Northwestern University - Department of Economics Graduate Connection Vol. 15 No. 2 December 2009 News .................... 1 News fellowship is awarded annually to a Events ................... 2 graduate student who has distinguished Teaching.................. 2 him- or herself in both teaching and Formal Announcements ...... 4 Happy Holidays! research. Funding Opportunities ....... 4 Notes .................... 4 The faculty and staff extend their best Susan Bies Research Prize wishes for a happy holiday season. The University will be officially closed on Also at the Buffet, the Department Thursday December 24, Friday 25, presented the annual Susan Schmidt Bies Thursday 31 and Friday January 1. The Prize for Doctoral Student Research on winter quarter commences on Monday, Economics and Public Policy. The winners January 4. were Yosh Halberstam for a paper dealing with whether U.S. Senators first elected in Distinguished Teaching years with a presidential election are more Assistants extreme in their views than senators elected in midterm elections, and Gregory The Distinguished Teaching Assistant Veramendi for a paper looking at new Awards for 2008-09 were presented at the mothers’ choices regarding returning to the start-of-year buffet on October 7. The workforce, and the consequent effect of winners of a certificate and a year's childcare on early childhood development. subscription to Econometrica were Brian The prizes were generously donated by Anderson, Aldo Heffner, Michel Janna alumna Susan Schmidt Bies (PhD, 1972). Gandur, Tsu-ting (Tim) Lin, Ralf Her professional career included serving on Meisenzahl (all reawards), Keziah Cook, the Board of Governors of the Federal Jia-Young (Mike) Fu, Simone Galperti, Reserve System. Graduate Connection Joseph Goodman, Pamela Giustinelli, Department of Economics/NU Alexander James, Álvaro Parra, Assaf Visitors Patir, Pablo Schenone and Cristina Tealdi. Congratulations to the winners. We will be welcoming Aureo de Paula, These awards are given to the top third of an econometrician from the University of our TAs, based on student and faculty Pennsylvania for the Winter and Spring Published 3 times a year in evaluations. These awards have been listed Quarters. He will be in room 3247. The September, December and March prominently on the vita of our students on Center for the Study of Industrial by: the job market, and act as a strong signal to Organization will be welcoming Gautam potential employers of your teaching Gowrisankaran from the University of Department of Economics capabilities. This is especially true for Arizona from February 15 to March 5, and Northwestern University students from countries where English is alumni Philip Haile from Yale University 2001 Sheridan Road not the first language. for the week of March 8. Evanston, IL 60208-2600 Sofronis Clerides, Phil Reny, Sang In www.econ.northwestern.edu Robert Eisner Memorial Fellowship Hwang and Tsunao Okumura remain with us. Benny Moldovanu will also Also, at the start of year buffet, a remain here though part of January. Ian Savage, editor fellowship in honor of our late colleague 847-491-8241 Robert Eisner was presented. For 2009-10 [email protected] the Fellowship was split between Daniel Garrett and Toomas Hinnosaar. This December 2009 Graduate Connection O 2 Congratulations May 26 at 5:45pm: Nancy L. Swartz Economics 416-1 Memorial Lecture featuring Alvin Roth of Advanced Macroeconomics Our team of undergraduates, coached by Harvard University. Professor Wiederholt Mark Witte, beat 17 teams locally to TTh 6-8pm AAH 3245 advance to the national finals in Washington on December 1 and 2 of the Teaching This course is an advanced course on annual College Federal Reserve Challenge. business cycle theory. The readings will be journal articles. The evaluation will be This is the sixth year in a row that NU has This Quarter’s Course Descriptions advanced to the finals. based on a series of problem sets and a take-home final exam. The Department has a policy to avoid the problem of excessive awarding of Events incomplete grades. Please see our web site Economics 420-2 for a complete statement. Report any European Economic History AEA Annual Meeting problems to the Director of Graduate Professor Mokyr Studies. TTh 9-11 AAH 3204 The annual meetings of the American Economics Association will be held in Economics 412-2 This course will be devoted to problems Atlanta on Sunday to Tuesday, January 3- Economic Theory and Methods in the Economic history of Europe in the 5. Because of the timing, it is likely that Professor Strulovici Twentieth century, roughly defined as some scheduled graduate classes may not MW 1:30-3:30 AAH 3204 1890-1989. The course will deal with a meet on their first scheduled date. Please variety of topics, about a topic a week. All check with the instructor. If you are at the This course aims to provide a rigorous readings are available on the Blackboard conference, stop by the NU annual cocktail analysis of key aspects of collective site of the course. A complete outline