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The Mathematics of Democracy Joseph Mcmurray Discusses the Effects of the Uninformed Alumni Voter Vs

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The Mathematics of Democracy Joseph Mcmurray Discusses the Effects of the Uninformed Alumni Voter Vs BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT MAGAZINE ISSUE #1 FALL 2012 ECONOMICS The Mathematics Building a Legacy The Dream Team Google vs. Oracle the story of the founders of go behind the scenes and from the perspective of of Democracy the economics department meet the economics faculty expert witness JR Kearl 4 8 16 20 ;) you raise my interest “rate thirty basis points without a corresponding drop off in consumer enthusiasm – valentine from an economist” Chair Editor Graphic Designers Writers Faculty Writers Assistant Editors Eric R. Eide Carrie Scoresby Scott Capener Rebecca Rees J. R. Kearl Danielle Leavitt Bree Crookston Carrie Scoresby Joseph McMurray Paige Montgomery Melanie Tirrell Joseph Price David Spencer Larry Wimmer ECONOMICS ON THE COVER BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT MAGAZINE ISSUE #1 mathematics FALL 2012 From the Chair I hope you democracy 4 enjoy our The Mathematics of Democracy Joseph McMurray discusses the effects of the uninformed alumni voter vs. informed voter in the election process. mathe maticsmagazine. FEATURES OUR INTENT IS TO HIGHLIGHT the activi- ties of our students, alumni, and faculty. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with bright and hard-working students in the classroom, as teach- ing and research assistants, and even 2 8 14 ofdemocracy as coauthors of journal articles. We are pleased to see many of our students The Veggie Building a Optimizing pursue valuable internships, receive job Project Legacy Our Returns offers with a wide range of employers in diverse industries, and gain admission Joseph Price investigates How did the BYU Department Economics students are to first-rate graduate programs. In this approaches schools can use of Economics begin? John making their mark across the issue, you will learn about some of our to encourage children to eat Swenson, Elmer Miller, and A. United States and internation- students and the activities and projects more fruits and vegetables Smith Pond laid the critical ally with their internships, during lunch. groundwork of the economics jobs, and graduate school mathematicsin which they are engaged during their department we know today. placements. time with us. You will also learn about our faculty members’ current research projects, and in particular the ways in which faculty involve students in their research. Some of our faculty members have recently democracypublished in top economics journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economics Studies, the 16 20 23 Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of Econometrics. I be- The Dream Team – Google Welcome to lieve you will also be interested to read Economics Faculty vs. Oracle Boot Camp about several of our faculty members mathematics whose research has been featured in Go behind the scenes to meet Expert witness J.R. Kearl Faculty and students share our faculty. reviews the lawsuit Oracle their experience of participat- prominent news outlets, and who have filed against Google to protect ing in the first ever Macroeco- testified as expert witnesses in high intellectual property and the nomics and Computational profile legal cases and before the U.S. intricacies of patent and copy- Boot Camp. Congress. right laws. On behalf of the BYU Economics De- partment, I extend our best regards and ALSO IN THIS ISSUE democracy hope you enjoy reconnecting with us. 3 Awards 26 New Faculty Sincerely, 22 Alumni Spotlight 27 In the News 24 Student Spotlight 28 Recommended Reads Eric R. Eide mathematicsDepartment Chair democracy 1 E / FEATURE Vegetables Most Likely to End Up in the Trash 77% of children are likely to throw their green beans away. THE BYU VEGGIE PROJECT has been funded that are served end up in the trash. One of uses are a set of specially made veggie coins. by the USDA for the last four years and the project’s studies indicates that wastage Children can receive one coin each day they is directed by BYU economics assistant will be even higher starting in the fall with eat a serving of fruits and vegetables. Each professor, Joe Price. Collaborators on the the implementation of new guidelines that coin is worth a quarter and can be spent at a project include David Just (Cornell), Kevin require that fruits and vegetables be placed school store, book sale, or school event such Volpp (Penn), Jason Riis (Harvard), and on every child’s tray. as a carnival. We work with each school’s George Loewenstein (Carnegie Mellon). One of the major goals of the project is PTA to provide options for the children to The purpose of the project is to examine to use principles from behavioral economics spend their veggie coins, thus providing a various approaches that schools can use to to identify approaches schools can use to great fundraising opportunity for the PTA encourage children to eat more fruits and ensure that more of the fruits and veg- (we write