Economics Department Seminar Series

Seminars are held on Wednesdays unless otherwise noted

12:10 to 1:15 pm

Roper Hall 101

(Click here for Kogod School of Business seminar series)

Fall 2005

September 7	Public Capital and Growth in a Decentralized Framework Ajitava Raychaudhuri, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
September 14	Trends in Intergenerational Mobility Tom Hertz, AU
September 21	Some Pitfalls in Testing the Law of One Price in Commodity Markets John Pippenger, UC Santa Barbara, Emeritus (Co-author Llad Phillips, UC Santa Barbara)
September 28	Rural Electrification Challenge and Experience in Asia and Africa Subodh Mathur Note: Subodh Mathur taught Econometrics and Economic Development at the American University 1981-1988. Since 1995 he has been a consultant in the design of rural electrification and renewable energy development projects.
October 5	Violent Conflict and Economic Growth: Re-visiting the Evidence Martha Starr, AU
October 12	Patterns and Determinants of Entry in Rural County Banking Markets Bob Feinberg, AU
October 19	No seminar – see events on Thursday and Friday, below.
Thursday! October 20	Will There be a Dollar Crisis? Paul Krugman, Princeton University 3pm to 5pm, Battelle Atrium
Friday! October 21	Growth Dynamics: The Myth of Economic Recovery Sweta Saxena, Graduate School of Public & International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh (with Valerie Cerra, IMF).
October 26	No seminar.
November 2	Gini’s Multiple Regressions Shlomo Yitzhaki, Director, Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel) and Professor of Economics at Hebrew University, Jerusalem (coauthor: Edna Schechtman, Ben-Gurion University)
November 9	From Rogue Creditors to Rogue Debtors Arturo Porzecanski Scholar of International Finance, American University Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, Columbia University, Adjunct Professor of Economics, New York University Former chief emerging-markets economist at ABN AMRO, ING Barings, Kidder, Peabody & Co, Republic National Bank of New York.
November 16	Why do the poor leave the safety net in Mexico? A study of the effects of conditionality on dropouts Carola Alvarez & Florencia Devoto, IDB Paul Winters, American University
November 23	Thanksgiving - No seminar
November 30	Policy Anchors: FTAs, WTO Accession, and Domestic Reform in Developing Countries Michael Ferrantino, USITC
December 7	Financial markets and effectiveness of remittances to developing countries B. Gabriela Mundaca, Department of Economics, University of Oslo

Spring 2005

February 23	A Model of Academic Journal Quality with Applications to Open-Access Journals Chris Snyder, George Washington University (Co-author, Mark J. McCabe, Georgia Institute of Technology) See also: The Economics of Open-Access Journals
March 2	Counting The Reasons Why Countercyclicality Of Workers’ Remittances May Be Counterfactual Serdar Sayan, Visiting Scholar, IMF Research Department See related paper
March 9	No Seminar – Spring Break
March 16	Inequality Of Opportunity? Cross Country Evidence On The Determinants Of Educational Investment And Returns Mark Hopkins, Dept. of Economics, Gettysburg College
March 23	Central Bank Estimates of Natural Rates for Unemployment and Inflation Peter Tinsley, George Washington University (Co-author Sharon Kozicki, Research Dept., Kansas City Fed.)
March 30	Cost-Effectiveness of HIV/AIDS Treatment in India and Thailand Mead Over, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank Related Materials: HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention in India: Modeling the Cost and Consequences © 2004, World Bank Impact of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic on the Health Sectors of Developing Countries In The Macroeconomics of HIV/AIDS, Markus Haacker, ed., IMF, 2004.
April 8 FRIDAY!	External Shocks and the Urban Poor Pierre-Richard Agénor, Co-Director, Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research, School of Economic Studies, University of Manchester Related paper: The Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction
April 13	The Effect of Adult Returns to Schooling on Children’s School Enrollment, Theory and Evidence from South Africa Sarah Gormly, Division of Foreign Economic Research, Department of Labor (Co-author Kenneth A. Swinnerton)
April 20	The Effects of Multiple Minimum Wages Throughout the Labor Market in Costa Rica Tim Gindling University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Note: Older papers no longer linked; check with authors.

