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DEPARTMENT OF NEWSLETTER

Department of Economics Newsletter

May 2015

GENERAL DEPARTMENT NEWS

The Economics Department at Johns 2016. Professor Quah is an economic Poster for the Richard Ely Distinguished Hopkins has had another busy year with theorist with many major works to his credit Lecture Series 2014-2015: multiple events and many developmentsMay 20and15 is an outstanding addition to the among the faculty and graduate students. Department. This Newsletter will cover many of them but feel free to keep track of all developments as The Department was well represented at the they happen on the department website, AEA Meetings in January, 2015 in Boston. http://www.econ.jhu.edu/. Among the faculty, Chris Carroll, Olivier Jeanne, Ali Khan, Anton Korinek, Robert We welcomed Assistant Professor Ying Chen Moffitt, Nick Papageorge, and Yuya Sasaki to the Department in September. Ying were on the program. The traditional cocktail specializes in Economic Theory and comes party and reception also drew a number of from Southampton and Arizona State and current and former graduate students and received her Ph.D. from Yale. Ying is faculty. We will be having another in January, teaching graduate and undergraduate 2016 in San Francisco. Mark it on your courses in micro theory. calendars. We look forward to the Spring 2016 Ely We are also happy to report that Dr. Robert Our annual Richard T. Ely Lecture this year Lectures as well, which will be given by Barbera, a graduate alumnus from our was given by John Geanakoplos (photo Professor Robert Porter of Northwestern Department, has continued his stepped up below) from Yale , who gave four University. role in the Department this year, continuing stimulating lectures on “Collateral and to teach introductory Macroeconomics as Default: Booms and Busts.” Professor We had several visitors this academic year well as Economic Forecasting, and serving as Geanakoplos’s week with us was filled with who enlivened the Department. Professor a Fellow of our Center for Financial discussions of macro policy and finance, Jean Guillaume Forand from the University Economics. meetings with faculty and students, and of Waterloo, Dr. Illenin Kondo from the several lunches and dinners. The slides from Federal Reserve Board, and Professor Jan We welcomed back Jon Faust in September, his lectures as well as a list can be Zapal of CERGE-EI all spent time with us. our Louis J. Maccini Professor of Economics, found at http://econ.jhu.edu/research/ely- Dr. Jeremy Nalewaik of the Federal Reserve from government service. Jon concluded his lectures/richard-ely-distinguished-lecture- will also be spending the upcoming summer two year leave to the Federal Reserve Board, series-2014-2015/. in the Department. having served as a Special Advisor to , reassuming the Directorship of our Center for . He has been interviewed by the National Press and FACULTY NEWS quoted regularly in macroeconomic issues since his return.

At the same time, Chris Carroll has Jorge Balat continues his work on auction continued his leave this academic year as the models and production functions and Assistant Director and Chief Economist for presented his work at several and the Office of Research of the Consumer conferences this year, both in the U.S. and Financial Protection Bureau. Chris will return abroad. Last summer he visited the Central to the Department this next September. Bank in Columbia to head up an electricity auctions project, and he returned in I am also happy to report that Professor December to give a short course on empirical John Quah, currently of Oxford University, auctions. In March, he co-organized the will be joining the Department in January, Washington DC Industrial Organization

