enjoying another great academic year in the
Department of Economics. The newsletter gives me
an opportunity to highlight some of the recent events
that have taken place.
Our faculty and students accomplished a
great deal this past academic year. Two faculty members
deserve special congratulations. Maria “Sergy” Floro
was promoted to full professor. Robert Blecker was
the recipient of American University’s Faculty Award
for Outstanding Service to the University Community
for his work on the Middle States report. Both are
well deserved. All of our faculty members continue
to be active researchers, with many published journal
articles and book chapters (a list of the journal articles
can be found in the newsletter). Sue Headlee, one of
our former PhD students and, until this past year, an
adjunct faculty member in our department, donated
the beautiful garden in the front of Kreeger (a picture of the garden is in the newsletter). Many of us have
been able to enjoy lunch outside on the benches this fall. Our students have enjoyed many successes. We had
eight PhD students graduate and move on to great employment (the lists are in the newsletter).
All three of our academic programs remain strong and rank among the largest in the College of
Arts and Sciences. Mary Hansen is doing an outstanding job as director of the undergraduate program, with
about 300 majors spread over its three programs. Paul Winters has taken over from John Willoughby to
direct the PhD program. He welcomed a large class of 23 new students this fall. He is currently thinking
of innovative ways to make the program more efficient. Kara Reynolds continues to do an excellent job in
directing our MA programs, and recruited 24 new students to the program. Also, under her direction, the new
fully online MA program is now launched. The department and College hosted an outing at Nationals Park
at the beginning of the semester for our new and continuing graduate students to cheer on the Nats as they
took on the Giants.
The department office continues to operate smoothly. Lyndsey Romick continues to do a superb
job at the front desk. Danielle Robinson ably assists the program directors. Glen Arnold directs all office
operations with his usual outstanding administrative skills.
You should check out the department website for more information on faculty research, media
appearances, seminars, and other announcements. I hope you will visit the department in Kreeger Hall if you
are in the area.
My best to all of you for a successful year,
Tom
Tom Husted
Chair, Department of Economics
American University Department of Economics Newsletter
2
Research in the Economics Department
Kevin Capehart (PhD ‘14), Robert Blecker, and Yun Kim (PhD ‘11) at a conference in Berlin
Info-Metrics Institute Celebrates Fifth Anniversary
Directed by Amos Golan, the Info-Metrics Institute continues to
host conferences at American University. Its fall 2014 workshop,
Recent Innovations in Info-Metrics, took place on October 31
and November 1. The objective was to continue the exploration
into the basics of info-metrics, information-theoretic inference
and their mathematical and philosophical foundations. A special
emphasis was placed on the interconnection of inferential and
philosophical problems and solutions across the disciplines. Video
footage of the event, as well as the presenters’ materials, will soon
be available on the Institute’s website,
http://www.american.edu/info-metrics.
This year’s speakers included:
Pieter Adriaans (University of Amsterdam)
Ariel Caticha (State University of New York, Albany)
Min Chen (University of Oxford)
Bryan Daniel (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
J. Michael Dunn (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Luciano Floridi (University of Oxford)
Nathan Harshman (American University)
Yuichi Kitamura (Yale University)
Robin Lumsdaine (American University)
James Moor (Dartmouth College)
Ilya Nemenman (Emory University)
Werner Ploberger (Washington University in St. Louis)
Jeff Racine (McMaster University)
Alexis Akira Toda (University of California, San Diego)
The fall 2014 Info-Metrics Institute newsletter, which includes
all Institute-related updates from the past academic year as well
as information on upcoming Institute events is now available
on the Institute’s website. For further information and to view
the fall 2013 Info-Metrics Institute newsletter, please visit
http://www.american.edu/info-metrics.
Selected Recent Faculty Publications
Feinberg, Robert and PhD Student Daniel Kuehn (with
S. McKernan, D. Wissoker, and S. Zhang). “Explaining
Variation in Title Charges: A Study of Five Metropolitan
Residential Real Estate Markets.” Review of Industrial
Organization, forthcoming.
Feinberg, Robert and Thomas Husted (with F. Szucs).
“Does State Antitrust Enforcement Drive Establishment Exit?” Journal of Competition Law & Economics,
forthcoming.
Gunter, Bernhard (with A.F.M. Ataur Rahman). “An
Investigation of the Relationship between Money
Growth and Stock Prices Using Bangladeshi Data,”
Journal of Bangladesh Studies, 2013
Gershman, Boris. “The Two Sides of Envy.” Journal of
Economic Growth, December 2014
Gershman, Boris. “Envy in the Process of Development: Implications for Social Relations and Conflict.”
