Department News

The Economics Department is pleased to announce the promotion of two faculty members. Pinka Chatterji has been promoted to a full professor and Ulrich Hounyo has been promoted to an associate professor.

A 19-year-old UAlbany senior is the first recipient of a “Wonder Grant” from a foundation established by recording star Shawn Mendes.

Professor Yue Li received the 2020 American Economics Journal Best Paper Prize. The award winning research is a joint project with Professor Manasi Deshpande at the University of Chicago, entitled "Who is Screened Out? Application Costs and the Targeting of Disability Programs" published in the American Economics Journal: Economic Policy in 2019. They measure the extent to which application costs for disability benefits affect who applies and gets aid from the program. Using administrative data, they compared the number and composition of applicants and recipients in areas where the nearest Social Security Administration office closed to those that didn't have an office closure until several years later.

Professor Marschke has received a one year, $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. STEM workforce. This project will (1) measure how much of the STEM workforce is able to continue work and in which occupations and industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) model the likely effect of the COVID-19 work disruption and economic recession on STEM workers and the STEM labor market, and (3) inform policies that can ameliorate the effects of pandemics on STEM workers.

In his recent article in the Times Union, Professor Chun-yu Ho emphasizes the importance of pooled surveillance tests for the Coronavirus, and suggests expanding it to K-12 schools. The effectiveness of pooled surveillance tests is proven by the success of Duke University in comparison to other universities in North Carolina, and the results of recent medical research. 

The Gordon Karp Award is given to students who exemplify the intelligence, dedication, and accomplishment of Gordon Karp. Gordon was an outstanding undergraduate student in Economics and Mathematics, and he continued on to work for his PhD in Economics.   This year, the award is given to four students:  

Professor Yue Li's research is featured in the Chart of the Week in the week of December 4, 2019. The Chart of the Week is a weekly series of research highlights chosen by the American Economics Association. Professor Yue Li's paper entitled "Who is Screened Out? Application Costs and the Targeting of Disability Programs" joint with Professor Manasi Deshpande at the University of Chicago examines the impacts of field office closings on the volume of applications and recipients of aid. The research underscores the importance of providing convenient access to program representatives, whose services are particularly valuable to some of the most vulnerable people.

Professor Hounyo's work entitled "The Local Fractional Bootstrap" published in the Scandinavian Journal of Statistics is recognized as one of the most read papers by Wiley, the publisher of the academic journal. Among publications in the journal between January 2018 and December 2019, his work was one of the most downloaded in the first 12 months after online publication.