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Department of Economics Newsletter DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER Department of Economics Newsletter June 2018 GENERAL DEPARTMENT NEWS It has been another busy year for the Department. about their research on a wide range of Economics Department at Johns Hopkins, issues, followed by lively discussion from the with several conferences, events, andMay 2015 audience of faculty and graduate students. research and teaching activity. But the academic year began on a note of mixed The Department was well represented at the emotions, with a memorial service held at AEA Meetings in January, 2018 in the Faculty Club on October 21 in honor of Philadelpha. Among the faculty, Chris Emeritus Professor Carl Christ, a giant in the Carroll, Greg Duffee, Olivier Jeanne, Anton field of macroeconomics and econometrics, Korinek, Robert Moffitt, Nicholas who served and influenced several Papageorge, and Jonathan Wright were on generations of undergraduates and graduate the program. The traditional cocktail party students as well as colleagues. The Memorial and alumni reception also drew more than 50 service was organized by Carl’s wife Phyllis current and former graduate students and and other members of Carl’s family, and was faculty, with those attending having the attended by many former and current opportunity to meet old friends and make faculty, graduate students, and staff new ones. We will be having another in members as well as by his long-time January, 2019 in the Big Peach, Atlanta, colleagues from Chicago, Arnold Harberger Georgia. Mark it on your calendars. and Marc Nerlove. Many wonderful stories Our annual Richard T. Ely Lecture this year of Carl were recounted and it was a night of joyous celebration of his life. If you did not was given by Xavier Gabaix (photo and look at it last year, please look at the The Department cosponsored two poster below) from Harvard University, who memories that many graduate alumni gave conferences this year. The 2018 second gave three stimulating lectures on October of their memories of Professor Christ, which annual conference in the Social and Political 23-26 on “Bounded Rationality in Micro and are posted on a webpage, and which can be Economics Series, cosponsored with the Macro.” For more details, see added to, at http://econ.jhu.edu/in- Carey Business School and coorganized by http://econ.jhu.edu/research-areas/ely- memoriam-carl-christ-1923-2017/?ccAC=0. Professor Ying Chen of the Economics lectures/richard-ely-distinguished-lecture- Department, took place at the Carey School series-2017-2018/. In the last two years’ Newsletter, I noted the on April 20-21. This year’s theme was Department’s move to the Wyman Park “Influence and the Media” and brought Building. More improvements have been several distinguished speakers to campus. made to the space this year, particularly with For details, see https://carey.jhu.edu/faculty- more dedicated desks for graduate students. research/seminars-conferences/influence- In addition, several posters were created for and-the-media-conference. the hallway walls, displaying notable past faculty and graduate students from the The second annual Hopkins Health, Labor, Department and highlighting the research of Education and Development Economics several faculty members. One poster is Conference, cosponsored with the Carey shown below. In addition, a Timeline of the School of Business and the School of Public history of the Economics Department was Health, and coorganized by Professor developed and is also posted on a hallway Nicholas Papageorge of the Economics wall. It is too large to be put into this Department, took place at the Bloomberg Newsletter, but can be viewed at School of Public Health on May 21. The http://www.econ2.jhu.edu/pdf/timeline/Econ conference was attended by faculty and _TimelinePoster.pdf. Please take a look to graduate students from all three divisions. see the interesting history of the An interdisciplinary set of speakers spoke DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER 2 Record Straight on a Financial Disaster” will Edi Karni, the Scott and Barbara Black be published June 30 by Cambridge Professor of Economics, presented the paper University Press. Check it out on Amazon. “A Mechanism for Eliciting Second-Order Beliefs and Inclination to Choose” at the D- Bob Barbera will teach a new course this TEA 2017 conference in Paris and was also a month with Jon Faust called “The Evolution Keynote speaker at the conference on of Money and Banking: A Stylized European Advances in Decision Theory at Virginia Tech History” at the SAIS Bologna campus. He in April, where he delivered a talk entitled also has a grandson who is starting lacrosse “Incomplete Preferences: Representations so that he can get into Hopkins. and Choice Behavior.” He was also interviewed by The Reasoner, recounting Chris Carroll gave keynote addresses at the how he came to economics and discussing Reserve Bank of New Zealand Conference, his intellectual evolution in economics (see