News

Econometric Society North American Summer Meetings to be held at Northwestern in 2012

 

Northwestern University will be hosting the North American Summer Meetings of the Econometric Society. The meeting will be from June 21 to 24, 2012. Information and a link to the call for papers can be found here.

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Professor Mokyr Elected Fellow of the Econometric Society

Faculty member Joel Mokyr was elected as a Fellow of the Econometric Society in November 2011. Also elected was Thomas Holmes, an alumnus of the Department's graduate program (PhD, 1985). He is currently a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota.

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Nemmers Prize Conference to be held in May 2012

Northwestern University announces that it will host a conference associated with the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics on May 11 and 12, 2012. The conference will deal with the political economy of growth and development, on both the theoretical and empirical level. The conference will feature twelve papers, mostly by young scholars, as well as keynote lectures by Alberto Alesina (Harvard University) and Fabrizio Zillibotti (University of Zurich). The conference wll be concurrent with the visit of the current holder of the Nemmers Prize, Elhanan Helpman (pictured), to campus in the Spring Quarter of 2012. Details of the conference can be found here.

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Nemmers Prize Winner is Awarded Nobel Prize

Once again the Nemmers Prize proved to be a good predictor of the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Thomas Sargent, the 1996 holder of the Nemmers Prize, was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for 2011. The Nemmers Prize in Economics has been awarded by Northwestern University every two years since 1994 to recognize work of "lasting significance" by an economist who had yet to win a Nobel Prize. The first five of the nine holders of the prize were subsequent winners of the Nobel Prize. The current holder, Elhanan Helpman, returns to visit Northwestern University in the Spring of 2012.

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Distinguished Teaching Assistants Honored

The Department's Distinguished Teaching Assistant Awards for 2010-11 were presented in October 2011. The winners of a certificate and a year's subscription to Econometrica were Jia-Young Michael Fu, Joseph Goodman, Benjamin Johannsen, David Miller (all reawards), Roland Eisenhuth, Matthew Gunden, Christopher Lau, Jorge Lemus, Benjamin Mermelstein, David Ovadia, Esteban Petruzzello, Yannay Spitzer, Emil Temnyalov, Mary Zaki, and Jaber Zarezadeh. These awards are given to the top third of our Teaching Assistants, based on student and faculty evaluations.

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Robert Eisner Memorial Fellowship

In October 2011, a fellowship in honor of our late colleague Robert Eisner was presented. For 2011-12 the Fellowship was awarded to Hans Joachim Freyberger. This fellowship is awarded annually to a graduate student who has distinguished him- or herself in both teaching and research.

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Susan Bies Research Prizes

The annual Susan Schmidt Bies Prizes for Doctoral Student Research on Economics and Public Policy were awrded in October 2011. The awards are given to the best public policy papers presented as part of the Economics 501 Graduate Student seminar. The winners for 2010-11 were Jose Miguel Abito (pictured right) for a paper on environmental regulation, and Tiago Pires (left) for an analysis of the labor market in the banking industry under public and private ownership. They received their prize from Department Chair William Rogerson (center). The prizes were generously donated by alumna Susan Schmidt Bies (PhD, 1972). Her professional career included serving on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

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Faculty Appointed to Named Chairs

In September 2011, longtime faculty member and Nobel Laureate Dale Mortensen was appointed as a Board of Trustees Professor, which is the most prestigious chaired professorship that the University can award to its faculty. He became the second Board of Trustees Professor in the Department of Economics, along with Charles Manski. Igal Hendel (pictured) has been appointed as the Ida C. Cook Professor of Economics, a chair formerly held by Professor Mortensen.  Wojciech Olszewski has been appointed as the HSBC Research Professor of Economics for a two-year term.

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Faculty Honored for their Teaching

In Spring 2011, Northwestern's Associated Student Government held a vote of students to choose our best teachers and administrators, with more than 3,600 students casting votes. Economics did very well. Faculty members Steffen Habermalz, William Rogerson, Morton Schapiro, Eric Schulz, Richard Walker and Mark Witte were recognized for their teaching, and Ronald Braeutigam and Hilarie Lieb for their roles as administrators and advisors.

