Northwestern University - Department of Economics Graduate Connection Vol. 19 No. 2 December 2013 News............................................ 1 News Duval. This fellowship is awarded annually to a graduate student who has Events .......................................... 2 distinguished him- or herself in both Teaching ...................................... 2 Happy Holidays! teaching and research. Formal Announcements ............. 4 Funding Opportunities ................ 5 The faculty and staff extend their best Susan Bies Research Prizes Notes ........................................... 6 wishes for a happy holiday season. The University will be officially closed on Also at the Buffet, the Department Tuesday December 24, Wednesday 25, presented the annual Susan Schmidt Bies Tuesday 31 and Wednesday January 1. Prizes for Doctoral Student Research on The winter quarter commences on Monday, Economics and Public Policy. The awards January 6. are given to the best public policy papers presented as part of the Economics 501 Distinguished Teaching seminar. The winners for 2012-13 were Assistants Arlene Chu for a paper on how households lower the prices that they pay at _________ The Distinguished Teaching Assistant grocery stores during downturns by increasing their coupon usage, sale Awards for 2012-13 were presented at the purchasing, buying larger sizes and buying Published 3 times a year in start-of-year buffet on October 13. The winners of a certificate, a limited edition generic products; and Yana Gallen for a September, December and coffee mug, and a year's subscription to paper on how workers anticipate March by: Econometrica were Yana Gallen, Bridget unemployment by saving more than Hoffman, Alexander James, Christian workers in the same firm who ultimately keep their jobs during a mass layoff. The Department of Economics Lund, Sangyoon Park, Assaf Patir, Ricardo Pique Cebrecos, Ariell Zimran prizes were generously donated by alumna Northwestern University (all reawards), John Farragut, Sebastian Susan Schmidt Bies (PhD, 1972). Her 2001 Sheridan Road Kohls, Andreas Kropf, Teddy professional career included serving on the Evanston, IL 60208-2600 Mekonnen, Juan Prada Sarmiento, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. www.econ.northwestern.edu Christopher Romeo, Yi Sun, and Thiago Teixeira Ferreira. These awards are given to the top third of our Teaching Assistants, Visitors based on student and faculty evaluations. These awards have been listed prominently The Center for Study of Industrial on the vita of our students on the job Organization will be hosting Gautam market, and act as a strong signal to Gowrisankaran of the University of potential employers of your teaching Arizona for the Winter and Spring capabilities. This is especially true for Quarters. students from countries where English is not the first language. Congratulations Robert Eisner Memorial Fellowship The Associated Student Government’s Ian Savage, editor Faculty Honor Roll for 2012-13 included 847-491-8241 Also, at the start of year buffet, a Jim Hornsten, Eric Schulz, Mark Witte [email protected] fellowship in honor of our late colleague and Richard Walker for their work in the Robert Eisner was presented. For 2013-14 classroom, and Ronald Braeutigam in his the Fellowship was awarded to Laura administrative role. December 2013 Graduate Connection • 2 Congratulations to Aviv Nevo who has Philadelphia on Friday to Sunday, January that we will not be offering Econ 501 and been elected as a Fellow of the 3-5. If you are at the conference, stop by the 500-level workshop classes in the Econometric Society. The Department now the NU annual cocktail party in the Winter Quarter when these classes usually has 16 faculty members elected as Fellows “Congress C” room of the Loews do not meet. They will return in the Spring of the Econometric Society, with a further Philadelphia Hotel, 1200 Market Street, Quarter. Students who need to register for five Fellows among the economists in the from 6-8pm on the Saturday. additional credits to maintain full-time Kellogg School of Management. status should use Econ 590 (for second Martin L. King Jr. Day year students) and TGS 500 (for older Leon N. Moses 1924-2013 students). On Monday, January 20, the University The Department is sad to announce the is closed and all classes are canceled in This Quarter’s Course Descriptions passing of Emeritus Professor Leon Moses observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on October 12. Professor Moses was a Day. The Department has a policy to avoid faculty member at Northwestern from 1959 the problem of excessive awarding of to his retirement in 2005. He is Memorial Service for Leon N. incomplete grades. Please see our web site remembered for the high standard