the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Office the November 2017 issue at of Financial Research at the U.S. Treasury. https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/thereasoner/previou We look forward to the 2018-2019 Ely He was also awarded a 3-year grant from the s-issues/). Lecture, which will be delivered by Professor Sloan foundation for development of the Orazio Attanasio (University College London) Econ-ARK project, whose goal is to provide Anton Korinek developed and taught a new on November 12-15. If you are in the area, an open source easy-to-use toolkit for course on "Artificial Intelligence and the please come over. structural modeling, both for microeconomic Economy" and organized a conference on a problems and for heterogeneous agent similar theme, www.korinek.com/macroai We had a Simon Newcomb Lecture this year macroeconomic models. and has written a paper on this new area of as well, a lecture series begun in 2008 to research for him. He also engaged in a lively bring to campus scholars working on Ying Chen gave presentations at the European Symposium on Economic Theory public debate on DSGE models, which you economic research with significant can follow at mathematical content. This year’s Lecture in Gerzensee, Switzerland and at workshops at the Shanghai University of Finance and http://www.bloomberg.com/amp/view/articl was delivered by Faruk Gül of Princeton es/2017-12-04/the-best-books-and-research- University (photo and poster below) on the Economics (SHUFE) and Zhejiang University. She was also promoted to Associate on-economics-in-2017 and at topic, “Revealed Preference and Behavioral https://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2017/1 Economics.” Professor with tenure in the Department in May. 1/the-cackling-cartoon-villain-defense- of.html and was interested to see Larry Greg Duffee, the Carl Christ Professor of Christiano call him a dilettante. He and his Economics, has a paper forthcoming in the wife Sharon celebrated the arrival of Anton Journal of Finance and has given several talks Korinek V in late June - a happy and healthy this year. He continues to serve on the baby boy who kept his parents busy (and Federal Reserve System’s Model Validation awake) throughout the summer. Council. Elena Krasnokutskaya has papers Jon Faust, the Louis J. Maccini Professor of forthcoming in the JPE, the IER, and AEJ: Economics, continued to direct the Center Micro. She was promoted to Associate for Financial Economics, interacting with Professor with tenure in May. alumni and other supporters of the CFE. He also gave the honorary Felix Neuberg Robert Moffitt, the Krieger-Eisenhower Lecture this year. Professor of Economics, gave talks at several places this year and presented two papers at For more details, see Yingyao Hu edited a special issue of the the January 2018 ASSA meetings, one with http://econ.jhu.edu/research- Journal of Econometrics which appeared in graduate alumnus Gizem Kosar. He has also areas/newcomb-lectures/. print in October. been elected President of the Society of Labor Economists. To keep up with developments in the Olivier Jeanne gave a keynote speech on Department as they happen, keep track on “Capital Flow Management” at the First Barbara Morgan continues to teach, to the department website, Fanhai Economics and Finance Conference, advise undergraduates, to codirect the Johns http://www.econ.jhu.edu/. Fanhai International School of Finance (FISF), Hopkins Baltimore Policy Fellows Program, Fudan University, Shanghai in October. He placing students in research and policy also organized a “field trip” for the graduate internships in Baltimore and Washington students at the IMF in Washington DC on D.C. FACULTY NEWS November 17. About 20 graduate students met a few JHU alumni at the IMF to talk Nicholas Papageorge, the Broadus Mitchell about career opportunities there. He asks Assistant Professor of Economics, continues that any students in attendance reading this Larry Ball spoke at the 2nd Annual his research on medical innovation, risky Newsletter should send him pictures, if they Conference of the central bank of Ukraine in behavior, human capital, and education. He took any. May about how the zero bound on interest has given several talks this year and rates affects monetary policy. His book, “The published a paper in Economic Inquiry, Fed and Lehman Brothers: Setting the “Entertaining Malthus: Bread, Circuses, and DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER 3 Economic Growth.” with Jon Faust. I would also like to thank performance in one of the department’s Barclay Knapp for his long-taught course for research workshops. Again funded by John Quah published a paper in the AER this us on Managerial Economics and Business Eugenio and Patricia Castillo, it is named in year, “A Comprehensive Approach to Strategies. honor of Professor Emeritus Bruce Hamilton Revealed Preference Theory” and gave talks who was well-known for his insightful and at several conferences and universities.
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