School of Arts and Sciences
Department of Economics

Department Highlights

Assistant Professor Eoin McGuirk has been appointed a Faculty Research Fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research's (NBER) programs on Political Economy and Development Economics. We are looking forward to reading Eoin's influential papers in the NBER working paper series.

Professor Enrico Spolaore was recently interviewed by University of Pennsylvania's Penn Exchange on political borders and the size of nations. 

Professor Enrico Spolaore's column "Understanding borders and conflict from an economic perspective" was published in Vox EU.

Professor Shinsuke Tanaka's paper in AERI has been selected to the Top Ten Charts of 2022 by AEA.

Professor Yannis Ioannides gave a lecture, titled ‘Global Urban Growth from Antiquity to the Present: A Macroeconomic Approach,’ at the Bank of Greece Conference on “The Palimpsest of Athens” on 20 October. This is based on research with Shengbin Wei, MS in economics program, Tufts.

Steve Cicala, Associate Professor of economics, was quoted in a July 9 New York Times article “Fears of Another Gas Shock Drive Biden to Seek Price Cap on Russian Oil.” Cicala also had his article “Insights: Powering work from home,” which focuses on energy use during the COVID-19 pandemic, published in the Journal of Urban Economics in July.

Professor Gilbert Metcalf, John DiBiaggio Chair of of Citizenship and Public Service, was quoted in Forbes' article "Why Biden’s Federal Gas Tax Holiday Would Be Bad For America".

Professor of the Practice Patrick Schena served as Chairman of the External Advisory Committee for an extensive, multi-year study “Strategic Investment Funds: Establishment and Operations”, released in June 2022.

Congratulations to Professor Margaret McMillan, JRN Family Professor of International Relations, who was recently awarded The Faculty Research Awards Committee Distinguished Scholar Award.

Congratulations to the following Economics students receiving awards this year!

Award Recipient
Class Of 1911 Prize Scholarship Ibrahim A. AlMuasher
Marion Ricker Houston Prize Scholarship in Economics Ibrahim A. AlMuasher
Lewis F. Manly Memorial Prize Hayley Bernstein
Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize Saffiyah V. Coker
Marion Ricker Houston Prize Scholarship in Economics Nayun Eom
Navy V-12/NROTC Memorial Prize Dominic Haley
Alex Elias Memorial Prize Scholarship Avani L. Kabra
Daniel Ounjian Prize in Economics Rebecca Qiu
Audrey Hale Award Benjamin Zeng
Vincent Manno Leadership Award Barrett H. Roman
Howard Sample Prize Scholarship In Physics Mathis P. Weber
Charles G. Bluhdorn Prize in Economics Scott D. Blatte
Class Of 1911 Prize Scholarship Danielle M. Piccoli

  • Professor Margaret McMillan, the JRN Family Professorship of International Relations, Economics. McMillan's research has been featured in the Chart of the Week of the American Economic Association.

  • After evaluating several proposals, CHIA (Center for Health Information and Analysis) has decided to proceed with Amy Lischko's proposal Gender and Racial Disparities in Emergency Department Utilization: Trends from 2016 to 2019.  Amy Lischko is Professor of the Practice, Economics, Professor of the Practice, Community Health, and Associate Professor, Public Health and Community Medicine.

  • Jeff Zabel, Professor of Economics and Director of Data Analytics, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, discussed his research on the housing market on the Perri Peltz Show on 19 February 2022.

  • Seth Merrin Chair and Professor of Economics, Enrico Spolaore, will be presenting his joint paper "Barriers to Global Capital Allocation", with Bruno Pellegrino (University of Maryland) and Romain Wacziarg (UCLA and NBER) at the HEC Paris-CEPR Conference on Banking, Finance, Macroeconomics and the Real Economy on 13-14 December 2021 - HEC Paris Campus, Jouy-en-Josas.  POSTPONED.

  • Cynthia Kinnan, James L. Paddock Assistant Professor in International Economics, is co-author of a new paper published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics titled "Measuring the equilibrium impacts of credit: Evidence from the Indian microfinance crisis".  The paper studies a data set from for-profit microlenders and household data from the National Sample Survey to examine the effects of the state government in Andhra Pradesh, India halting microfinance activities.

  • Seth Merrin Chair and Professor of Economics, Enrico Spolaore, was cited by the Economist, explaining why the demographic change is speeding up.

  • Assistant Professor of Economics, Eoin McGuirk, will be presenting his joint paper "Transhumant Pastoralism, Climate Change, and Conflict in Africa" with Nathan Nunn (Harvard University) at the CEPR/TCD Workshop in Development Economics, 18-19 November 2021 (virtual).

  • The Max and Herta Neubauer Endowed Chair in Economics, Professor Yannis Ioannides, is a guest speaker in the conference "Hellenism Abroad: History, Accomplishments and Role in Greece" jointly organized by the Academy of Athens and the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens, Greece on 10-16 November 2021.

  • Associate Professor Steve Cicala was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune regarding Pritzker's energy policy which promises 40% renewable power by 2030.

  • Associate Professor Laura Gee participated in an Equity and Inclusion Fellows Program on teaching toward equity.

  • Associate Professor Silke Forbes gave a Keynote Address and a Ph.D. lecture at the 24th World Conference of the air Transport Research Society (ATRS) in August 2021.

  • Lynne Pepall, Professor, and Chair, Department of Community Health, and Daniel Richards, Professor, have co-authored a new book about advertising entitled Advertising and the Marketplace: An Economics Perspective (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021).  

  • The Economics Department is very happy to welcome Chaewon Baek, an outstanding young macroeconomist from Berkeley, as a new assistant professor starting in Fall 2021. Professor Baek has produced pioneering work on optimal monetary policy that shows how designing such policy to respond to employment indicators for specific subgroups rather than to overall labor market aggregates can make monetary policy not only more effective but also more inclusive. She also additional research measuring explicitly the direct employment effects of pandemic shutdowns.

  • Professor Steve Cicala's recent paper ("The Incidence of Extreme Economic Stress: Evidence from Electricity Cutoffs", NBER Working Paper 28422) on the unequal impact of the pandemic-induced recession has received wide press coverage including an April 15, 2021 extended article in The Washington Post. The paper uses Illinois data that records monthly numbers of households and firms whose electricity accounts are in arrears; those paying late fees; and those disconnected by Zip code. He finds that in the final months of 2020, disconnection notices were served to 2.5% of commercial and industrial accounts, and 3.4% of residential accounts. About 20% of all accounts were charged late fees. Customers in majority Black and Hispanic Zip codes were about four times more likely to suffer each of these penalties.

  • Professor Jeffrey Zabel discussed his research with Virginia Public Media in a March 10, 2021 feature about declining homeownership: Short Supply, High Prices Push Away Homeownership Dreams

  • On December 11, 2020, Professor Laura Gee was featured on NPR's Under The Radar: The Season Of Giving: How COVID-19 Has Changed Charity

  • Congratulations to Professor Cynthia Kinnan who will now hold the James L. Paddock Junior Professorship in International Economics. She will join Professor Elizabeth Setren (Gunnar Myrdal) as one of two Assistant Professor endowed chairs.