Economics of Peace and Security Journal, October 2013
Radchenko, Natalia. ““Heterogeneity in Informal Salaried Employment: Evidence from the Egyptian Labor
Market Survey,” World Development, 2014
Sheng, Simon. “Quantifying Differential Interpretation
of Public Information Using Financial Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts,” International Journal of Forecasting,
forthcoming
Sheng, Simon. “Evaluating the Economic Forecasts of
FOMC Members,” International Journal of Forecasting,
forthcoming
continues on page 3
American University Department of Economics Newsletter
3
Selected Recent Faculty Publications
continued from page 2
Sonenshine, Ralph M. and Reynolds, Kara. “Determinants
of Cross Border Merger Premia,” Review of World Economics, 2014
Starr, Martha (with R. Forrest McCluer). “Using Difference in Differences to Estimate Damages in Healthcare
Antitrust: A Case Study of Marshfield Clinic,” International
Journal of the Economics of Business, 2013
Starr, Martha (with L. Dominiak and A. Aizcorbe). “Decomposing Growth In Healthcare Spending: Rising Annual
Costs of Treatment Contributed Most To Spending Growth,
1980–2006,” Health Affairs, 2014
Winters, Paul and Heath Henderson (PhD ‘12), (with L.
Corral, and E. Siminig) “Land Accumulation Dynamics in
Developing Country Agriculture,” Journal of Development
Studies, forthcoming
Winters, Paul (with T. Kilic and E. Whitney). “Evaluating
the Targeting Performance of the Malawi Farmer Input Subsidy Program,” Journal of African Economies, forthcoming
Winters, Paul and Mario González-Flores (PhD ‘14) (with
B. Bravo-Ureta and D. Solís) “The impact of high value markets on smallholder productivity in the Ecuadorean Sierra: A Stochastic Production Frontier approach
correcting for selectivity bias.” Food Policy, 2014
Wisman, Jon D. and Aaron Pacitti (PhD ‘09).
“Ending the Unemployment Crisis with Guaranteed
Employment and Retraining,” Journal of Economic
Issues, 2014
Wisman, Jon D. and Ph.D Student Matthew E. Davis. “Degraded Work, Declining Community, Rising
Inequality, and the Transformation of the Protestant
Ethic in America: 1870-1930,” American Journal of
Economics and Sociology, November 2013
Wisman, Jon D. “Why Marx Still Matters,” International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education,
2013.
Wisman, Jon D. “The Financial Crisis of 1929 Reexamined: The Role of Soaring Inequality,” Review of
Political Economy, 2014
AY 2013-2014
PhD Recipients
Kevin Capeheart: “Essays on the Wealthiest Americans” (Alan
Isaac)
Employment: American University in Paris
Mario Gonzalez-Flores: “Three Essays on Evaluation and
Measurement” (Paul Winters)
Employment: Inter-American Development Bank
Erin Hinchey: “Three Essays on the Relationship Between
Trade and Gender in U.S. Manufacturing” (Kara Reynolds)
Employment: Hood College
Nicholas Kahn: “Measuring Racial Disparities in Child Welfare
Services” (Mary Hansen)
Employment: American University, SPA
Rutendo “Wendy” Karamba: “Input Subsidies and Their
Effect on Cropland Allocation, Agricultural Productivity, and
Child Nutrition: Evidence from Malawi” (Paul Winters)
Employment: World Bank
Kevin McGee: “Three Essays on the Causes and Consequences
of Poor Health and Nutrition in the Developing World”
(Paul Winters)
Employment: World Bank
Leanne Roncolato: “Three Essays on Economic Structure,
Employment, and Development” (Maria Floro)
Employment: Franklin & Marshall College
Vanya Slavchevska: “Three Essays on Agriculture, Gender,
and Nutrition in Tanzania” (Paul Winters)
Employment: World Bank
American University Department of Economics Newsletter
4
Department Notables
Faculty News
Robert Blecker wrote a research paper on the Mexican
economy for an AU Center for Latin American and Latino
Studies (CLALS) project on innovation and inclusion in Latin
America; the paper was presented at workshops in Santiago,
Chile (January) and Washington, DC (May) and will be
published in a conference volume. He gave two talks on the
20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement
at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in
Mexico City, one in January and one in April. He participated
in a panel discussion about the Trans-Pacific Partnership and
Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, sponsored
by the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship
at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa in October. He also
presented a paper on wage-led and profit-led growth at a
conference on “Inequality and the Future of Capitalism” held in
Berlin, Germany, where he was joined by former AU students
Yun Kim (PhD ‘11) and Kevin Capehart (PhD ‘14).
