NEWSLETTER

Wellesley College Department of Economics June 2016

Dear Alumnae, Graduating Seniors, Former an “employee” in the “gig” economy, and Faculty, and Friends of Economics at examined how public policy also needs to Wellesley: evolve to keep pace with these changes.

We are wrapping up another excellent We were also delighted to host the academic year in the Wellesley Economics Calderwood lecture in the Spring, made Department. It was a year marked by strong possible by a generous gift from Stanford enrollments in a rigorous and diverse set of Calderwood. This year’s lecture was entitled Economics classes, interesting research by “Intellectual Property Rights and both faculty and students, and a fantastic Innovation,” and was given by Professor line-up of speakers giving well-attended Heidi Williams (MIT). The talk was drawn public lectures. from her work on how rules around intellectual property (drug patents, for This year was the 23rd Annual Goldman example) may affect the quality of Lecture, supported by a generous gift from innovations in medical care; her work has Marshall Goldman and family. Before I important implications for cancer research, describe that lecture, I want to point out that among other topics. Professor Williams is a last year’s Goldman Lecture was given by 2015 MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, Professor Angus Deaton (Princeton and she also has the very good sense to be University), who, just about a year after his married to Professor Dan Fetter in talk at Wellesley, was awarded the 2015 Wellesley’s Economics Department. (I Nobel Prize in Economics1. (I’m trying to think we should feel free to add this start the rumor that there is a causal link.) information to further the rumor that speaking at Wellesley is causally related to This year’s Goldman lecture was given by winning really important prizes, even Professor Alan Krueger (Princeton though, technically, the prize came before University), who, in addition to his the lecture in this case). influential body of research, has held important policy positions including Chair Our students’ accomplishments are too of the President’s Council of Economic numerous to mention, but I will highlight a Advisors (2011-2013), and Assistant few in the area of academic Economics. Ten Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief students wrote honors theses in Economics Economist of the U.S. Department of the this year. Two of these, Hannah Ruebeck Treasury (2009-2010). Professor Krueger’s and Amy Wickett, won Schiff fellowships -- talk was “Work in the Sharing Economy;” competitive fellowships across the College - he focused on the evolving notion of who is - to support their research. Amy and Hannah are going to work as full-time 1 Technically, the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize research assistants for economists at in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Princeton and Harvard, respectively. Our Nobel.” students continue to do well in the increasingly competitive world of Economic Journalism course. Joe Joyce has Economics PhD programs; Sharon Shiao been named the M. Margaret Ball Chair in (W’16), YeJi Kee (W’13) and Sookyo Jeong International Relations. He is stepping down (W ’14) will all be starting the program at from leading the Albright Institute, having Stanford. Helen Willis (W’14) will be created a program that will leave a lasting starting the PhD program at Berkeley. Emily legacy at Wellesley. Ann Velenchik and Sue Cuddy (W’12) is in the PhD program at Skeath have a soon-to-be released Princeton and is the recipient of a 2016 intermediate micro textbook. Ann is National Science Foundation graduate balancing this work with being Dean of fellowship. I am also delighted to note that Academic Affairs. Akila Weerapana is Former Economics Majors (FEMs) continue heading the PLTC and has injected some to come out the other end of PhD programs much-needed, and highly-valued, rigorous to do interesting things. Small liberal arts data analysis into College-wide discussions colleges are benefiting from our alumnae: of the shadow grading policy, potential Tammy McGavock (W’08) is finishing her changes to the schedule and the like. Phil PhD at Cornell and will begin a tenure-track Levine continues to help make Wellesley a position at Grinnell in the Fall. Emily leader in national discussions of college Conover (W’98) received tenure at affordability with his My inTuition program. Hamilton College. Research universities Casey Rothschild heads the Social Science (especially in Texas!) are getting a share Summer Research Program for the College too: Elaine Liu (W’03) is an associate and the Department’s new Case Summer professor at the University of Houston, Elira