of his Moses for a complete statement. Report any teaching particularly in the undergraduate problems to the Director of Graduate intermediate microeconomics course. He A memorial service for Leon Moses, Studies. was also well known for his research in who passed away in October (see News transportation and urban economics and section) will be held on Friday February 7 regional science. at noon in the Jeanne Vail Chapel (corner Economics 412-1 of Chicago Avenue and Sheridan Road), Economy Theory and Methods Northwestern advances to National with a lunch reception afterwards in the Professor Strulovici Finals of the College Federal Guild Lounge in Scott Hall. MW 1:00-2:50 Jacobs 3245 Reserve Challenge This course covers optimal control and Mark Your Calendars stopping theories, as well as their On November 25, a team of Northwestern applications to economic problems. The undergraduates won the regional contest Mark your calendars for these special course starts with an introduction to against 13 other universities to advance to events in the Spring Quarter. Full details stochastic processes, stochastic calculus, the national finals of the College Federal will be given in the March Graduate and stochastic control, with a focus on Reserve Challenge. The competition Connection. continuous time, including topics such as involved two rounds, where each the team the smooth pasting condition, the had to present a discussion of about the April 4 (Friday): Prospective graduate Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, and the state of the economy and proposing Federal student visit day Martingale Representation Theorem. The Reserve responses to it, and then taking April 29 (Tuesday) at 4pm: Personal techniques are then applied to models such questions from a panel of Federal Reserve chair investitures for Professors as optimal portfolio choice, optimal economists. Northwestern’s team will Eichenbaum and Tamer entry/exit decisions, and dynamic travel to compete for the national May 16-17 (Friday-Saturday): Joint principal-agent models. Students will also championship at the Federal Reserve Board Northwestern - University of Toulouse see how to establish comparative statics of Governors in Washington, DC on industrial organization conference results in dynamic models, such as December 2nd, 2013. The team consists of May 21 (Wednesday) at 5:45pm: Nancy monotonicity of the value function and of Nikhil Byanna, Yuxuan Chen, Jonathan L. Schwartz Memorial Lecture featuring the optimal stopping time or optimal Cohen, Kyle Isaacson and Ranjodh Colin Camerer of the California Institute of control, as well as other properties of the Singh, and is advised by Professor Mark Technology value function (convexity, homogeneity). Witte. The course also covers models of optimal learning and experimentation, including a Events Teaching study of the multi-armed bandit problem in discrete time. AEA Annual Meeting Seminar Registrations Evaluation is by problem sets, a paper presentation, and the submission of a The annual meetings of the American The Department has updated the 500- research project or review paper. Economics Association will be held in level seminar offerings. One implication is December 2013 Graduate Connection • 3 Economics 414-2 Economics 420-2 Economics 440-1 Economics of Information European Economic History Economics of the Labor Market Professor Siegel Professor Mokyr Professor Mortensen MW 5:00-6:50 Jacobs 3245 TTh 9:00-10:50 Jacobs 3204 The start of this course has been The course introduces several In the past decade, a great deal of postponed. It is possible that it may conceptual and technical approaches economic history has been written by commence later in the Winter Quarter. If commonly used in microeconomic theory. scholars (some full time economic that is the case, an announcement will be Topics include: private- and common-value historians, others part timers and circulated. Formal registration, credit and auctions, single- and multi-agent interlopers) who are applying economic grades will occur in the Spring Quarter. mechanism design, equilibrium existence in theory and econometric methods to discontinuous games, and complete- and historical issues and producing new and incomplete-information contests and wars innovative databases, raising new issues or Economics 450-2 of attrition. The emphasis is on developing answering old ones with new methods. The Industrial Organization and Prices economic intuition and an understanding of purpose of this course is to survey some of Professor Porter the mathematical underpinnings of the this recent literature and stimulate similar MW 11:00-12:50 Jacobs 3245 models. research. Each student will be in charge of Evaluation will be based on problem class presentations (starting