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER 2

conference. He is on leave at Stanford this Edi Karni, the Scott and Barbara Nick Papageorge was on leave in the Fall Spring. Professor of Economics, has been doing and he visited both and London. research on unawareness. He gave a lecture He gave several presentations to universities Larry Ball continues to serve as a Visiting on this topic at Tel-Aviv University in in both locations during his visit. Scholar in the IMF Research Department as January. well as serving on the Advisory Board of the Yuya Sasaki is on leave at Yale this Spring. Economic Research Forum in Turkey. He was Ali Khan, the Abram Hutzler Professor of Last summer he gave a talk at Hosei a co-organizer of an NBER Central Bank of Political Economy, continues his research on University and made a presentation at the Turkey Conference on Monetary Policy in and has published 2014 International Panel Data Conference. Emerging Economies in Istanbul in June. He several papers this year as well as having He has given several other seminars during also gave the Werner Sichel Lecture at the others forthcoming. The memorable the academic year. Upjohn Employment Institute and Western conference in his honor last May still Michigan University in October. His paper on resonates in the Department. Richard Spady published a coauthored book how the Federal Reserve could do more to called The American Political Landscape reverse inflation was published by the Center Anton Korinek spent the Fall 2014 semester which has been called a “must-read” in book for Budget and Policy Priorities advancing his research on macroprudential reviews. regulation. He traveled to a number of Ying Chen coauthored a paper, “Mandatory seminars and conferences and gave a short Yuya Takahashi continues to do research on vs Discretionary Spending: The Status Quo course on “International Capital Market estimation of dynamic games and price Effect” in the October 2014 issue of the Integration: Managing Benefits and Costs” determination in intermediate goods American Economic Review. Professor Chen to 15 East and Southeast Asian central banks markets. He gave a talk at the Helsinki has made several presentations at seminars in Kuala Lumpur. He is also the happy father Center of Economic Research in November. and conferences over the past year. of Elise Korinek, born April 20, 2015 at 10:11 pm. Jonathan Wright is on leave in the Spring at , Professor Emeritus, and his wife the University of Pennsylvania. He presented Phyllis, who live close to campus, continue to Elena Krasnokutskaya has given several a paper called “Forecasting with Model participate in many activities of the talks at seminars and conferences on issues Uncertainty: Representations and Risk Department. Carl is a valuable link to the in industrial organization and applied Reduction” at two conferences, one as an many graduate alumni in our department. microeconomics. Invited Lecture and one as a conference keynote address. In March, he wrote a Greg Duffee, the Carl Christ Professor of Lou Maccini, Professor Emeritus, lives in Ann Brookings post on seasonal adjustment Economics, was the keynote speaker in Arbor with his wife Carol and makes the which can be found at: September at the European Central Bank occasional visit back to the Department. Lou http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/jobs/posts/ workshop on “Understanding the Yield gave a Plenary Address on a joint work, 2015/03/06-adjusted-unemployment-wright Curve: What Has Changed Since the Crisis?” “Inventories and the American Market for In October and November, he gave seminars New Automobiles: Some Results” at the 18th Larry Ball, Olivier Jeanne, Anton Korinek and tutorials at the Norwegian Business Symposium of the International Society for and Jonathan Wright spoke at the School, the Stockholm School of Economics, Inventory Research in Budapest last August. International Monetary Fund Annual and Inquire Europe. He is still active in scholarly research, having Research Conference last November. just published a paper in the Journal of Bruce Hamilton, Professor Emeritus in the Economic Dynamics and Control and with two Department, continues to teach his popular other projects underway. undergraduate course in Antitrust as well as GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS the major Principles of Microeconomics Robert Moffitt, the Krieger-Eisenhower

course. He also serves as the Director of Professor of Economics, organized a Undergraduate Studies. conference in December at the NBER on The Department welcomed 10 incoming “Means-Tested Transfers in the United first-year students in September with a party Yingyao Hu has been named an Associate States” and he will edit the conference which faculty and other graduate students Editor of The Econometrics Journal for a volume to be published in 2016. He gave an attended. A photo gallery from the party is three-year term. He served as Co-Editor of a Invited Lecture on a related topic at the available at: special issue of the Journal of Econometrics Andrew Young School of Public Policy at on measurement error. He is a member of Georgia State University in October. He http://econ.jhu.edu/2014/10/13/new- the Scientific Committee of the International visited the Institute for Labor Economics in doctoral-students-welcome-party/ Symposium on Econometric Theory and Bonn for a week in March and gave a lecture Applications. at Erasmus University as part of the trip.