Fellows program – both programs aim to Kuka (W’09) is an assistant professor at involve students in faculty research during SMU, Nitya Nayar (W’07) will be starting a the summer months. Dan Sichel, after years faculty position at UT-Austin. The “new of experience at the Federal Reserve, has economy” is also getting some of our FEMs quickly become a go-to faculty member for with Mahnaz Islam (W’07) and Iuliana College leadership on finance and budget Pascu (W’07) joining Amazon and Twitter, issues. Courtney Coile is the director of the respectively, after finishing their PhDs at Knapp Social Science Center, providing Harvard and MIT, respectively. And really, I leadership for social science initiatives on could go on! Perhaps I will: Olga Shurchkov campus, and Patrick McEwan is the new (W’01) received tenure at Wellesley director of the Latin American Studies College! program. And, of course, our faculty members continue to maintain a rich and There is news on the faculty front as well. diverse research program. I will highlight a We are saying good-bye this year to Brett few of the new projects and those recently Danaher, who will be joining the faculty at making their way through the publication Chapman University, and Eunice Han who process: Baafra Abeberese presented will be joining the faculty at the University exciting work-in-progress in the Department of Utah. I thank them both for their work “brown bag” series, “Formal Sector here at Wellesley and wish them well in Incentives and the Formalization of Firms.” their new positions! Faculty at Wellesley Dan Fetter has a fascinating new paper: continue to balance teaching, research, and “Government Old-Age Support and Labor service in ways that make me very proud to Supply: Evidence from the Old Age be their colleague. Please see the individual Assistance Program.” Eric Hilt has a paper faculty entries for more details, but I will (Lily Zhou (W’11) is one of the co-authors) highlight a few accomplishments here. forthcoming in the Journal of Political David Lindauer has spearheaded curricular Economy: “Economic Effects of Runs on innovation with the Calderwood Seminars in Early ‘Shadow Banks’: Trust Companies Public Writing, a suite of courses across and the Impact of the Panic of 1907.” Robin departments that is modeled after his McKnight has a paper forthcoming in the American Economic Journal: Economic P.S. Late breaking news! At commencement Policy, “Controlling Health Care Costs this year, Casey Rothschild was announced Through Limited Network Insurance Plans: as one of this year’s Pinanski Teaching Prize Evidence from Massachusetts State winners. Congrats, Casey! Employees.” Pinar Keskin and Kartini Shastry wrote a paper with Helen Willis **************** (W’14) entitled “Water Quality Awareness and Breastfeeding: Evidence of Health The joint Williams/Amherst/Wesleyan/ Behavior Change in Bangladesh” that was Wellesley College cocktail reception at accepted at the Review of Economics and the American Economics Association Statistics. Seth Neumuller published “Inter- meetings in San Francisco, January 3-5, industry Wage Differentials Revisited: 2016 was well attended, bringing together Wage Volatility and the Option Value of alumnae, former faculty, and current faculty. Mobility” in the Journal of Monetary Next year’s meetings will be held in Economics. And our newest tenure-track in Chicago on January 6-8, 2016. Please faculty member, Kyung Park, has had his follow this link to learn paper the “Impact of Judicial Elections on more about the annual meeting: the Sentencing of Black Crime” accepted by https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/ the Journal of Human Resources, while also *************** launching several exciting new projects with Suzanne K. Barth (W’16), NaYoung Rim This year, the Economics Department’s (W’05), and Kristin F. Butcher (W’86). I Annual Senior Dinner was held on forecast a strong future for Wellesley Thursday, April 28, 2016 in the Alumnae Economics! Hall ballroom with 74 of our 96 majors in attendance. Award winners for 2016 were Finally, Pat Sjostedt – our incomparably announced at the dinner. competent lead administrative assistant in Economics – is retiring at the end of June. Pat has been with the College for over 25 **************** years and has served it with intelligence, humor, and patience (lots!). We will miss 2016 Economics Department her a great deal. The Department will Award Winners continue to be in good hands with Sheila Datz, our other excellent administrative The Wall Street Journal Award: assistant. Taylor Cranor, Hannah Ruebeck, Amy Wickett I hope we see many of you at reunion – our reception will be from 3:30-4:30 on The Peggy Howard Fellowship: Saturday, June 4th in the Pendleton East Tejaswi Velayudhan ‘10 knuckle on the 2nd floor. It is my 30th reunion, so I will be there wearing two hats The Natalie Bolton Faculty Prize in (but both will be purple). Best wishes to all Economics (Best 200-level Paper): for a relaxing and enjoyable summer. Qi (Helen) Jin ’17 and Vickey Ngo ‘17

