Brown University Department of Economics

Exciting news! Sylvia Kuo has been honored with the 2024 Karen T. Romer Award for excellence in advising at Brown University! Her dedication to students shines through, earning her this prestigious recognition for the second time. Congratulations, Sylvia!

Celebrating Sylvia Kuo's Achievement: Winner of the 2024 Karen T. Romer Award Sylvia Kuo has been awarded the prestigious 2024 Karen T. Romer Award for excellence in advising. Sylvia's unwavering commitment to her students has long been evident, and it is truly gratifying to see her outstanding work recognized by the wider university community. This marks Sylvia's second time...

We're thrilled to announce that the Econ staff has just been honored with the Excellence Award in Leadership at the BEAR Day Excellence Awards Breakfast!

Econ Staff Wins University Excellence Award in Leadership! Congratulations!

Job Market Candidate, Henrique Pita Barros' work, "Novel Community-Based Approach to Facilitate Integration of Displaced Individuals into Host Communities", featured in the World Bank Development Impact Blog.

Intergroup Dialogue: A Novel Community-Based Approach to Facilitate Integration of Displaced Individuals into Host Communities. Guest blog by Henrique Pita Barros Intergroup dialogue facilitates integration of displaced individuals

Brown University Economics Job Market Candidates 2023-2024

For more information on each candidate, check out the job market page here: https://economics.brown.edu/job-market-candidates-0

In order to offer high schoolers a window into the many topics now studied in Economics, students who lead our Departmental Undergraduate Group (DUG) have started a Summer High School Fellowship program.

The program offers an opportunity for high school students to deepen their understanding of economics and engage directly with Brown students, faculty, and alumni actively working in the field. Read more about the exceptional program here:
https://economics.brown.edu/news/2023-07-26/brown-university-economics-dug-high-school-fellowship.

Opportunity Insights, John Friedman's lab at Harvard, released new research this morning on admissions practices at highly selective, private "Ivy-Plus" colleges, how these schools affect graduates' income and leadership outcomes, and what changes to admissions policies could mean for diversifying America's leaders.

The Atlantic, NPR, The New York Times, and others published stories this morning on this research. To access these and other media coverage on the paper, you can visit their press page.

opportunityinsights.org

"Religion and educational mobility in Africa" by Professor Stelios Michalopoulos, Elias Papaioannou, Alberto Alesina, and Sebastian Hohmann published in Nature. Congratulations!

Religion and educational mobility in Africa - Nature Religion-specific measures of intergenerational mobility in education using census data for 21 African countries indicate that Christians have fared considerably better than their Muslim or Animist peers even when comparing individuals residing in the same district born to households with similar...

Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday April 19, from 4-6 PM in Grant Recital Hall for this year’s Research Matters featuring Aditi Singh, Economics PhD Student. This event showcases graduate student research, asking students to present why their research matters through short talks before a live audience.

This year there are 12 speakers, who were selected from a large group of nominated students and a semi-final event with 22 speakers. The goal is to highlight graduate student research, to mentor graduate students to develop strong presentations, and to leave students (and programs and the University) with videos that highlight them and their research projects. More info here: https://www.brown.edu/academics/gradschool/about/events-series/research-matters-celebrating-new-ideas-and-discoveries/2023-research-matters-pro

The latest IMF World Economic Outlook is making headlines in the financial market news! Chapter 2 of the report, co-authored by Josef Platzer (PhD Class of 2021), builds on his Job Market Paper, Secular Drivers of the Natural Rate of Interest in the United States: A Quantitative Evaluation, and shows that interest rates are likely coming back toward pre-pandemic lows after the current inflationary episode has passed. The JMP is also co-authored with another previous student, Marcel Peruffo (PhD Class of 2022). Congratulations to Josef and Marcel!

World Economic Outlook, April 2023: A Rocky Recovery Global economic activity is experiencing a broad-based and sharper-than-expected slowdown, with inflation higher than seen in several decades. The cost-of-living crisis, tightening financial conditions in most regions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic all weigh hea...

The Center for Economic Studies at El Colegio de México announced the winners of the 2022 Víctor L. Urquidi Prize. 5 of the 6 winners were Brown Econ Grads: Aurora Alejandra Ramírez Álvarez, Lorenzo R. Aldeco Leo, José Jurado, Adrián Rubli, and Emilio Gutiérrez. Congratulations!

On Friday, March 17th the grad students presented their 3rd year papers in the rotunda of Robinson Hall.

In Memoriam: Tony Lancaster, 1938-2022

Anthony (Tony) Lancaster, Herbert H. Goldberger professor of economics emeritus, passed away on December 10, 2022, in Providence, Rhode Island.

Tony was born in 1938 in Eccles, England. He received his B.A. from Liverpool University in 1959 and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1964. He taught at the University of Birmingham, where he was the thesis advisor for noted British Statistician Andrew Chesher, and University of Hull before joining Brown University in 1986. He was a visiting professor in the economics department at Harvard University in 1992.

Tony had a distinguished career as a scholar and published papers in microeconometrics in the major economics and statistics journals. One of his most influential papers, ``Econometric Methods for the Duration of Unemployment,’’ published in Econometrica in 1979 introduced models for duration data into the econometrics literature. His research stood out by its clarity because of his focus on basic conceptual insights rather than spurious generality, and attention to effective writing, a style he successfully passed on to many of his students. It has given many of his papers a longevity that is remarkable. His publications also include an influential monograph, The Econometric Analysis of Transition Data (1990). Later in his career he became a convert to Bayesian statistics and wrote a popular textbook, Modern Bayesian Econometrics (2003). Tony was elected a fellow of the Econometric Society in 1991.

