Economics Department sponsors Joel Hay / Thomas Rice health care reform debate
The Department of Economics co-sponsored a two-hour debate on health care reform on November 17. The two speakers were prominent health economists Joel Hay (Professor and Founding Chair in the Department of Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy in the School of Pharmacy, and Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Southern California) and Thomas Rice (Professor in the Department of Health Services, and Vice Chancellor of Academic Personnel at UCLA). Both speakers agreed that the reforms did little to contain costs and favored expansion of health insurance coverage. Professor Rice argued that the U.S. had poor health outcomes (life expectancy and infant mortality), especially given the large amount of money spent per capita in the U.S. compared to other countries. He favored reducing costs through reductions on the supply side, such as giving Medicare the power to negotiate harder on prices. Professor Hay felt that the poor health outcomes reflect other factors than quality of care, such as higher murder and accident rates, and that health care costs in other countries are low in part because they free ride on medical innovations such as new drugs that mainly occur in the U.S. He favored reducing costs through reductions on the demand side, most notably by having consumers be more responsible for paying for their own health costs by having high deductible health insurance (or catastrophic health insurance) plans and eliminating the exclusion of employer provided health insurance from being part of taxable income. The debate was co-sponsored by the Levine Family Fund, The Herbert A. Young Society, The Center for History, Society and Culture, the Program in Economy, Justice and Society, and the Institute of Governmental Affairs.
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Oscar Jorda and Travis Berge: Economics recovery began in July 2009
Research by Oscar Jorda (Professor) and Travis Berge (graduate student) in the Department of Economics finds that economic recovery in the U.S. began in July 2009. This is part of a larger research project evaluating the official dating of business cycles by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The official NBER dating is done with a long lag – if indeed the NBER finds that the recession ended in July 2009 it will not officially determine that fact and announce it until well into 2010. The research by Jorda and Berge proposes a faster method for dating the business cycle turning points. A summary of the research is given on James Hamilton’s popular blog ; see Econbrowser. The paper is available at paper.
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Ann Stevens, Marianne Page, Jessamyn Schaller: Parent job loss impacts children (New York Times)
A front-page story in the November 11 New York Times (see article) references research by Ann Stevens and Jessamyn Schaller (a graduate student in the department): "A recent study at the University of California, Davis, found that children in families where the head of the household had lost a job were 15 percent more likely to repeat a grade."
It then cites research by Ann Stevens, Marianne Page and Philip Oreopoulos (Toronto): "In the long term, children whose parents were laid off have been found to have lower annual earnings as adults than those whose parents remained employed, a phenomenon Peter R. Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, mentioned in a speech last week at New York University."
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Christopher Knittel: Cash for Clunkers expensive way to reduce C02 emissions (New York Times, Wall Street Journal)
Christopher Knittel finds that the recent federal "Cash for Clunkers" program reduces CO2 emissions by an expensive $237-$365 per ton. His August 2009 research appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times
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Ann Stevens: Income Loss Persists Long After Layoffs (New York Times)
Ann Stevens was quoted in an August 2009 New York Times article on the persistence of income loss after layoff.
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Workshop on Neuroeconomics and Endocrinological Economics
The Department of Economics will host the Workshop on Neuroeconomics and Endocrinological Economics, November 20 - 21, 2009. Neuroeconomics studies brain functions involved in individual and strategic decisions such as decisions under risk and uncertainty, competition and cooperation. Endocrinological Economics studies how hormones interact with individual and strategic decisions. Both interdisciplinary fields are at the frontier of today’s research in economics and neuroscience. The workshop brings together innovative researchers active in economics, neuroscience, endocrinology, genetics, anthropology and psychology to exchange novel results. It is organized by Burkhard C. Schipper, assistant professor of economics at UC Davis. Sponsors include the Levine Family Foundation, the College of Letters and Science and the Institute of Governmental Affairs. Further information is available from the workshop website.