The Natalie Bolton Faculty Prize in Econometrics: Sincerely, Clio Flikkema ’17, Leigh Hunt ’17 and Kristin F. Butcher, Chair Ivonne Marmolejo ‘17 Marshall I. Goldman Professor of Economics The Natalie Bolton Faculty Prize in Economics (Best 300-level Papers): Shruti Tadepalli, Evelyn Taylor- write such a piece of research to the final McGregor product is always satisfying. It was rewarding to innovate in that established The Natalie Bolton Faculty Prize in course by bringing the principles of the Theoretical Economics: Maurer Public Speaking program to it. In Wing Yan (Sharon) Shiao addition to teaching and being Chair, Kristin did quite a bit of reviewing this year. She The Natalie Bolton Faculty Prize in was on a National Science Foundation Applied Economics: review panel and on three External Review Hui Li Committees for Economics Departments at other institutions. On the research front, The Joseph Lambie Economic History Kristin presented new work with Kyung Prize: Park (Wellesley) and Anne Morrison Piehl Dorothy Ren, Frances Grace Howland, (Rutgers University) titled “Comparing and Melanie Chen Apples to Oranges: Differences in Women’s and Men’s Incarceration and Sentencing The Natalie Bolton Student Prize: Outcomes,” at invited seminars at Amherst Taylor Cranor and Hannah Ruebeck College and UC-Merced. She is really looking forward to a summer of research on **************** this and other topics! Finally, she is delighted to report that she has been elected 2015-2016 ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT Chair of the Economics Department for a FACULTY AND THEIR ACTIVITIES second 3-year term. It is gratifying and humbling to have the support of such Ama Baafra Abeberese '04 enjoyed wonderful colleagues. teaching international trade theory, development economics and principles of Courtney Coile had an enjoyable 16th year macroeconomics this past year. It was her at Wellesley. She taught Econ 101 and 203, third time teaching the trade and where she got to know great first-year macroeconomics courses and she hopes the students and received some terrific third time was the charm. She was excited to econometrics papers. She continues to direct start two new research projects this year. the Knapp Social Science Center, bringing One project uses data from India to study the economist Anne Piehl here to speak about impact of providing incentives to formal criminal justice issues and managing the firms on the decision of informal firms to construction impacts of the Pendleton West formalize. The second project, funded by the renovation on Pendleton East. Next year she International Growth Centre, involves data hopes not to have to email anyone to tell collection from Ghanaian firms to analyze them that their office is going to be noisy, the strategies used by firms to cope with smelly, or cold! She began a three-year term electricity shortages and their productivity on the College committee that makes tenure implications. She looks forward to and faculty appointment decisions, which is continuing her work on these projects. very interesting and rewarding work. On the research front, her work on a National Kristin Butcher ’86 had an interesting and Academy of Sciences panel wrapped up enjoyable third year as Chair of the with the publication of The Growing Gap in Economics Department. She taught two Life Expectancy by Income, which highlights sections of Econometrics in the Fall, which the (depressing) fact that gains in longevity continues to be her favorite course to teach. are accruing only to those in the top half of The students never fail to come up with the income distribution and explores the interesting and important projects, and implications for public policy. She presented seeing them go from not knowing how to this work and her research on the Veterans’ Affairs Disability Compensation program Fabra Univeristat in Barcelona. Joe served and on our capacity to work longer at again as Faculty Director for the Madeleine (perhaps too) many conferences and Korbel Institute for Global Affairs, which seminars, traveling to San Francisco, New held its seventh program in January. This York, Washington D.C., Paris, and China was followed by the Institute’s first (first trip to Asia!) while also visiting three Reunion/Global Symposium on global Wellesley clubs. At home, teenage son inequality. The participants included Nathaniel and tween daughter Meredith Secretary Madeleine