Olivier Jeanne is spending the year as Barbara Morgan is working with faculty in Resident Scholar in the Research Sociology and Political Science on a new Department of the International Monetary social policy program for undergraduates Fund. He gave the keynote address for a involving an interdisciplinary introductory conference at the European University course to social policy and intensive Institute of Florence in September. The semesters with internships in and address was on macroprudential policy and Washington. She is also a frequent was coauthored with his colleague in the commentator on inequality issues on WYPR’s department, Anton Korinek. Midday program with Dan Rodricks. DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER 3

We will welcome 14 new students next Fall as creatively conceived by Professor Dean’s son well. A new and revised Math Camp for them Joel and his wife Monia. Professor Dean will again be taught next August by graduate received his Ph.D. in Economics from the student Metin Uyanik. in 1936 and was a pioneer in applying economics to business Graduate student activity this year continues decision-making. The 2014-2015 recipients to be extensive. Informal reading groups are Ryan Bush, Parul Gupta, and Yeabin consisting primarily of advanced graduate Moon. students plus faculty members met periodically to read and discuss papers in labor economics, industrial organization,

theory, macro and finance. These groups are popular because they allow graduate students to continue to meet and discuss papers in their area even after coursework has been completed.

As noted in previous newsletters, the Department has several funded awards to honor some of our most accomplished graduate students. The Eugenio and Patricia Castillo Award is given to the student who displayed the best performance in their first two years in the graduate program. The 2014-2015 recipient was Jianhui Li.

The Bruce Hamilton Research Seminar Above: Photo of Ryan Bush, Yeabin Moon, and Award is given to the advanced graduate Parul Gupta, with Chair. student who has demonstrated the best performance in one of the department’s research workshops. Again funded by Eugenio and Patricia Castillo, it is named in We were able to make two new graduate student awards this year as well, both for excellence in graduate student performance. The Ella E. Slack Award went to Shaiza Qayyum and the Clarence M. Guggenheimer Award went to Chang Ma.

Hearty congratulations to all these graduate students, who exemplify the best of the graduate program.

Eleven students successfully defended their dissertations in oral examinations since our last Newsletter. They are Natsuki Arai, Lucia Tiererova, Leyla Karakas, Weining

Bao, Blair Chapman, Yoichi Goto, This is visual proof that it is possible to Christopher Martin, Collin Rabe, Hou successfully complete a dissertation. Wang, Xi Yang, and Jiae Yoo. A few pictures Above: Photo of Jianhui Li, Chang Ma, and of the students and their examining The Department had six students on the job Metin Uyanik, with Chair. committees are shown below. market this year, including Marco Cornia, Emek Karaca, Gizem Kosar, Ellen Li, Hai Nguyen, and Gwyn Pauley. They have accepted positions throughout the country honor of Professor Emeritus Bruce Hamilton and around the world – Ernst and Young, JP who was well-known for his insightful and Morgan Chase, the New York Federal clever comments at seminars. This Spring’s Reserve Board, Competition Economics, the award went to Metin Uyanik for his remarks, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the comments, and questions at our workshops. University of Southern California. We wish them the best in their future careers. The Professor Joel Dean Undergraduate Teaching Award was established in 2009 to Many of our other graduate students had recognize graduate students who exhibited notable activities this academic year. Gizem extraordinary performance in teaching Kosar was one of 16 Ph.D. students selected Hopkins undergraduates. This award was to attend the Western Economic Association DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER 4