of party in room M101 of the Marriott decision making. The first part focuses on topics will be provided on the blackboard Marquis from 6-8pm on Monday. social choice theory, or how individual site of the course. preferences are aggregated to form a After the introductory lectures (2-3 Martin L. King, Jr. Day collective preference and determine a weeks), classes will be organized along collective decision. The second part of the student presentations. Each student is On Monday, January 18, all classes are course analyzes the link between politician responsible for a number of class canceled in observance of Dr. Martin motivations and policy outcomes. In the presentations of 25-30 minutes each, in Luther King Jr. Day. There will be no last part of the course, the formal which he/she will present paper or undergraduate or graduate classes. It is framework developed in early parts is chapters from the list below. The also inappropriate to hold discussion applied to major policy issues: requirements for the course are class sections or office hours. redistribution, pensions, and regional participation, class presentations, and a While classes are canceled, the transfers. Evaluation is by several problem research paper. The research paper is due university will not be closed for the day. sets and a final exam. no later than a year after the end of the Departmental and other university course. The aim of the research paper administrative offices will be open. There should be to write an original paper using will be numerous events held on campus to Economics 414-1 economic theory and/or historical data to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King. Economics of Information investigate a topic in European Economic Professor Wolinsky history. The material covered in the course Mark Your Calendars MW 9-11 AAH 3245 is recommended, but any topic about any European economy prior to 1989 will be The course will survey some of the acceptable subject to approval. Mark your calendars for these special central topics in the economics of events in the Spring Quarter. Full details information. Among the topics are search, will be given in the March Graduate matching, formal descriptions of Connection. Economics 440-2 information and knowledge in single and Economics of the Labor Market April 27: Susan Bies Annual Lecture on multiple agent situations, Economic Policy featuring Jean-Claude Professor Beaman implementation/mechanism design and MW 9-11 AAH 3204 Trichet, President of the European Central contagion. The course will present both Bank. more foundational models and ideas and Tthis course focuses on the application May 3 and 4: Department-wide lectures more applied ones. by Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich of theory and econometrics to provide December 2009 Graduate Connection O 3 students with a solid background to do and more. Part II is all about uniformity: control. applied microeconomic research. All uniform inference with subsampling and Finance 485 is the usual prerequisite, applications will relate to empirical the bootstrap in non-regular models (i.e., other students will need permission of the microeconomic issues in developing moment inequalities, parameter on the instructor. countries and provides a partial survey of boundary, pre-testing and so on). The last current economic issues faced by poor part is on empirical likelihood: introduction countries. As such, it covers topics which to empirical liklihood, higher order Finance 488 relate to a number of sub-fields, including: properties, behavior under misspecification, The Econometrics of Financial Markets human capital (health and education); risk moment inequalities and more. Professor Jagannathan & insurance; savings; credit (including Evaluation is by problem sets, weekly F 9-12:30 AAH 4214 microfinance); political economy and reports and a topic presentation. The book corruption; gender and development, and Asymptotic Statistics by A.W van der Vaart The course covers the following topics social interactions. (Cambridge U.P., 2000) includes many of in the empirical financial markets literature Evaluation will be based on two referee the topics of part I. Selected readings are and related econometric methods: review reports, problem sets, and a research provided for the other topics. of some financial market facts; proposal (with preliminary findings). distributional characteristics of stock Students will also be expected to present 1- prices; review of GMM; ARCH/GARCH 2 papers each during the course of the Economics 482 and related models; conditional and quarter. The readings will be from journal Time Series Methods unconditional linear beta pricing models; articles available online. Professor Primiceri yield curve models; market microstructure; TTh 1:30-3:30 AAH 3204 initial public offerings and seasoned equity offerings. Course grade will be based on Economics 450-2 This course is an introduction to modern homework sets (one per week, do be done Industrial Organization and Prices time series analysis.