Mary Eschelbach Hansen’s research on “The Value of
Adoption” is currently linked on the United States House
of Representatives Committee on Ways & Means’ prevent
trafficking website. Her work helped contribute to the passage of
the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act,
which was signed into law on September 29, 2014.
Robert Feinberg was invited in May to the first International
Conference on Policies and Regulations in the Korean Economy,
organized by the Center for Economic Research on Korea at
Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.
Martha Starr is currently “on loan” to the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, where she is serving as the senior economic
advisor to the deputy commissioner for Policy, Planning and
Legislation. She is working on a broad portfolio of projects
requiring economic analyses of FDA rules related to tobacco,
food, drugs, and medical devices. Professor Starr has been
delighted to find a big, bright core of people with MA’s from
AU on the FDA staff. In June she traveled to Los Angeles to
attend the biennial meetings of the American Society of Health
Economists, where she and her coauthors presented their
research on pay-for-delay settlements of patent disputes in the
pharmaceutical industry.
Boris Gershman participated in the 5th Lindau Meeting with
Nobel Laureates in Economic Sciences, which took place
in Lindau, Germany. The meeting involved lectures, panel
discussions, and master classes by 17 Nobel Laureates. All
participants had the opportunity to interact informally with each
other as well. The meeting brought together the Laureates, a few
hundred young economists from around the world, academics,
and bankers, and featured a keynote speech by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, a lecture by 2010 Nobel Laureate in
Literature Mario Vargas Llosa, and an address by Queen Silvia
of Sweden.
Xuguang (Simon) Sheng co-organized an international
conference on “Uncertainty and Economic Forecasting”
in London in May 2014 and has two papers accepted for
publication in the International Journal of Forecasting.
Ralph Sonenshine is now the vice chair of the College Term
Faculty Task Force, a college-wide committee that advocates for
term faculty and coordinates term faculty related initiatives, such
as the promotion forum. He is scheduled to become chair of the
Term Faculty Committee in academic year 2015.
Sue Headlee, Associate Professor Emerita of Economics and a former PhD student, donated this beautiful garden to the Department in April 2014.
It has proven to be a very popular lunch spot in nice weather. Thank you Sue!
continues on page 5
American University Department of Economics Newsletter
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Department Notables
continued from page 4
Faculty news continued from page 4
Paul Winters received two prestigious grants to study the
efficacy of cash transfer and agricultural programs in Africa. The
first is from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the
United Nations and the second is from the American Institute for
Research. For the FAO grant, Paul will be collecting research on
unconditional cash transfer programs in Africa and organizing
it for publication into a book published by Oxford University
Press. The American Institute for Research grant will focus on
assessing the effect of a specific program, Plantwise, in Kenya,
which seeks to help reduce crop losses by setting up plant clinics
where farmers can bring sick plants for diagnosis and treatment.
Over the past year and a half, Jon Wisman has published
several articles and blogs. His blogs are collected at www.
huffingtonpost.com/jon-wisman and at http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/
usappblog/2014/02/03/inequality-financial-crash/. At present,
he’s on research leave, and his principal project is to complete
a book with the tentative title The Origins and Dynamics of
Inequality. Beyond all that, he continues to commute by bicycle,
often reflecting on the many wonderful students he’s had the
privilege of teaching.
Zach Duey won Best Social Science Presentation
for his honors capstone project
was presented at the American Economic Association meeting in
January 2014.
Matt Waskiewicz (CAS/BA ‘16, SPA/BA ‘16) was awarded
a prestigious summer Fulbright grant to study the political and
economic effect of industry in Wales. Matt kept a blog about his
experience, which can be found at findingwales.weebly.com.
Student News
Zach Duey (CAS BA/BS ‘14) won Best Social Science
Presentation at the Honors Capstone Conference in Spring 2014
for his research “Impacts of Bank Failures on Firm Entry and
Exit: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Mississippi During
the Great Depression.” Zach looked at the differences in how the
St. Louis Fed, which controlled the northern half of the state, and
the Atlanta Fed, which controlled the southern half, reacted to a
Matt Waskiewicz in Wales
wave of bank failures in Mississippi. He found that the Atlanta
Fed’s policy of increased discount lending to illiquid banks led to
higher entry and lower exit rates for firms in the south relative to
Alumni News
the north. His findings suggest that widespread accommodative
monetary policy could have mitigated the banking crisis and
Kevin W. Capehart (PhD ‘14) started as an assistant professor
reduced the severity of the decline into the Great Depression.
of economics at The American University of Paris after
completing his dissertation on some of the wealthiest Americans.