Albright (Wellesley keep her busy with questions like whether ’59), Managing Director Christine Lagarde he is finally old enough to get a cell phone of the IMF, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, (yes) and whether she can pierce her ears Managing Director and Chief Operating (not yet). Officer of the World Bank Group, Mark Malloch-Brown, former head of the United Dan Fetter's first child, a boy, arrived last Nations Development Program, and the June and in the fall Dan was on parental discussion was moderated by Heather Long leave. In the spring he returned to teaching (Wellesley ‘04) of CNN Money. and taught Principles of Micro and Advanced Econometrics. In his research he Pinar Keskin had an amazing fifth year as continues to study the New Deal era and the an Assistant Professor in the Department of growth of Social Security. It will assuredly Economics at Wellesley. She spent the fall shock Dan's former micro students to hear semester working on a new and intriguing that in spite of the little guy's genes, last research project with her coauthors David year's prediction has proven false: he has Glick and Sheetal Sekhri on the physical and thus far exhibited no liking for peaches, cognitive impacts of chronic fluoride despite his parents' many attempts! exposure on children in India; she also taught two sections of Introductory Eric Hilt was glad to be back at Wellesley, Microeconomics. The spring semester had a after spending last year visiting the more exciting start than any other term! economics department at Yale. As usual, he Pinar, her husband and their 3-year old taught courses in economic history and daughter Maya welcomed a new addition to finance, and next year he'll also be leading their family: Baby Arya. Pinar spent the rest the Economics Research Seminar (ERS) for of the semester on maternity leave while students writing theses. He continues to overseeing the progress of her field project work on a number of research projects in Rajasthan. related to economic and financial history, including some on early financial crises, Phil Levine spent half the year in the which fascinate him. He also delights in classroom and half the year on leave. In the spending time with his daughter, who is now fall, he taught his standard Intro Stats class 2 years old. (Econ 103) along with his Economic Analysis of Social Policy Class (Econ 318). Joe Joyce This year marks Joe Joyce’s 35th The Social Policy class appears to be year as a member of the Economics receiving more interest given the growing Department of Wellesley College. He has attention being paid to income inequality spent his sabbatical year engaged in research and the lack of social mobility these days. projects. He has been investigating the These problems and others are solved (OK, impact of a country’s external assets and maybe addressed!) in this class. Phil’s liabilities on its economic performance. He research leave in the spring was dedicated to presented his work at conferences in related questions. He and his frequent Brussels last June and in Halle, Germany, in coauthor, Melissa Kearney, completed one September. This June he will participate in a paper on the educational consequences of faculty exchange program with Pompeu income inequality for those who grow up at the bottom of the distribution. They found Class to a wonderful group of future alums. that they are more likely to drop out of high Her students’ final projects this year school, perhaps because of limited included trying to set up textbook sharing, perceptions of subsequent economic revitalize Fossil Free, educate about feminist success. He also continued his work on My economics, and diversify the economics inTuition, the simplified financial aid department student body; reports are calculator he originally developed for available on the Wellesley Solidarity Wellesley College. It has now been adopted Economy website. In 2015-2016, Julie by Williams College and the University of spoke on her research on the emerging Virginia. Phil has been working hard to solidarity economy to the Wellesley College expand its use to a much broader set of Democrats, and at MIT, The New School, schools. On the home front, Phil is now an and the North American Forum for the empty-nester as his younger son, Noah, Social Solidarity Economy. Julie will be on headed off to Middlebury College; his older sabbatical for 2016-1017, and hopes to son, Jake, is graduating from Brown finish her book-in-progress, From Inequality University this spring. He and his wife, to Solidarity: A New Economics for the 21st Heidi, are in the process of downsizing, Century. The book views capitalism as a moving to a newly constructed, smaller transitional stage between the inequality and house