Department Highlights

On September 28, Professor Enrico Spolaore presented his research on immigration and fertility at the BIG Forum, the first conference of the Building Inclusive Growth (BIG) Lab at the University of Notre Dame.

Professor Enrico Spolaore co-authored the VoxDev article "Why Doesn't Global Capital Flow To Where It's Most Productive, in Developing Countries?" 

Professor Enrico Spolaore presented his research on "Cultural Remittances and Modern Fertility" at the World Economic History Congress in Lund (Sweden) on July 29 and at the University of Oslo (Norway) on August 14.

Patrick Schena, Barton L. Rachlin, E59, A85P, Professor of Economics, in a Bridge Michigan article, explained why the government of Singapore owns more than 5% of all land in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Douglas Gollin, Jason P. and Chloe Epstein Professor of Economics, has been appointed research associate to the National Bureau of Economic Research Development Economics Program. The Development Economics Program studies the forces that contribute to economic development, particularly in less developed nations.

Matthew Gudgeon, assistant professor of economics, was appointed faculty research fellow to the National Bureau of Economic Research Labor Studies Program. The Labor Studies Program explores issues related to employment and compensation, including the supply of and demand for labor, human capital, and the determinants and consequences of unemployment.

Professor Enrico Spolaore's paper "Barriers to Global Capital Allocation" (with Bruno Pellegrino and Romain Wacziarg) was presented at the 34th annual Utah Winter Finance Conference on February 8 and accepted at the Quarterly Journal of Economics on February 24.

Professor of Practice Patrick J. Schena's  article “US sovereign wealth fund: A feasible idea to invest strategically, or a giant opportunity for waste?” has been published on The Conversation.

Professor Yannis Ioannides has been elected a fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory in December 2024.

Professors Marcelo Bianconi and Federico Esposito and their co-author Marco Sammon (HBS) research has been mentioned in the Financial Times, November 2024: Stock Investor Needn't Fear Tariffs. 

Professor Enrico Spolaore talked about the political economy of climate change at a Science Forum held on November 20, 2024 within the Festival of Italian Creativity hosted by the Consulate General of Italy in Boston.

Professor Cynthia Kinnan, Associate Professor, co-authored the VoxDev article “Pricing health insurance in India”.

Professor Cheryl Doss was awarded an honorary life membership at the 32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists on 7 August 2024, New Delhi, India.

The Atlantic recently interviewed Professor Enrico Spolaore on cultural and economic factors affecting fertility. 

Professor Enrico Spolaore gave a keynote address on "International Interactions and Economic Performance" at the 16th International Forum on Economic Development of Large Countries, Changsha (China), August 16, 2024. While in Changsha, he also gave a lecture at Hunan Normal University (coverage in Chinese: https://sxy.hunnu.edu.cn/info/1094/9115.htm).

Professor Douglas Gollin gave a keynote address "Impact Assessment for Agriculture in the Context of Structural Transformation" at the SPIA Fest (meeting organized by the CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment), Delhi, 2 August 2024.

Professor Douglas Gollin gave a keynote address "Agriculture and Growth: What Have We Learned?" at the International Conference on Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR), Ravello, Italy, 14 June 2024.

Professor Douglas Gollin gave a keynote address "New Views of Structural Transformation: Insights from Recent Literature," at the Africa Meeting of the Econometric Society. Abidjan, 7 June 2024.

Professor Douglas Gollin presented "Structural Transformation and Growth," at the Maddision Lecture 2024, University of Groningen, Netherlands, 30 May 2024.

Professor Douglas Gollin, gave a keynote address at the Groningen Growth and Development Center Conference, Groningen, Netherlands, "Agriculture and Growth," 28 May 2024.

Maakwe Cumanzala, doctoral student in the joint program in Economics and the Fletcher School, authored the Good Authority article “In Africa, gender equality in principle faces barriers in practice.” 

Professor Laura Gee was interviewed by the Boston Globe on 18 June 2024 regarding the impact on women's careers of being the default parent for so many child care needs.

Professor of the Practice Patrick Schena was quoted in the following Financial Times articles regarding sovereign wealth funds: Sovereign Investors are the New Conduits of FDI and The SWFs de-risking Inbound FDI.

Professors Silke Forbes and Jeff Zabel were quoted in The Tufts Daily article "Tufts’ cost of attendance reaches record-breaking $92,167 for upcoming academic year".

Professor Margaret McMillan, Neary Family Professor of International Relations, has been cited in the Forbes magazine article "Tanzania's Richest Man Wants to Be Africa's Biggest Farmer - If Everyone Gets Out of His Way".  14 March 2024.

Saffiyah Coker, an Economics and International Relations major has been awarded a Luce Scholarship 2024-2025. Congratulations, Saffiyah!

You can listen here to Professor Douglas Gollin's episode of VoxDevTalks about Macroeconomic development and growth (on 31 January 2024). 

Assistant Professor Eoin McGuirk and Mai Mahmoud (NFEPP PhD Student) presented in Kenya at the G²LM|LIC & BREAD Development Conference.

Associate Professor Laura Gee was awarded a grant from the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economic Profession-Social Science Research Council (CSWEP-SSRC) Women in Economics and Mathematics Research Consortium, which is supporting work on diversifying economics and mathematics.

Professor Steve Cicala will be joining the Editorial Council of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (JAERE) published by the University of Chicago Press.

Professor Enrico Spolaore gave a keynote address on "Cultural Change, Economics, and the Spread of Modern Fertility" at the Gender and Economics Workshop held at the University of Luxembourg on June 29 and 30, 2023.

Professor Enrico Spolaore was featured in an article in El Pais "Ireland, Denmark or Singapore: how some small countries stand out in a world of economic superpowers".

Professor Jeff Zabel was quoted in GBH news article "Does building more luxury housing drive other rents up or down?"

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!