色界吧

Highlighting new scholarly work, awards, grants and other news in the 色界吧 Economics department.

  • Associate Professor of Economics Brandon Lehr published a  in the Public Finance Review studying the optimal design of social security when individuals evaluate losses of money or leisure time as larger than equivalently sized gains. The research shows that such loss aversion motivates a more generous social security system.
  • Resident Senior Instructor of Accounting  presented a proceeding in September at the "Academy of Business Resources" in Austin, TX on the "A Statistical Decomposition of the Beta in the Capital Asset Pricing Model:  A Mathematical Approach."
  • Associate Professor of Economics Bevin Ashenmiller participated in a panel titled "Social and behavioral considerations for recycling participation" for the Costs and Approaches for Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Programs Committee of the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine.
  • Associate Professor of Economics Diana Ngo published a new in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics studying the gender gap in STEM and how it widens during high school due both to differences in student choices and institutional barriers to accessing STEM education. 
  • Mary Lopez, professor of economics, was presented with the prestigious Graham L. Sterling Memorial Award, established in 1972 to recognize a faculty member with a distinguished record of teaching, service, and professional achievement.
  • Jorgen Harris, assistant professor of economics received the Linda and Tod White Teaching Prize, which is based on student nominations. 
  • This year's recipients of the Economics Department's awards are Leonard Tillson (Bennett Schwartz Award), Daria Undeland (Jim Halstead Award), Francesca Rodoni and Leonard Tillson (Betty Tracy Award) and Grace Luu (Robby Moore Award). Award descriptions can be found here

  • Associate Professor Andrew Jalil鈥檚 study, 鈥,鈥 appears on a list of the most cited articles in the journal Food Policy.
  • 18 students and Professor Jason Wong went to Germany as a part of (Political Economy of Sustainable Development: Case of Germany). The course began as an on-campus seminar in Spring 2021. After that, students spent three weeks traveling across Germany to learn about the country's political and economic structures, as well as environmental and sustainability topics.
  • This year's recipients of the Economics Department's awards are Ruth Schlosser (Bennett Schwartz Award and Jim Halstead Award), Ansel Jeffries (Robby Moore Award), and Ashley Muranaka-Toolsie (Betty Tracy Award). Award descriptions can be found here
  • Associate Professor Andrew Jalil and his coauthors published their new , examining the effectiveness of an intervention to shift consumers towards more sustainable food choices, in Nature Food, one of the Nature journals.
  • Assistant Professor Jorgen Harris, along with coauthor Rhiannon Jerch, released a with the Center for Growth and Opportunity. They examine the effect of receiving Temporary Protected Status on formerly undocumented immigrants, finding that legal immigration status led to sustained improvements in income, job quality, and homeownership.
  • Associate Professor Jesse Mora and Economics Major Mary Hancock鈥檚 鈥淭he Impact of COVID-19 on Chinese trade and production: An empirical analysis of processing trade with Japan and the US鈥 was published in the Journal of Asian Economics. Mary is the first 色界吧 student to publish a peer-reviewed academic paper with an Econ professor.
  • Assistant Professor Kevin William鈥檚 article "" was published in the Journal of Labor Economics.
  • Assistant Professor Jesse Mora was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.
  • Economics majors Aidan Garagic 鈥22 and Layla Devlin 鈥23 have been named as Occidental鈥檚 2023-24 student Fulbright semi-finalists.
  • Associate Professor of Economics Andrew Jalil鈥檚 research on banking panics is cited in Christina Romer鈥檚 .
  • Economics alum received the 2023 Alumni Seal Awards from the 色界吧 Alumni Association.

  • A team of six 色界吧 students, including Andrew Masciarelli - an Economics major, Stephanie Enriquez Isais, Roshni Edwards, Dylan Herbert, Oscar Petter, and Peyton Resto, won third place in the Global Circular Challenge 2022 held at the London School of Economics on Dec 3 2022. Team 色界吧 was led by Economics Professor Jason Wong and supported by the Bennett Schwartz Fund.
  • Project management techniques are important for the successful completion of large projects. Associate Professor of Economics Daryl Ono鈥檚&苍产蝉辫; in the Journal of Cost Analysis & Parametrics shows that microeconomic tools can be implemented to improve the probability of success of a project. 鈥淎 Continuance of Marginal Cost Methodology in Project Change Management鈥 uses statistical analysis to illustrate the effectiveness of this methodology.
  • Associate Professor of Economics Andrew Jalil California鈥檚 KCRW to discuss rising inflation in the United States. Professor Jalil explained that the Federal Reserve is striving for a 鈥淕oldilocks moment,鈥 where they raise interest rates enough to slow inflation but not so much as to provoke a recession.
  • The Economics Department's work in the 2021-2022 academic year to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion is summarized in the year-end report.
  • Assistant Professor of Economics Jorgen Harris published  in The Conversation describing his research on gender and employment in the judiciary. The article highlights a  by Harris and his coauthors, published in the Journal of Labor Economics.
  • Woody Studenmund, Laurence de Rycke Professor of Economics, retires after 52 years at 色界吧.
  • Professor of Economics Lesley Chiou was awarded the 2022 Antitrust Writing Awards by Concurrences Review for her article with co-author Avigail Kifer, "." The article examines when firms may offer products priced for free and how do firms compete in markets where prices are set to zero?
  • Associate Professor of Economics Andrew Jalil was interviewed by about the Federal Reserve's recent interest rate hikes and the likelihood of recession.
  • Assistant Professor of Economics Jorgen Harris   has a new article in Labour Economics! In , Professor Harris finds that increases in women's work and education in the second half of the 20th century led to big changes in women鈥檚 representation in many high-education occupations. 
  • Using a randomized control trial in India, Assistant Professor of Economics Jason Wong and co-authors find that vouchers of equal value increase household willingness to pay for solar lanterns more than cash transfers and microfinance schemes.  published in Energy Economics, demonstrates that affordability is a prime obstacle and supports the use of voucher-like incentive programs to encourage transitional technologies.
  • Assistant Professor of Economics Jesse Mora鈥檚 new article in Empirical Economics takes a new approach to defining how country-level exports grow. shows that country-level export growth will depend on five growth drivers (comparative advantage changes, product demand growth, country-level growth, global growth, and growth in destinations reached).
  • Catlin Hedeman '21 publishes her honors thesis  in the Undergraduate Economic Review.

  • In a in Energy Economics, Jason Wong and co-authors use a conjoint experiment to study electricity billing preferences in India. They find that respondents prefer consumption-based tariffs as opposed to fixed fees, and suggest that policy reforms should transition away from fixed fee schemes. 
  • Jorgen Harris and Mary Lopez are awarded a that will support research examining the effect of a recent expansion of college courses offered in prison on the lives of incarcerated students.
  • The Economics Department's work in the 2020-2021 academic year to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion is summarized in the year-end report
  • Diana Ngo is honored as a recipient the Linda and Tod White Teaching Prize.
  • Brandon Lehr publishes a new textbook,  (Routledge).
  • Andrew Jalil publishes 鈥溾 in Frontiers in Psychology.
  • Senior Jordan Walker '21 receives prestigious . Jordan Walker is 色界吧鈥檚 18th Luce Scholar since the program was initiated in 1974. Through the award, he will be placed in a major Asian city, connected to important institutions and people in his areas of interest, and given a year of financial and administrative support to cultivate his career.
  • In a new article, "", Economics Prof. Jason Wong and co-authors study perceptions and acceptability of electricity theft using a large-scale survey experiment in Uttar Pradesh, India. They showed that there exists a sense of social reprimand for stealing power, however, desired punishment is nuanced and context-dependent.

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