this summer. solidarity paradigms of economic life. The first half of the book presents a framework David Lindauer taught Econ 214, Trade for understanding and participating in this Policy, last fall. His students continue to shift, by identifying the inequality processes write great research papers on U.S. trade which construct and reconstruct race, disputes. Because these cases are subject to gender, class, and human/nature inequality, five year Sunset Reviews, David got to as well as the solidarity processes which are revisit disputes on catfish, tow-behind lawn transforming and transcending them. The groomers and other products former students second half examines emergent solidarity had once investigated. David continues to economy values, practices, and institutions direct the Calderwood Seminars in Public and best practices from around the world. Writing, a program modeled after his Julie wrote a short summary of the book for Economic Journalism course. In the past a forthcoming radical economics reader. three years, 16 departments and programs Julie served on the college’s Diversity have introduced Calderwood Seminars; Coalition, and helped organize the second about 15 percent of students complete one “Class Awareness and Worker Appreciation before graduating. David enjoys working Week” in April. In February, she organized with faculty across the campus on this and participated in a panel “Is Voting initiative and is delighted by the enthusiasm Hillary the Feminist Thing to Do?” and students have for these seminars. In January, helped bring Susan Sarandon to campus to David completed 70 semesters of teaching at speak in support of Bernie Sanders, Wellesley College, which sounds like a lot sponsored by the Shakespeare Society. more than the 35 years he has been on the faculty. Also in January, David began his Patrick McEwan taught two sections of last sabbatical leave. In addition to directing 101 during Fall. In Spring, he taught the Calderwood program he is working on Advanced Economics of Education and the next edition of the textbook he co- Latin American Development. In Fall authors, Economics of Development (W.W. 2016, he will direct the interdisciplinary Norton). major in Latin American Studies. He continues to do research on Latin Julie Matthaei This year, Julie Matthaei American education and social policy, taught Feminist Economics and The Political Economy of Gender, Race and including projects in Chile, Honduras, Kyung Park had a memorable year 2 at and Venezuela. Wellesley. A particularly fond highlight was baby Yejin's first words. It wasn't "Basketball", "Kalbi", or "Equilibrium" as Robin McKnight enjoyed guiding this dad/abba expected, but instead "Uhhhhhhhh- year’s group of ten economics thesis writers Ohhhhhhhh". In addition to chasing her through the thesis process. Through their around, on the research side, Kyung's paper theses, she learned about a fascinating array "The Impact of Judicial Elections in the of topics ranging from iron-deficiency Sentencing of Black Crime" was accepted at anemia to annuity markets to the racial Journal of Human Resources. In addition, wealth gap. In addition to working with the Kyung worked with senior thesis student thesis-writers, Robin enjoyed teaching Suzanne Barth to study voter discrimination statistics as usual. On the research front, she in democratic elections using all of the published a paper in American Economic learned tools in Econ 201 and 203. Speaking Review: Economic Policy this year, and is of, in the classroom, Kyung taught Econ getting some new research projects 201, 203, and 327 this year. Just as in year 1, underway just in time for a productive Kyung was super impressed by the sabbatical during the coming fall semester. dedication and sharpness of Wellesley When she isn’t working, she is usually students. Now on to year 3! cheering on her kids at their soccer games and Irish dance competitions. Casey Rothschild returned to Wellesley

after spending a productive sabbatical year Seth Neumuller had a very busy year! This at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced past summer, he gave invited talks at the Study. Shortly before returning in the fall, Central Bank of Chile and the WU Gutmann he welcomed his third daughter, Loretta, and Center in Vienna. In the fall, Seth taught two he spent much of the year trying to figure sections of intermediate macroeconomics out how to work her into his problem set and, on Halloween, he and his wife Jessica questions for Strategy and Information and welcomed their first child into the world – a Micro Analysis—alongside her big sisters baby girl named Emma Jo. While on (Mabel, 3 and Adele, 6). His paper “Optimal parental leave during the spring semester, Taxation with Rent