International’s 2014 Graduate Student Australia in August. He will be based in the André Sapir (Ph.D., 1977) retired as Full Dissertation Workshop last June in Denver. Caulfield campus in Melbourne but also Professor at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles She also presented papers at involved in the activity of the Prato campus (ULB) last September and was appointed as and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Board in . He continues to coauthor with JHU University Professor there. A large this year. Ellen Li attended the Fifth Biennial alumni Johanna Francis, Pierangelo De retirement event was organized which was Conference of the American Society of Pace, Francesca De Nicola, and Kadee Russ. attended by many friends and colleagues, Health Economists, where she presented a including two JHU graduates, Jaime de Melo poster and served as a discussant. Shujaat Michael Fratantoni (Ph.D., 1995) was and . The program and Khan published a paper in the Journal of recently promoted to Chief Economist at the videos of the event can be viewed at the Economic Dynamics and Control entitled Mortgage Bankers Association. following address “Drifting Inflation Targets and Monetary http://ecares.org/index.php?option=com_eve Stagflation.” Boqun Wang presented a joint Frank Gunter (Ph.D., 1986) was promoted to nts&task=view_detail&agid=1025&year=201 paper at the 2015 CES North America Professor at Leigh University last August. His 4&month=10&day=3&Itemid=306. He Conference which won the Gregory Chow book "The Political Economy of Iraq: Restoring continues to teach part time at the Solvay Best Paper Award. Boqun was also a summer Balance in a Post-Conflict Society (Edward Brussels School of Economics and intern at the Africa Department of the IMF. Elgar, 2013) was published in January, 2014 Management and at the Institute for Sevcan Yesiltas attended NBER conferences and was selected as one of the "outstanding European Studies, both affiliated with ULB. last summer in Boston and Istanbul, and academic title, 2013" by Choice Magazine. He also remains Senior Fellow at Bruegel, the presented a coauthored paper at a Brussels-based European think tank. In Nicholas Hill (Ph.D., 2006) has moved from conference in Izmir last September addition, in April 2015 he was appointed the FTC to the Antitrust Division of the sponsored by the ECB and the Central Bank Chair of the High Level Expert Group on the Department of Justice, where he is now of Turkey. Future of the Belgian Financial Sector by the Assistant Section Chief. Belgian Finance Minister. Last but certainly not least, Natsuki Arai and John Hartwick (Ph.D., 1969) has completed his wife, An-Chi, welcomed their daughter, Fabián Valencia (Ph.D., 2006) and his wife his undergraduate textbook in urban Katy, last August. Alanna Bjorklund and her Katrina had their first baby last year, Luca economics for Routledge. He remembers husband celebrated the birth of their Valencia, who turned one-year old this May. well his graduate course in urban taught by daughter, Ellery, in October. Jianhui Li and Last year, Fabián moved from the Research Edwin Mills. John is also completing the his wife Rong Zhou celebrated the birth of Department of the IMF to the Western introductory essay to a volume of great their baby girl, Ziyan Li, in November. Just Hemisphere Department to work in Mexico. articles on national accounting for Edward this spring, Liuchun Deng and his wife, On the research side, Fabián has had three of Elgar. Chang Liu, welcomed their baby boy, his papers published over the last year. One Boyang, in April. Julie Hudson (Ph.D., 2000), still working at paper looks at the relationship between the Agency for Healthcare Research and monetary policy rates, bank leverage, and Several students attended the January 2015 Quality, has been conducting research on the financial stability (JEDC, 2014 vol. 47), the meetings of the AEA in Boston and came to CHIP program. Some of her research on the second paper looks at tradeoffs faced by the Departmental Reception. program was used by Congress in the central banks in charge of monetary policy program’s reauthorization this Spring. and macroprudential regulation (Econ. Letters, 2014, vol. 125), and the third paper argues that banks self-insure by holding ALUMNI NEWS Susanne James-Burdumy (Ph.D., 1999) is still a Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy extra capital when risk is high (MD, 2014, vol. Research but also now Area Leader for 18). research. She is currently directing Alena Bicakova (Ph.D., 2006) has published two large evaluations for the U.S. Susan Vroman (Ph.D., 1977) had a recent a revised version of her dissertation, “The Department of Education, one focused on publication in the October 2014 issue of the Trade-Off Between Unemployment and evaluating the Race to the Top and School American Economic Review entitled “Efficient Wage Inequality Revisited,” in the Oxford Improvement Grant programs and the other Entry in Competing Auctions” and was Economic Papers. Her second daughter, focused on evaluating a professional coauthored with her husband, James Dominika, was born August 3, 2014. development program for principals. In the Albrecht, and Pieter Gautier of the Vrije past year, Susie coauthored 3 journal articles University Amsterdam. She continues to do Brock Blomberg (Ph.D., 1995) has recently presenting findings from a recently- research on search and matching theory and been named the 17th President of Ursinus completed evaluation of Playworks, a empirical work on the effect of parental leave College, leaving his position as Dean of the program designed to provide opportunities on women’s labor market outcomes in Robert Day School of Economics and Finance for organized play and physical activity Sweden. at Claremont McKenna. A full during recess in low-income schools. announcement can be found at: Stanley Winer (Ph.D., 1975) is still at https://www.ursinus.edu/live/news/954- Kai Liu (Ph.D., 2011) is moving from the Carleton and just had his Canada Research economist-brock-blomberg-is-17th- Norwegian School of Economics to the Chair renewed for a third seven-year term. president. University of Cambridge, where he will take We are sad to note the passing of Rashi Fein up a position as Lecturer. Silvio Contessi (Ph.D., 2007) will be leaving (Ph.D., 1956). Rashi was a distinguished the St. Louis Fed this June and starting a Marc Remer (Ph.D., 2010) is moving from health economist who spent most of his new job in the Finance department of the Antitrust Division of the Department of academic career at Harvard, holding joint Monash Business School in Melbourne, Justice to a faculty position at Swarthmore. appointments in the Kennedy School and the DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER 5

