Department News

The Social Security Administration recently funded a project on how the pandemic has affected disability applications led by UAlbany Economics Professors Pinka Chatterji and Kajal Lahiri. The project, entitled "Explaining Inter-state Differences in Disability Applications during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” is part of the NBER Research and Disability Research Center for the coming year.

Two UAlbany Department of Economics alumni, Cullen Breen and Ben Buchanan, officially launched a financial management platform StackHabit in October 2021. StackHabit is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor that automatically manages investment portfolios. Breen and Buchanan founded Dutch Asset Corporation (2014) and StackHabit (2021) together after graduation. 

Liang Fu, Sai Sindhura Gundavarapu, Min Jang, Nayoung Kim, Soonhong Min and Won Sung are PhD students in the Department of Economics. Read their profiles to find more information about their fields of interest and their job market papers.

Fifty-two UAlbany employees are being honored this year for their longtime service, and Distinguished Professor Kajal Lahiri of Economics, with the longest term of all, lists the many reasons he stayed.

Professor Cuicui Chen has been selected as a recipient of the 2022 Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Diversity and Inclusion Leave Program. The program aims to enhance opportunities for researchers in their early career. In addition, the program also seeks to promote diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity.

In a recent article on the Times Union, Professor Chun-Yu Ho criticizes the remote instruction plan for K-6 students in the coming school year. He cites recent studies showing adverse effects of remote learning on students achievements. He points to the increasing the academic gap across socio-economic groups caused by the lack of in-person learning environments.

UAlbany researchers study finds that white students were provided in-person instruction 31 percent of the time while just 6 percent of black students were provided in-person instruction during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with the NYS Writers Institute, Beth Akers explains why college is still a smart investment and reveals how to stack the odds in your favor by employing strategic decision-making. She cuts through the romanticism we often attach to college decision-making and teaches the reader how to make decisions that are grounded in data and fact. She is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "Making College Pay." She earned her BS in mathematics and economics from UAlbany and a PhD in economics from Columbia. Watch the interview.