Seeking” was accepted Seth could not stop thinking about at The Review of Economic Studies, and he economics... He continued to co-advise two continued to work on several tax-related senior theses (Hui Li and Hero Ashman) and research projects. He also continued to had his paper entitled “Learning and the pursue his other main research interest— Dynamics of Consumer Unsecured Debt and insurance economics—in part by working Bankruptcies” (joint with Matthew N. closely with two seniors, Sharon Shiao and Luzzetti) published in the Journal of Hui Li on their honors theses, respectively Economic Dynamics and Control. As a “Insurance markets with interdependent result, although Emma Jo is not yet able to risks” and “Financial sophistication, insurer talk, Seth believes that she is already default risk and the annuity puzzle”. developing an expertise in dynamic programming. Next year, Seth looks forward Kartini Shastry had a wonderful seventh to continuing his research into the micro- year at Wellesley College. In the fall foundations of financial sophistication (joint semester of 2015, she reprised her 300-level with Casey Rothschild) and studying the seminar, Development Economics, after a resulting implications for retirement few years of various leaves. She was planning and wealth accumulation over the reminded once again how engaged and pro- life cycle. active Wellesley students are: the unit on randomized controlled trials and a research proposal for a final paper inspired her students to cold-call an NGO in Mali to Dan Sichel had a great year. In the fall, he discuss development projects. In the Spring taught a section of 102 and his 300-level Semester of 2016, Kartini taught two seminar on U.S. macroeconomic policy. In sections of Econometrics and continued to the spring, Dan taught two sections of 202. rant against correlations disseminated as The economy and financial markets causal relationships, interspersed with cute continue to perform in interesting(!) ways, pictures of her children. On the research and there’s been no shortage of material for side, Kartini advised Hannah Ruebeck on macro classes. Now that he’s been at her senior thesis on the impact of a Wellesley for a few years, Dan really government-implemented iron supplemen- enjoyed seeing students in his seminar and tation program in India. A joint paper with in 202 whom he’d taught in prior classes. fellow economics faculty member, Pinar On the research front, Dan’s paper on Keskin, and a former student, Helen Willis measuring semiconductor prices is churning ’14, regarding breastfeeding responses to through the publication process, and was information about water quality in featured by the National Bureau of Bangladesh was accepted for publication at Economic Research in their Digest. This line the Review of Economics and Statistics. of work identifying likely biases in official Kartini continues her other work on price measures for high-tech products has financial literacy in South Africa and gotten some traction, and Dan is working on Singapore and anemia prevention in Orissa, papers focusing on prices of PCs, tablets, India. and cell phones. He also has started a project looking at cloud computing, Olga Shurchkov ’01 had an absolutely including work with a thesis student. In tremendous year which was marked by the addition, Dan’s paper on planning lags for most significant event in her academic commercial construction projects is just career: she was granted tenure! Even though about to be published. Dan will be on leave getting tenure was exciting, it didn’t change next year, and he’s looking forward to Olga’s very busy schedule of teaching and pushing ahead on research. Outside of research. As usual, Olga taught introductory Wellesley, Dan’s family is just about to add and intermediate economics and her 300- a new black lab puppy, a perfect level course on behavioral economics. Olga complement to their 5-year old chocolate presented her new work on gender lab. differences in incentive provision and the evaluation of male and female managers at Susan Skeath (van Mulbregt) enjoyed the the American Economic Association chance to teach Advanced Micro Theory meetings in San Francisco. Two of her (Econ 301) to nine talented students this research papers were published in academic spring for the first time since 2010. She also journals: “The Effect of Information taught Games of Strategy (Econ 222) both Provision on Public Consensus about semesters and Intermediate Micro (Econ Climate Change” (co-authored with Tatyana 201) in the fall. Her Intermediate Deryugina) in PLOS ONE and “Public Microeconomics text, co-authored with Announcements and Coordination in colleague Ann Velenchik, is a chapter short Dynamic Global Games: Experimental