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UC Davis hosts NBER-NSF Time Series Conference
UC Davis hosts the Time Series Conference sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research and the National Science Foundation, September 11 - 12, 2009. UC Davis Economics professors Oscar Jorda and Guido Kuersteiner serve both on the program committee and the organizing committee. This conference ranks as the premier international meeting on the statistical analysis of time series data and attracts leading researchers from around the world. It has been held annually since the late 1970s at universities in the United States, Asia and Europe, including once at UC Davis in 1984. This year marks the 25th anniversary of that meeting, during which Robert Engle and Clive Granger and James Stock presented their seminal research on cointegration. Granger was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for his work on this topic. More information on the conference including the program can be found at the conference website.
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Martine Quinzii gives the Arne Ryde Memorial Lectures 2009
Professor Martine Quinzii will deliver this year's Arne Ryde Memorial Lectures at Lund University, Sweden, September 23-26, 2009. The lectures jointly held with Michael Magill are on "Uncertainty and Expectations in General Equilibrium". Further information can be found at the website of the Arne Ryde Foundation.
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Scott Carrell and Marianne Page: Want more women to study science? Hire more female professors!
Research by Scott Carrell (UCD), Marianne Page (UCD) and James West (Air Force Academy) finds that replacing a male instructor with a female one has such a strong effect on female achievement as to erase the gender gap in science entirely. Their research paper, is discussed in a recent article in Slate, and is the lead story in the September 2009 NBER digest.
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Wing Woo receives Malaysian knighthood
Wing Woo was knighted on July 11 2009 by the Governor of Penang state (Malaysia). He received the chivalry order of Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri, DSPN (translated as Order of the Defender of State - Knight Commander) and can be referred to as "Dato" (the analog of "Sir" in England). The award was for academic achievements, professional leadership, and public service contributions.
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Alan Olmstead wins the Wayne D. Rasmussen Prize of the Agricultural History Association
In June, Distinguished Professor Alan Olmstead and coauthor Paul Rhode won the Wayne D. Rasmussen Prize of the Agricultural History Association for their article “Biological Innovation and Productivity Growth in the Antebellum Cotton Economy,” which appeared in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of Economic History.
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Alan Olmstead wins the Quality of Research Discovery Award of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
Distinguished Professor Alan Olmstead and coauthor Paul Rhode won the Quality of Research Discovery Award of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. The association's 2009 prize has been awarded in recognition of their recent book "Creating Abundance: Biological Innovation and American Agricultural Development".
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Burkhard C. Schipper selected to be a UC Davis Hellman Fellow
Assistant Professor of Economics, Burkhard C. Schipper, has been selected to be a 2009-2010 UC Davis Hellman Fellow. He will receive an award towards his research activities on hormones and economic behavior. He is the first member of the Economics Department to receive the fellowship. The Hellman Family Foundation has contributed funds to establish the UC Davis Hellman Fellows Program to provide support and encouragement for the research of promising faculty at the Assistant Professor rank who exhibit potential for great distinction in their research.
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Professor Alan M. Taylor awarded the Houblon-Norman/George Fellowship of the Bank of England
Professor Alan M. Taylor has been awarded the Houblon-Norman/George Fellowship of the Bank of England in 2009-2010. The fellowships are awarded "to promote research into and disseminate knowledge and understanding of the working, interaction and function of financial business institutions in Great Britain and elsewhere and the economic conditions affecting them". Fellows engage in full-time research on an economic or financial topic of their own choice, preferably one that could be studied with particular advantage at the Bank of England. Former recipients of the fellowship include Thomas Sargent, Robert Barro, UC Davis economist Chris Meissner, and UC Davis economics undergraduate alumnus and professor of economics at the University of Chicago, Anil Kashyap.
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UC Davis Economist Wing Thye Woo gives Testimony at the US Congress
UC Davis economist Professor Wing Thye Woo gave a testimony on China to the US Congress on Tuesday, February 17, 2009. He briefed the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that examines China’s role in the global recession and its impact on U.S. relations. Watch his testimony.
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