News and Events

Fall 2012

Department of Economics welcomes new tenure-track faculty

Assistant professor Zhongwen Liang joins the department on September 1, 2012. Professor Liang received his Ph.D. in economics from Texas A&M University on August, 2012. His research interests include econometric theory, applied econometrics, and financial econometrics. Professor Liang's recent research was published in prestigious journals such as Journal of Econometrics and Advances in Econometrics. He will teach an econometrics course for Ph.D. students during the fall semester.

Research highlights

Michael Sattinger presented a book review of "The Price of Inequality" by Joseph Stiglitz at the Albany Public Library on October 16, 2012.

Kajal Lahiri and Herbert Zhao's (current Ph.D. student) paper entitled "The Yield Spread Puzzle and the Information Content of SPF Forecasts (joint with George Monokroussos) has been accepted for publication in Economics Letters.

Adrian Masters will be attending an invitation only conference on Money, Banking, and Asset Markets at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI on Friday, November 2 and Saturday, November 3, 2012.

Adrian Masters' paper entitled “Inflation and welfare in retail markets: prior production and imperfectly directed search” has been accepted for publication at Journal of Money Credit and Banking.

Betty C. Daniel presented her paper entitled “Monetary policy switching to avoid a liquidity trap” (joint with Siddhartha Chattopadhyay) at Ryerson University.

Betty C. Daniel presented her paper entitled “Fiscal risk in a monetary union” (joint with Christos Shiamptanis from Ryerson University) in a conference entitled “Modeling Imbalances”. The conference was supported by Central Bank of Poland.

John Jones presented his paper entitled “Skill biased technical change and the cost of higher education” at University of Western Ontorio and Stony Brook University.

Kajal Lahiri’s paper entitled “Evaluating probability forecasts for GDP declines using alternative methodologies” (joint with J. George Wang from College of Staten Island, CUNY) has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Forecasting.

Zhongwen Liang’s paper entitled “Functional coefficient regression models with time trend” (joint with Qi Li from Texas A&M University) was published in September, 2012 issue of Journal of Econometrics.

Barış K. Yörük’s paper entitled “The effect of media on charitable giving and volunteering: evidence from the “Give Five” campaign” was published in Fall, 2012 issue of Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Barış K. Yörük’s paper entitled “The impact of drinking on psychological well-being: evidence from minimum drinking age laws in the United States” (joint with Ceren Ertan Yörük from The Sage Colleges) was published in November, 2012 issue of Social Science and Medicine.

Barış K. Yörük’s paper entitled “The impact of minimum legal drinking age laws on alcohol consumption, smoking, and marijuana use revisited” (joint with Ceren Ertan Yörük from The Sage Colleges) has been accepted for publication in Journal of Health Economics.

Summer 2012

2005 B.S. Elizabeth Akers is a fellow in the Brookings Institution

Elizabeth Akers (B.S., 2005), an expert on the economics of education, with a particular focus on higher education finance policy, is now a fellow in Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy. Before joining to Brookings Institution, she was a staff economist at White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Reuters article mentions Professor Jones’ work

A recent article published by the Reuters News Service on August 14, 2012 mentions John Jones’ research. The article can be accessed here.

Laurence Kranich visits Fondation Maison des Sciences de I’Homme

Laurence Kranich spent the month of June in Paris as a Visiting Professor at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and the Collège d'Etudes Mondiales through a grant from the Programme Directeurs d’Etudes Associés. During that time, he presented papers in a conference on “Intergenerational Equity and Climate Change” and in the Paris Seminar on Economics and Philosophy, sponsored by the Franco-Swedish Program in Philosophy and Economics.

Heesoo Joo receives Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award

The Department of Economics congratulates Heesoo Joo on receiving the University at Albany's 2012 Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award. This prize is awarded to the best dissertation in any field in the College. Her dissertation, “Health Disparities among the U.S. Elderly”, was nominated by Professors Pinka Chatterji and Kajal Lahiri and succeeded brilliantly through the College's competition this year.

Barış K. Yörük receives a two-year NIH grant

Professor Barış K. Yörük received $147,757 from National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the effect of Sunday alcohol laws on alcohol consumption and alcohol consumption related outcomes. He and Ph.D. student Jungtaek Lee will be working on this project until July, 2014.

Sifan Zhou goes to Harvard

The Harvard Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School has awarded a dissertation fellowship to Ph.D. student Sifan Zhou for the academic year 2012-2013. Ms. Zhou will use this fellowship to conduct research relating to how scientists and engineers, in R&D and in other work areas, impact economic productivity and the returns to investments in science and engineering. Professor Gerald Marschke is supervising her dissertation research as well as collaborating with her on related research projects.

Research highlights

Pinka Chatterji's paper entitled "Effects of early maternal employment on maternal health and wellbeing" (joint with Sara Markowitz from Emory University and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn from National Center for Children and Families) has been accepted for publication in Journal of Population Economics. This research was supported by a grant from NICHD.

Pinka Chatterji's paper entitled “Family leave after childbirth and the health of new mothers” (joint with Sara Markowitz from Emory University) has been accepted for publication in Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics. This research was supported by a grant from NICHD.

Pinka Chatterji and Kajal Lahiri along with a former Ph.D. student Heesoo Joo (currently Steven Teutsch Prevention Effectiveness Post-doctoral Fellow at Center For Disease Control) published their article entitled “Beware of being unaware: racial/ethnic disparities in chronic illness in the USA” in September, 2012 issue of Health Economics.

Betty C. Daniel's paper entitled “Private sector financial crises in emerging markets” was published in June, 2012 issue of Economic Journal.

Betty C. Daniel's paper entitled “Fiscal risk in a monetary union” (joint with Christos Shiamptanis from Ryerson University) was published in August, 2012 issue of European Economic Review.

Michael Sattinger's paper entitled “Safety first consumption” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Economic Theory.

Fang Yang's paper entitled “Social security reform with impure intergenerational altruism” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control.

Barış K. Yörük's paper entitled “Fundraising and optimal policy rules” (joint with Murat Mungan from Florida State University) was published in August, 2012 issue of Journal of Public Economic Theory.

Barış K. Yörük’s paper entitled “The impact of charitable subsidies on religious giving and attendance: evidence from panel data” has been accepted for publication in Review of Economics and Statistics.

Rui Zhao’s paper entitled “Renegotiation and conflict resolution in relational contracting” was published in July, 2012 issue of Games and Economic Behavior.