Emily Ellis (CAS/BA/BS ‘15) was selected
His work on the fragility of Donald Trump’s financing is
to receive an AU Summer Scholars and
forthcoming in The Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, while
Artists Fellowship to conduct research
his work on the income elasticity of Oprah Winfrey’s labor
full-time over the summer. Her research,
supply is forthcoming in The American Economist.
“Understanding Wage Determination for
Behaviorally Gay and Lesbian People Using
Mario González Flores (PhD ‘14) has been working at the
Masculinity Traits,” seeks to determine
Inter-American Development Bank for the Strategic Planning
why gay men experience a wage discount
and Development Effectiveness Division since September
compared with straight men, but lesbians
2013. Mario provides support in the design and implementation
receive a wage premium compared to
of impact evaluations for three divisions in the Bank: Rural
Emily Ellis
straight women.
Development & Natural Disasters, Capital Markets and
Finance, and Competitiveness and Innovation. Additionally, he
Jonathan Wallen (CAS/BS ‘14) was named an Honors Scholar
contributes in the assessment of the development effectiveness
for the research he conducted in forecasting with Simon Sheng that of Sovereign Guaranteed Operations, Country Strategies, Sector
continues on page 6
American University Department of Economics Newsletter
6
Department Notables
continued from page 5
Fed Challenge Team Continues Successful Run
Under the leadership of Professor Evan Kraft, the Department’s Fed Challenge team won the regional round of the College Fed
Challenge competition for the second year in a row. Team members Alex Adamczyk (CAS/BS ‘14), Kevin Kurtz (CAS/BS ‘14),
and Charles Bilyue (CAS/BS ‘14) analyzed the state of the American economy and delivered their recommendations for monetary policy in front of a panel of judges at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Baltimore office in November 2013. The team
competed well at the District Fed Challenge competition in Richmond, but did not advance to nationals. “We have a tremendous
tradition going now,” says Kraft, “because the odds of winning twice in a row like we did are not that good. We’ll see where we go
next time.”
Look for results from the 2014 Fed Challenge in next fall’s newsletter!
Fed Challege Team coach Evan Kraft and team members Charles Bilyue,
Kevin Kurtz, and Alex Adamczyk
Alumni News continuted from page 5
Notes and Country Programming Documents through the
application of the Development Effectiveness Matrix. Mario is
also an adjunct instructor at the School of International Service
at American University.
Brian Moyer (PhD ‘02) has been named director of the Bureau of
Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Heath Henderson (PhD ‘12) recently moved to Ames, IA were he
accepted a term position in the Department of Economics at Iowa
State University. From Iowa, Heath also continues to do consulting
work for the Inter-American Development Bank. Regarding
Wissam (Sammy) Harake (PhD ‘10) and former AU Professor research, he recently had a paper published in Agricultural
Economics and also has two articles forthcoming in Journal of
Ellen Meade have co-authored a paper, “Hong Kong’s
Development Studies and Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Currency Crisis: A Test of the 1990s ‘Washington Consensus’
View,” which is forthcoming in the journal International
Jesmin Rahman (PhD ‘98) was promoted to deputy division chief
Finance in Winter 2014. Sammy is currently a World Bank
in the European Department of the International Monetary Fund in
economist stationed in Beirut, Lebanon. Professor Meade is
January 2014.
now a senior adviser in the Monetary Affairs Division of the
Federal Reserve Board in Washington.
Stay in touch with Economics at AU
If you have news to share in our next newsletter, or simply want
to contact us, you can email Tom Husted at husted@american.
edu, or call him at 202-885-3773.
To learn more about supporting the Department with a gift,
please contact Wallis Romzek in the College of Arts and
Sciences Office of Development and Alumni Relations via
email at wromzek@american.edu, or by phone at 202-8852435. All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law
and can be designated towards several important initiatives
including the Economics Department’s General Fund, the
Info-Metrics Institute, the Barbara Bergmann Fellowship, or
scholarship funds in memory of former faculty members Jose
Epstein and Frank Tamagna.