of completion and nearing the editing stage. Evidence” in the Journal of Behavioral and She is also continuing her research Experimental Economics. Outside of on information transmission in public goods Wellesley, Olga enjoyed giving talks to games and learning in beauty contest games. Wellesley alumnae and students on “How For those of you who follow their lives here, women compete and win in business.” She, Sue's kids are now 21 and 19. Emily just her husband Mike, and her son Evan (2) are finished her junior year at Ursinus College settling into a new home in Wellesley and where she is a biology and environmental are looking forward to a great year ahead! studies double major; she will be doing an animal behavior research internship at the Institutional Research, all resulting from St. Louis Zoo this summer. Pierce has these searches. finished his first year at Dickinson College, where he is studying physics and chemistry On the home front, the kids refuse to stop and actually managed to start a new men's growing. Anya will be entering 4th grade volleyball club; he is also spending the next year, and continues to show signs of summer away from home as a counselor at personality, athletic ability, and fashion Camp Pinnacle in North Carolina, where he sense that clearly distinguish herself from will cross paths with the 10-year old twin her father. Kiran will be entering second sons of Wellesley alum and econ major, grade and he too shows signs of speed, Carole Thompson Hord '93. It's a small soccer prowess, interest in robots and skill in world! building things that show that the optimization problems of children are Ann Velenchik moved into the Provost's subject to their own constraints rather than Office as Dean of Academic Affairs in July their parents. He loves playing chess and it 2015. The work is 70% extremely takes all of my ability to inflict character- pleasurable, 25% onerous, and 5% building, soul crushing defeats on him. The horrifying, and she figures that at those over-under for when that trend will reverse ratios she can manage for the two more is about 3 months. years she has promised. The worst part about the job is that there is no teaching I continued to visit Wellesley alumnae involved -- she really misses daily contact clubs, and in June will be headed to London with students. Her kids are continuing to for my first overseas visit. I am looking grow (Nate, almost 19, is finishing his forward to seeing the Reunion Classes from freshman year at Northwestern, where he is 2001, 2006 and 2011 on campus and will majoring in math because Economics "is not say goodbye sadly but with pride to the rigorous enough," and Becca, 15, is a HS fantastic Class of 2016. Because the PLTC freshman obsessed with soccer). position has limited the number of classes I teach, I will know fewer students on campus Akila Weerapana had econ-withdrawal this upcoming Fall than at any time symptoms this Spring because he since the Fall of 1999, when I first arrived moved his office out of the Econ here. But this is also a good opportunity to Department to the PLTC in Clapp reflect on how much I have enjoyed in my Library, where he completed his second year time here and the memories of all of you as Faculty Director, working with new that I carry with me every day. faculty to help them transition to teaching at the college and doing data-driven evaluation of various academic initiatives such as FACULTY EMERITI shadow-grading. Not having me around, however, probably served as a positive Karl (Chip) Case Chip continues to attend productivity shock for all my colleagues Red Sox home games and is eager to keep in whose offices I would frequent in search of touch with friends, colleagues, and students. idle chit-chat on weekday afternoons. He can be reached at his home phone. Rumor has it that chocolate inventories in the department are also at an all-time high in Marshall Goldman and his wife, Merle, my absence. The other highlight of my year now spend most of their time in Cambridge. was the opportunity to serve on several key They spend time with friends, their four search committees at the college. I am children and twelve grandchildren. He looking forward to the next few years welcomes letters from students and friends. working with a new President, a new head of the CWS and a new head of the Office of Ann Dryden Witte On the research front, the University of Chicago team that Ann has panel at the Albright Symposium last been working with to analyze the 2012 January. National Survey of Early and School-age Care (NSECE) completed their analyses and Tamira Gunzburg ’07 works in Brussels released data for secondary analysis. Ann is for an anti-poverty advocacy group, the also running a financial and economic