the PTA a check for each coin that vegetables during lunch. More than 100 etables end up in the tummy and fewer in gets redeemed). The length of the rewards BYU economics students have worked as the trash. Many of the approaches involve period is randomly assigned to each school research assistants on the project, running small incremental changes such as increas- which we use to estimate the elasticity different field experiments at elementary ing the number of options provided (each between intervention duration and long-run schools in Utah, conducting the analysis of additional item increases fruit and vegetable behavioral change. different interventions, and helping with consumption by 10%), moving recess before We currently have the capacity to include various other aspects of the project. lunch, or placing the fruits and vegetables elementary schools anywhere in the country. The project provides a novel way to in more convenient locations. Other ap- If you think your local school might be inter- measure food consumption during lunch proaches involve novel interventions such ested in participating, just contact: veggies@ with an Apple mobile app called “vpro- as having a competition during lunch (which byu.edu. In addition, we would welcome ject.” The app allows research assistants to we are conducting with a new company any children of BYU alumni to try out their record the number of servings of each fruit called Nutrislice) or providing children with own interventions to encourage healthy and vegetable item that children eat and a small reward (which doubles the fraction eating at school as a science fair project. throw away. Over the last few years, our of children eating fruits and vegetables and BYU research assistants on the project can researchers have collected more than 70,000 reduces waste by 50%). provide training materials and help in using child-day observations. On average, about The small rewards approach provides the vproject app to collect data and assist one third of children eat at least one serving some particularly interesting insights into with any data analysis. of fruits and vegetables during lunch (with when and where incentives have a positive girls being about 33% higher than boys). impact and how long it takes for a long-run More information about the project at: http:// Sadly, over 40% of the fruits and vegetables habit to form. The rewards that the project byuresearch.org/veggieproject/veggie.html JP 2 Awards Rulon Pope Steven Waters RULON D. POPE, professor of eco- ADJUNCT FACULTY, through their nomics, received the 2011-2012 Karl professional experience, bring well- G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty roundedness to students’ education Lecturer Award, which is Brigham and play an important role in as- Young University’s highest faculty sisting the university to achieve the honor. Recipients of this award must aims of a BYU education in the lives demonstrate excellence in research, of students. The Adjunct Faculty teaching, and university citizenship. Excellence Award acknowledges Throughout his career, Professor this role and is awarded to a faculty Pope has been a role model in all member who demonstrates excel- three areas. lence in teaching or other profes- Dr. Pope received his doctorate sional responsibilities in service to from the University of California- the university and students over a Berkeley in 1976. Prior to coming period of at least five years. Dr. Ste- to BYU in 1982, he held positions at ven Waters brings extensive experi- the University of California-Davis ence into his classroom providing an and Texas A&M University. He is a enriching education for his students. fellow of the Agricultural and Ap- For the past ten years, Dr. Waters plied Economics Association and has has taught microeconomics in the served on editorial boards and as Economics Department. In addition associate editor of the association’s to his teaching position at BYU, he is journal, the American Journal of an economic consultant. His experi- Agricultural Economics. Addi- ence includes developing statistical tionally, he has been president of models of damages used in litigation the Western Agricultural Econom- involving environmental contamina- ics Association and has received a tion in North Carolina and more than number of research awards from fourteen years working on matters these two professional associations. such as antitrust, intellectual proper- Dr. Pope is a recipient of the Karl G. ty, breach of contract, employment, Maeser Research and Creative Arts and wage discrimination at LECG Award and holds the Warren and in its Washington, D.C. and Salt Recipients of the Karl Wilson Dusenberry Professorship. Lake City offices and currently at His primary research is in agricul- Charles River Associates. Dr. Waters G. Maeser Distinguished tural economics, econometrics, and has given expert trial and deposi- microeconomic theory. He has a tion testimony in federal and state Faculty Lecturer Award strong interest in reducing poverty district courts and has presented to must demonstrate exellence and malnutrition and improving the the Department of Justice.
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