Economics Dept. Visiting Scholars Seminars 2009-2010
| Date |
Time | Room | Speaker | Affiliation | Topic |
| Sept 10, 2009 | 11 a.m. |
280 TNRB |
Joseph Cullen | University of Arizona |
"The Environmental Benefits of Wind Power"Production subsidies for renewable wind energy have been a popular program due to their perceived environmental benefits. However, little empiracal research has been conducted which would quantify such benefits. In this paper, Dr. Cullen qualtifies the emissions offset by wind power by identifying the substituting conventional power generators on the electricity grid to value the avoided emissions due to government subsidies. |
| Sept 17, 2009 | 11 a.m. | 280 TNRB |
Greg Duncan |
U.C. Irvine |
"The Notable and the Null: Using Mixed Methods to Understand the Diverse Impacts of Residential Mobility Programs"This research focuses on the contributions of Moving To Opportunity’s (MTO) qualitative studies and of the highly productive synergies that have arisen between MTO’s structured and rigorous quantitative research and a collection of qualitative studies fielded shortly after the program first began. |
| Sept 24, 2009 | 11 a.m. | 250 SWKT | Dan Hamermesh |
UT Austin |
"Economics of Beauty"Do good-looking people earn more, how much more, and why? Is the effect the same for men and women? Does it mean employers discriminate against ugly workers? Do good looks make people more productive--can we ever distinguish between the effects of beauty, or some other characteristic, as discrimination or productivity? Does buying clothing and beauty treatments raise earnings power? Is hiring good-looking people a good strategy for companies? Should the government offer affirmative action programs for ugly people? |
| Oct 1, 2009 | 11 a.m. | 284 TNRB |
Matthew Lindquist | Stockholm University |
“Intergenerational Income Mobility: How Far Does the Apple Fall from the Tree?”How important is family background for determining one’s economic success? Why do economists care about economic mobility and how should we go about measuring such phenomenon accurately? Prof. Lindquist (University of Stockholm) will discuss these questions and present an overview of the economics literature concerning intergenerational income mobility in Europe and the United States. |
| Oct. 6, 2009 (TUES) | 4:30 p.m. | 1002 JKB | Travis Lybbert | UC Davis |
WHO SMOOTHES WHAT? ASSET SMOOTHING, CONSUMPTION SMOOTHING AND UNMITIGATED RISK IN BURKINA FASOThe permanent income hypothesis posits that rational agents smooth consumption as transitory income fluctuates. Empirical evidence of this behavior among the poor has been mixed, but often suggests very limited consumption smoothing tendencies. We contend that much of this evidence pools agents that pursue different smoothing strategies and consequently produce muddled tests of consumption smoothing. In this paper, we use dynamic asset smoothing as a theoretical structure to justify wealth-differentiated smoothing tendencies. We test this theory by allowing the smoothing target to shift from assets and consumption as livestock wealth increases. We find evidence for the existence of a threshold that divides asset and consumption smoothers and document behavioral differences between these groups that are consistent with asset smoothing as a response to the presence of a dynamic asset threshold. These results suggest that failing to carefully distinguish between asset and consumption smoothers may be responsible for the muddled consumption smoothing evidence common in previous analyses. |
| Nov 5, 2009 | 11 a.m. | 280 TNRB |
Dave Easley |
Cornell |
Networks, Crowds, and MarketsOver the past decade there has been a growing public fascination with the complex "connectedness" of modern society. At the heart of this fascination is the idea of a network --- a pattern of interconnections among a set of things. This connectedness is found in many incarnations: in the rapid growth of the Internet and the Web, in the ease with which global communication now takes place, and in the ability of news and information as well as epidemics and financial crises to spread around the world with surprising speed and intensity.These are all phenomena that involve networks and the incentives networks create. These phenomena result from the links that connect us and the ways that each of our decisions can have subtle consequences for the outcomes of everyone else. I will briefly discuss examples of social, natural, information, and economic networks. |