Fall 2004

September 8	Image Reconstruction: An Information-Theoretic Approach [abstract here] Amos Golan, American University (Co-authors Avi Bhati and Bahattin Buyuksahin)
September 15	No Seminar
September 22	The Socio-Economic Impact of Favela-Bairro: What do the Data Say? Yuri Soares, IDB Evaluation Office
September 29	No Seminar
October 6 Bentley Lounge Gray Hall	Have minimum wages benefited South Africa’s domestic workers? Tom Hertz, American University
Friday October 8 PE Seminar Noon – 1pm	Creating a Free (Market) Woman: Evaluating Market Freedom Indicators and Gender Wage Patterns Laura Bhadra (Co-author Ramya Vijaya)
October 13	No Seminar
October 20	The Economic Consequences of Dollar Appreciation for U.S. Manufacturing Profits and Investment: A Time-Series Analysis Robert Blecker, American University
October 27	The Spread of Antidumping Regimes and the Role of Retaliation in Filings Robert Feinberg and Kara Olson, American University
November 3	The Deadliest of Games: A Model of The Duel Eliane Catilina, American University (Co-author Robert E. Wright)
November 10	Counting chickens when they hatch: The short-term effect of aid on growth Steven Radelet, Center for Global Development (Co-authors Michael A. Clemens, Rikhil Bhavnani)
November 17 Jointly sponsored by PE Seminar	Still a Man's Labor Market: The Long Term Earnings Gap Stephen Rose (OCR Macro) and Heidi Hartmann (Institute for Women's Policy Research)
November 24	Thanksgiving, No Seminar
December 1	A Financial Approach to Modeling Macro Risk Dale Gray, MF Risk, Inc. Powerpoint slides here
December 8	The State of Working America – A Research Agenda Sylvia Allegretto, Economic Policy Institute
December 15	Trade Deflection and Trade Depression Chad Bown, Brandeis and Brookings

Spring 2004

February 26 Wednesday PE Seminar Noon-1pm	Social Democracy …and… Libertarian Socialism: What Went Wrong? (Two papers linked) Robin Hahnel, American University
March 3	No Seminar
March 10	Spring Break – No Seminar
March 17	The Role of Trust in Costly Network Formation Sudipta Sarangi, Louisiana State University (Co-author Robert Gilles)
March 19 Friday PE Seminar Noon-1pm	Global Keynesianism Versus The New Mercantilism: International Economics After Joan Robinson Robert Blecker, American University
March 24	The Beach Party Problem Nicholas Baigent, London School of Economics and University of Graz, Austria Other papers: A Borda Rule for Decisions under Complete Uncertainty Uncertainty Aversion under Complete Ignorance
March 31	Venezuela's Deteriorating Economy and Polity Peter Whitney, American University
April 7	From Promises to Action: Recommendations from the UN Millennium Project Task Force 3 for Achieving Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Caren Grown, International Center for Research on Women Download Full Report…or… Executive Summary
April 14	University Rankings Games James Dearden, Lehigh University
April 16 Friday PE Seminar 3pm	Have Global Public Goods Revived Jeremy Bentham? Kristen Sheeran, St. Mary’s College
April 21	Bank Runs in Emerging Market Economies: Turkey's Special Finance Houses Martha Starr, American University

Fall 2003

September 3	Works Councils & Environmental Investment: Theory & Evidence from German Panel Data Stephen C. Smith, George Washington University (Coauthors Jan Erik Askildsen, University of Bergen; Uwe Jirjahn, University of Hannover)
September 10	Education, Human Capital and National Income Theodore R. Breton, George Mason University
September 17	Regionalism: Old and New, Theory and Practice Sherman Robinson, IFPRI. Coauthored with Mary Burfisher and Karen Thierfelder
September 24	Job Stability, Earnings, and Marital Stability: How Are They Related? Bob Lerman, American University and Urban Institute (Coauthor Avner Ahituv, University of Haifa and Urban Institute)
October 1	Market Power and the Incentives to Form Research Consortia Bob Feinberg and Eliane Catilina, American University
October 8	No seminar
October 15	Inflation Targeting in Brazil: Lessons and Challenges Marcelo Kfoury Muinhos, Research Department, Central Bank of Brazil (Co-authors Andre Minella, Paulo Springer de Freitas and Ilan Goldfajn).
October 22	Globalization and International Commodity Trade: The Case of West African Cocoa Christopher Gilbert, Università degli Studi di Trento, Italy (Coauthor Panos Varangis)
October 29	Technological Uncertainty and Earnings Dispersion in US Iron Work, 1866-1881 Peter Meyer, Bureau of Labor Statistics
November 5	Bargaining over Subsidy Support for Adopted Children Mary Hansen, American University
November 12	Rethinking Policy Toward Single Mothers Barbara Bergmann, American University, Emerita
Monday November 17	Life-Cycle Variation in the Association between Current and Lifetime Earnings Gary Solon, University of Michigan
December 3	The Elimination of Textile and Apparel Quotas: Trade Diversion or Trade Creation? Kara Olson, American University
Monday December 8	Prioritizing Growth: Enhancing Macropolicy Choice Colin Bradford, American University