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Center for the Study of Development Economics

With the recent hiring of new faculty with an interest in development economics, a new research center - the Center for the Study of Development Economics - has been established within the Department. Professors Seema Jayachandran, Lori Beaman and Cynthia Kinnan are assisted by research manager Jaye Stapleton, and research analysts Alexander Persaud and Samuel Arenberg. To reduce possible confusion, the existing Center for International Economics and Development (CIED) has been renamed the Center for International Macroeconomics (CIM).

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Two New Faculty join Department

Joining the Department in summer 2011 were Associate Professor Seema Jayachandran (pictured, left) and Assistant Professor Alexander Torgovitsky (pictured, right). Professor Jayachandran joins us from Stanford University and is a leading teacher and researcher in the field of development economics. Professor Torgovitsky is an econometrician who has just completed his dissertation at Yale University.

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Departmental Awards for Graduating Undergraduate Seniors

In June 2011 the Department of Economics awarded prizes at a graduation day luncheon to honor our outstanding undergraduate seniors.

Frederick S. Deibler Awards for Excellence in Economics Classes

• Yan Miao
• Jihae John Hwang
• Vicky Wang
• Mitchell Lee

Frederick S. Diebler Awards for Superior Honors Theses

• Suzanne Chang
• Mikhail Zarkh

Robert Eisner Award for Excellence in Economic Research

• Yan Mao

In addition Seokhyun Aaaron Yoon and Patricio Naboa Hidalgo were recognized for obtaining the four year BA/MA degree.

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Two with NU Connections on Review of Economic Studies Tour

In May 2011, two of the seven speakers on the annual speaking tour organized by the Review of Economics Studies were connected with the Department. The tour features the best students from that year's job market for new PhDs. Northwestern doctoral graduate Kei Kawai (pictured), who has subsequently joined the Stern School of Business at New York University, was joined by Alexander Torgovitsky who has now joined our faculty.

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Nemmers Prize Winner Presents Lecture

Elhanan Helpman, the winner of the Nemmers Prize, was in residence in the Spring Quarter of 2011, and will return in the Spring Quarter of 2012. The biennial honor is bestowed on an outstanding economist who has yet to win the Nobel Prize.  Professor Helpman's work deals with international trade, economic growth, and the political economy of trade policy. He gave his Nemmers lecture titled “Income Distribution and Foreign Trade and Investment” on April 28, 2011. During his 2012 visit, a conference will be held in honor of Professor Helpman.

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Susan Bies Lecture on Health Care Policy

The annual Susan Bies (PhD, 1972) departmental lecture on economics and public policy was held on May 19, 2011. David Cutler from Harvard University, talked about health care reform. He served on the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council during the Clinton Administration, and was senior health care advisor to the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama. The video of the lecture is available here.

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Conference in Honor of Nobel Laureate Dale Mortensen

A conference in honor of faculty member Dale Mortensen, a co-winner of the 2010 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was held on campus in April 2011. More than 160 colleagues, including leading academics, policymakers and former students, gathered at a two-day symposium to focus on Mortensen’s research. Link to the program for the conference, and a media report on the event.

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Undergraduate Team Advances to National Finals of the College Federal Reserve Challenge

Our team of undergraduates, coached by Professor Mark Witte, beat 20 teams locally to advance to the national finals in Washington in November 2010 of the annual College Federal Reserve Challenge. This is the seventh year in a row that Northwestern has advanced to the finals.

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Faculty Member Dale Mortensen wins Nobel Prize

Longtime faculty member Dale Mortensen, the Ida C. Cook Professor of Economics at Northwestern University's Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics. He won the prize with Peter Diamond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Christopher Pissarides, London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom.  The prize recognized “their analysis of markets with search frictions.”  Link to the official Nobel Prize announcement.