News and Events
Spring 2013 Winter 2013 Fall 2012 Earlier News
Spring 2013
Photos of Department of Economics Commencement Spring 2013
To download the photos of Department of Economics Commencement spring 2013, please visit the web albums.
Pinka Chatterji wins The Adam Smith Award
Pinka Chatterji and her co-author Sara Markowitz (Emory University) were awarded the The Sixth Adam Smith Award in Mental Health Policy and Economics for the best paper published in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics in 2012.
Research Highlights
John Jones visited the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond during the week of March 18-22. During his visit he presented the paper "Skill-Biased Technical Change and the Cost of Higher Education" (joint with Fang Yang) and met with department economists.
PhD student Souvik Banerjee and Associate Professor Pinka Chatterji presented a paper jointly written with Distinguished Professor Kajal Lahiri entitled “Effects of psychiatric disorders on labor market outcomes: A latent variable approach using multiple indicators” at a conference in Munich organized by the ifo / CESifo, University of Munich and the Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy. The travel was supported by the conference and by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health (grant number P20MD003373).
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) was published in March, 2013 issue of Journal of Health Economics.
Kajal Lahiri’s paper entitled "Modeling hedge fund returns: selection, non-linearity and managerial efficiency" (joint with Hany Shawky and Ph.D. student Yongchen Zhao) has been accepted for publication in Managerial and Decision Economics.
Kwan Koo Yun presented his paper entitled, "Outsourcing and factor price equalization," at Western Economic Association International's Pacific Rim Conference (March 14-March 17) at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan.
Albany Economics Ph.D. Thembayena Annastasia Dlamini is appointed as Swaziland Ambassador to Russia
Graduating with her Economics Ph. D. in 1990, Dr. Dlamini wrote her dissertation on "Export Instability and Economic Growth: The Case of Swaziland". Her dissertation advisor was Bruce Dieffenbach. She was the first Swazi woman to earn an Economics Ph. D. and only the second to earn a Ph. D. in any field. Her previous Swazi diplomatic posts include Head of Mission to the European Economic Community, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Geneva Ambassador to Fiji. Further details about this appointment are available here.
Winter 2013
Exchange Program with Tohoku University in Japan
The Department of Economics at the University at Albany has started an exchange program with the Faculty of Economics at Tohoku University in Sendai City, Japan, involving both faculty and students. The department invites and encourages Albany undergraduates to apply for Tohoku University’s International Program in Liberal Arts (IPLA), with study starting in October, 2013. Applicants for admission may also apply for a scholarship provided by the Japanese Government through the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO). Tohoku University, founded in 1907, is the third Imperial University (following Tokyo University and Kyoto University), is the leading university north of Tokyo, and enrolls more than 18,000 students, including 1400 international students. Information on Tohoku University is available from the Handbook for International Students. Information on the International Program in Liberal Arts is available here. Information on Tohoku University, the International Program in Liberal Arts, and the Japan Student Services Organization Scholarship are also posted outside the Department of Economics Office at BA 110.
Students should apply to the program online. The application deadline is March 10, 2013. Students must apply both online and by paper. Please provide the Department of Economics, University at Albany, with a copy of your completed application form and all supplemental materials so that we can nominate you for admission. Contacts at the University at Albany are Prof. Michael Sattinger (m.sattinger@albany.edu) and Prof. Kwan Koo Yun (kyun@albany.edu).
Students applying for the International Program in Liberal Arts are eligible to apply for the Japan Student Services Organization Scholarship. Information on application procedures is available here.
Kajal Lahiri visits IMF
Kajal Lahiri spent two weeks at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund during November 2012 as a Visiting Scholar. He also discussed a paper at a forecasting forum held on November 14-15 to honor Herman Stekler on the occasion of his 80th birthday held at the IMF headquarters in Washington D.C. Click here to read more about the Forum.
SUNY NYS2100
Distinguished Professor Kajal Lahiri completed his work as an expert of the SUNY NYS2100 team that helped to finalize the report "Recommendations to Improve the Strength and Resilience of the Empire State's Infrastructure" recently released by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo at his State of the State address, January 13, 2013. Professor Lahiri played a substantive role in crafting the commission's recommendations on the ‘Insurance' section of the report.
Research Highlights
Kajal Lahiri's paper entitled "The yield spread puzzle and the information content of SPF forecasts" (joint with George Monokroussos and current Ph.D. student Yongchen Zhao) was published in January, 2013 issue of Economics Letters.
Kajal Lahiri's paper entitled "Evaluating probability forecasts for GDP declines using alternative methodologies" (joint with former Ph.D. student J. George Wang) was published in January, 2013 issue of International Journal of Forecasting.
Kajal Lahiri's survey paper entitled "Forecasting binary outcomes" (joint with Ph.D. student Yang Lu) has been accepted for publication in Handbook of Forecasting, Vol. 2 (Eds. G. Elliott and A. Timmermann).
Kajal Lahiri completed his examination of PhD thesis "Essays on macroeconometrics and short-term forecasting" by Claude Adan at ECARES - SBS-EM, Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Zhongwen Liang's paper entitled "Local linear estimation of a nonparametric cointegration model" (joint with Zhongjian Lin from Texas A&M University and Cheng Hsiao from University of Southern California) has been accepted for publication in Econometric Reviews.
Michael Sattinger's paper entitled "Qualitative mismatches" was published in Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics: Vol. 8 (No 1-2, pp. 1-168).
Michael Sattinger coauthors a book entitled Into the Gap; Exploring Gaps and Mismatches (joint with Ernest Berkhout, Jules Theeuwes, and Maikel Volkerink), commissioned by Randstad, SEO Economic Research, Amsterdam, 2012.
Michael Sattinger's paper entitled "Nash bargaining and the wage consequences of educational mismatches" (joint with Joop Hartog) was appeared in discussion paper series of IZA (No. 7025) and Tinbergen Institute (12-129/V).
Fang Yang's paper entitled "Accounting for gender gap in college attainment" (joint with Suqin Ge from Virginia Tech) was published in January, 2013 issue of Economic Inquiry.
Fang Yang's paper entitled "Social security reform with impure intergenerational altruism" was published in January, 2013 issue of Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control.
Barış K. Yörük's paper entitled "Do charitable solicitations matter?: A comparative analysis of fundraising methods" was published in December, 2012 issue of Fiscal Studies.
PhD student Yang Liu's book review of Modelling Nonlinear Economic Time Series (Oxford University Press, 2010) by Timo Teräsvirta, Dag Tjøstheim, Clive W.J. Granger appeared in the December, 2012 issue of International Journal of Forecasting.
Michael Jerison presented his paper entitled "Testable Conditions for Unique, Stable Equilibrium with Taxes" at the College de France, Paris and at the University of Bonn, Germany in January, 2013.
Michael Sattinger's paper entitled "Nash bargaining and the wage consequences of educational mismatches" has been accepted for publication in Labour Economics.
Michael Sattinger's paper entitled "Safety first consumption" was published in January, 2013 issue of Journal of Economic Theory.
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 Yongchen 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" (joint with Fang Yang) at the University of Western Ontario 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.