ONE campaign. consulting firm (ADW Consultants, LLC) that provides financial advice & financial Chanda Wong ’09 graduated from Wharton education. Last fall, Ann worked with and now works for Microsoft in Seattle. Wellesley IT staff to produce a seven week MOOC on personal finance. The MOOC ran Esther Sun Jang ’09 is head of strategy and during the spring of 2016 and was very well business operations for Venmo in San received and “attended” (15,000 students Francisco. She and her team are responsible from 190 countries). All materials are for scoping out new initiatives, potential available in what edX.org call archive mode; products and features. so, feel free to look through them. On the personal front, Ann’s grandson Basil Dryden Elira Kuka ’09 completed her PhD in Witte is now five and his little brother, economics at UC-Davis last summer and is Cyril, is one-year-old. Ann is a very active now working as an assistant professor of member of Wellesley Alums Palm Beach economics at Southern Methodist University Book Club. Highlight for this year were T.C in Dallas, TX. Boyle’s World’s End and Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert. Jackie Valentine ’09 is finishing her first year in the MBA program at the Harvard ********** Business School. ALUMNAE NEWS Lisa Abraham ’10 is completing the 2nd Anne Cody ’85 is an analyst for Blueshift year of an economics PhD program at Research. Her work involves issues related Harvard. to financial service and taxation. Her daughter is a member of the Wellesley class Catherine Charles ’10 lives in Tampa, of 2019. Florida. She is a credit analyst for Raymond James. Rajul Pandya-Lorch ’85 is Chief of Staff in the Director General's Office of the Hilary Gran ’10 has been working in International Food Policy Research Institute Manila for Rare, an NGO, on its sustainable (IFPRI). She chaired a panel at the Albright development team. Next fall she will enter Symposium last January. the MBA program at Sloan.

Victoria Nelson Calisch ’03 graduated Kerry Scanlon ‘10 is a Senior Associate for magna cum laude from University of Notre Markets Transformation at the Rainforest Dame's Mendoza College of Business with Alliance. She focuses on growing the market a Master's in Non-Profit Administration. She for Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa and lives in Coronado, California with her coffee. husband and two children. Ketty Yakupova ’10 lives if Seattle, WA, Laurie Stempler ’03 is a lawyer in New with her husband and daughter. She works York City, where she works for Desmarais for London Economics International LLC.

Heather Long ’04 is CNNMoney's senior markets and economy writer. She chaired a Samantha Chu ‘11 will begin the joint Alexa Jackson ’13 is enrolled in the MBA/MPP program at the University of Chemical Biology PhD program at Harvard Michigan this fall. Marguerite Sulmon ’13 is the co-founder Tess DeLean ’11 works for the Lending of Landwise, a Boston-area firm that offers Club in San Francisco as part of the advisory services in land use planning and Business Operations/Strategy team. economics.

Allison Kwan ’11 is finishing her first year Cristina Ferlauto ’14 is working at in the MBA program at the Ross School of Cornerstone Research in Boston. Business at the University of Michigan, which included a placement at Facebook. Soomi Kim ’14 will be starting a PhD at the This summer she will be working at Nestle MIT Sloan School of Management in the in Oakland, CA. fall.

Alexis Liu ’11 is a second year associate at Emma Rackstraw ‘14 is a Policy Associate Sidley Austin, and lives with her husband in with J-PAL North America. NYC. Neha Doshi ‘15 is a Research Assistant for Madeline Weeks ’11 will be starting a PhD a groundwater project in Gujarat through J- in Geography at UC Davis in the fall, PAL South Asia. working on a MacArthur Foundation project related to the impacts of ethical cacao- Isabella Dougherty ’15 is an analyst at chocolate commodity chains on biodiversity Charles River Associates in Boston. conservation, crop genetic diversity, and livelihoods. Allison Leow ’15 is working at EMILY’s List in Washington, DC. Erica Augustine ’12 works as a legislative correspondent for U.S. Senator Tammy

Alex Curatolo ’12 continues to work at Horst Frisch in Washington DC, a consulting firm specializing in transfer pricing.

Samantha Malambo ‘12 will begin her studies in the master’s program in economics and finance at the University of Lusaka in Zambia.

Irem Yoruk ’12 is living in Istanbul, working for Shell as a retail analyst, and pursuing a master’s degree in brand management.

C. Bonner Campbell ’13, is Senior Financial Analyst at Netflix Streaming in Los Angeles.

Devin Elliott ’13 is a Digital Product Manager for CVS in Boston.