Tony was always a thoughtful and calming presence in the department. These were qualities that stood him in good stead when he served as department chair from 1999 to 2002.

We will miss him for his wisdom, his friendship and his dry wit.

Tony is survived by Jane, his wife of 55 years; his daughter Clare, her sons Jack and Matt, and her granddaughters Stella and Bonnie; his son Tom, his wife Chang and children Alison, Danie and Oscar; and his son Rob, his wife Devon and children Emery and Jake.

A memorial service in Manning Chapel is being planned for early 2023.

https://economics.brown.edu/news/2022-12-19/memoriam-tony-lancaster-1938-2022

Graduate Student Bravo Working Paper # 2022-005: Inflation Since COVID: Demand or Supply by Giulia Gitti and Andrea Cerrato

Next Monday, December 12th from 3-5 PM, the department and the Econ DUG will be hosting a Hot Cocoa and Cookies study break for undergrads in the Robinson Hall Rotunda. We hope to see you there!

Join us on December 6th from 4-5:30 for the Fall 2022 Fain Lecture featuring Dr. John B. King — The Role of Education in Protecting our Democracy.

Recent events - from growing inequality to the events of January 6, 2021 - are challenging our democracy more than at any point in the past fifty years. And while civic and political participation will help with these problems today, the real roots of our democracy - and the path to protecting it in the long run - lie in education.

Come hear John B. King, former US Secretary of Education, discuss this critical role of education and what we can do to strengthen it on December 6 at 4pm in Salomon Deci.

John Friedman, Chair of the Economics Department, will moderate. This event is co-sponsored by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the Economics Department and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

John B. King Jr. is president of The Education Trust, a national nonprofit organization that seeks to identify and close educational opportunity and achievement gaps. King served as U.S. Secretary of Education in the Obama administration. Prior to that role, King carried out the duties of Deputy Secretary, overseeing policies and programs related to P-12 education, English learners, special education, innovation, and agency operations. King joined the department following his post as New York State Education Commissioner. King began his career as a high school social studies teacher and middle school principal.

https://economics.brown.edu/news/2022-11-28/bernard-fain-lecture-featuring-john-b-king-role-education-protecting-our-democracy

Bravo Working Paper # 2022-004: Slutsky Matrix Symmetry: A New Behavioral Condition by Roberto Serrano and Victor H. Aguiarhttps://economics.brown.edu/sites/default/files/papers/Bravo%20Working%20Paper%202022_004.pdf

On September 23, 2022 the Bravo Center in the Economics Department hosted the Inaugural Workshop on the Economics of Algorithms. The conference was interdisciplinary in nature, with speakers from computer science to law to economics, and research topics included fairness, discrimination, and machine learning. Thank you to all who attended and participated in the workshop.

Congratulations to Valeria Zurla (Brown Econ PhD Class of 2022) for winning the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award by the National Tax Association for her dissertation, entitled “Essays in Public and Labor Economics”!

https://ntanet.org/awards/phd-dissertation-award/

Graduate Student Bravo Working Paper #2022-003: Divided for Good: Football Rivalries and Social Cohesion in Latin America by Juan Pedro Ronconi
https://economics.brown.edu/sites/default/files/papers/Graduate%20Student%20Bravo%20Working%20Paper_2022-003.pdf

Prof. Soonwoo Kwon announced as recipient of the Arnold Zellner Thesis Award for his thesis, "Essays in Robust Methods in Econometrics". Congratulations!

https://community.amstat.org/businessandeconomicstatisticssection/new-item/new-item2

Bravo Research Award recipient Professor Jesse Bruhn discusses his new research project: "Crime, trust, and informal institutions in the inner city" . Check it out: https://youtu.be/fMaRUGiAoTU

Crime, trust, and informal institutions in the inner city

Graduate Student Bravo Working Paper #2022-004: Minimum Wage as a Place-Based Policy: Evidence from US Housing Rental Markets by Gabriele Borg, Diego Gentile Passaro, and Santiago Hermo.
https://economics.brown.edu/sites/default/files/papers/Graduate%20Student%20Bravo%20Working%20Paper_2022-004.pdf

Bravo Working Paper #2022-003-Millet, Rice, and Isolation: Origins and Persistence of the World’s Most Enduring Mega-State by James Kai-sing Kung, Ömer Özak, Louis Putterman, and Shuang Shi
https://economics.brown.edu/sites/default/files/papers/Bravo%20Working%20Paper_2022-003.pdf

Bravo Research Award recipient, Sara Spaziani, discusses her new research project: Can Gender Quotas Break the Glass Ceiling? Evidence from Italian Municipal Elections. Check it out below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFKnV74PRpI

Graduate Student Bravo Working Paper #2022-002: Price Heterogeneity and Consumption Inequality by Luca Riva, Luigi Pisano, and Andrea Stella.
https://economics.brown.edu/sites/default/files/papers/Graduate%20Student%20Bravo%20Working%20Paper_2022-002.pdf

This weekend Brown Econ celebrated Commencement with over 300 undergrads, 11 PhD grads, and one honorary degree recipient, Guido Imbens. Best of luck to all the grads and thank you to the students, faculty, staff, and families who participated in such an important day!

Congratulations to Emily Oster, who was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2022!

https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177827/emily-oster/

Professors Kellie Forrester and Brad Gibbs have been accepted to the Provost's 2022-2024 Faculty Teaching Fellows cohort. Congratulations Kellie and Brad!