Medical School. He spent much of his time in A NOTE OF APPRECIATION MUGS AND T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE the 1950s and 1960s in Washington, working at the Council of Economic Advisors and at the Brookings Institution, and he was one of the leading figures in the creation of the Finally, I would like to thank those graduate For a limited time you can purchase the Medicare program. We will miss him. alumni of the Department who have Johns Hopkins University Department of generously made gifts in the last year. They Economics mug shown below for $12, plus include Ann Fender, Julie Hudson and shipping and handling. Also available is the Steve Holden, Bruce Jaffee, Sung Hyun Johns Hopkins Economics t-shirt. Always STAFF NEWS Kim, Robert Seidman, Daniel Stone, keen to show how we obtain our results, we Takeshi Senda, Xue Song, and Jiri Slacalek. include (on the back of our one of a kind t- These donations go directly to graduate shirt) the computer code used to generate student support for Research Assistant the scatterplot depicted on the front of the Our superb office staff--Donna Althoff, supplements, lunches for the graduate shirt. If you would like to purchase an Maggie Potts, and IT Administrator Nina student reading groups, and related exclusive Johns Hopkins Economics t-shirt, Agopian—continue to serve the department activities. The Department seems never to the price is $25 plus S&H. Proceeds will go well. Maggie has been with us for five years, have sufficient funds to support these towards sponsoring department social and is in charge of Admissions and welcomes activities, so donations by our graduate events. To order either a mug or a t-shirt, each year’s incoming class. Nina is about to alumni are especially useful. please send an email requesting an order depart for a trip to her home country of form to: Bulgaria soon, with side trips to Vienna and I would also like to note again, as I did last the Greek Islands. We asked her to take year, of two exceptional gifts. Reid Nagle [email protected] some faculty with her but she declined the (Ph.D., 1979) made a generous gift last year invitation. We welcomed new staff member to the Departments of Economics and Jennifer Miller to the Department this year. History, remembering Carl Christ and Lou Jennifer is an avid photographer, so the Galambos. His gift has been used to support photos in this Newsletter will improve graduate student travel to conferences, measurably in the future. And I would be graduate student research assistant remiss if I did not note that Donna, our long- assignments, and special accessories for the standing departmental administrator, began graduate student lab. We have established her 31st year with the Department in January the Reid Nagle Fund to support that research and, yes, she is still putting up with the and to receive additional contributions made faculty. for that purpose. And Alain D’Hoore (Ph.D., 2002) made a generous gift, thanking his I am also very sorry to report that we lost our advisors Lou Maccini and Ali Khan, to wonderful staffer Karen Allen this year. support graduate student travel. We have Several faculty, students, and staff attended established the Bretton Woods Travel Fund her services this Spring. to support such travel and to receive additional contributions.

Please consider a gift, which you can make

by going to JHU Giving (http://krieger.jhu.edu/giving) and designating that your gift go to the Department of Economics of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. If you choose to contribute online, please put “KSAS-Dept of Economics” in the “Other” field in the online

form.

Robert Moffitt, Chair