Spring 2003

Location: Roper Hall 100

February 26	Are Rejected Households Credit-Constrained Or Simply Less Creditworthy? Darryl Getter, HUD.
March 5	Seminar Cancelled
March 12	Spring Break

Location: McCabe Hall 102

March 19	The Status of Women in the States Amy Caiazza, Institute for Women’s Policy Research
March 26	Men, Women and Risk Aversion Catherine Eckel , Dept. of Economics, Virginia Tech
April 2	The Millenium Challenge Account: Challenging the Conventions on Foreign Aid Steve Radelet and Michael Clemens, Center for Global Development
	· Overview: Will the Millennium Challenge Account be Different? Washington Quarterly, Spring 2003. · Details of country selection process: Qualifying for the Millennium Challenge Account · Empirical analyses: The Millennium Challenge Account: How Much is Too Much, How Long is Long Enough? Center for Global Development Working Paper #23, February 2003
April 9	Activists and Radicals in a Multi-Agent Model of Class Norms Rob Axtell, CSED, Brookings To download Java-based software for agent based simulation modeling, click here.
April 16	Seminar Cancelled: Will try to get Josh Epstein for next semester
April 23	Democracy, Inequality, and Inflation Tarik Yousef, Georgetown (co-authors Raj Desai, Anders Olofsgard, also Georgetown)
April 30	Seminar Cancelled -- Sorry! Here is the paper anyway. Will try to get Scott Wallsten for next semester. Returning to Victorian Competition, Ownership, and Regulation: An Empirical Study of European Telecommunications at the turn of the 20th Century Scott Wallsten, World Bank

Fall 2002

September 11: Forecasting the Effects of Pending Minimum Wage Legislation on Poverty in South Africa

Tom Hertz, Dept. of Economics, American University

September 18: International Business Cycles: World, Region, and Country-Specific Factors

Christopher Otrok, Dept. of Economics, University of Virginia

(Co-authored with M. Ayhan Kose and Charles H. Whiteman)

September 25: The States vs. the states: On the Welfare Costs of Business Cycles in the US

Michel Robe, Kogod School of Business, American University

(Co-authored with Stéphane Pallage)

October 2: The Challenges of Getting a Small Open Economy Going Again: Peru under Toledo, One Year Later

Daniel Schydlowsky, Professor of Economics, American University

President, Corporacion Financiera de Desarrollo (COFIDE), Lima, Peru

October 9: Extra-long weekend; no seminar.

October 16: Financial Aid Packages And College Enrollment Decisions: An Econometric Case Study

Cecilia Rouse, Director, Education Research Center, Princeton University

(Co-authored with David M. Linsenmeier and Harvey S. Rosen)

October 23: An Experimental Study of Congestion and Cost Allocation Mechanisms for Distributed Networks

Laura Razzolini, Dept. of Economics, University of Mississippi & National Science Foundation

(Co-authored with Yan Chen)

October 30: Fair Wages, Effort Norms and Implicit Bargaining Power in Employment Relationships

William Ferguson, Department of Economics, Grinnell College

November 6: The Long and Short of It: Global Liberalization, Poverty and Inequality

Christian Weller, Economic Policy Institute

(Co-authored with Adam Hersh)

November 13: No seminar today; Carol Graham rescheduled to December 4^th.

November 20: The Paradox of the Absent-Minded Driver: A Preliminary Experiment

Eliane Catilina, Dept. of Economics, American University

November 27: Thanksgiving holiday; no seminar.

December 4: Happiness and Hardship: Opportunity and Insecurity in New Market Economies

Carol Graham

Vice President and Director, Governance Studies Program, The Brookings Institution

(Book co-authored with Stefano Pettinato, Inter-American Development Bank and Nicole Pagano, Brookings Institution Press)

December 11: Dynamics of Interrelation Between the Level and Distribution of Income: The Case of Time-Reversible Increasing Returns

Srinivas Raghavendra, Madras School of Economics, Chennai