WELCOME!

We welcome to the department five new faculty members: Esfandiar Maasoumi, Sara Markowitz, David Frisvold, Sue Mialon, and Tanya Molodtsova. We are excited to have them join our department.

We also welcome Gregory Berns, who now has a partial appointment with our department and the School of Medicine, and Tao Zha, who is joining us as a Visiting Faculty member from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Also joining us this year are six new graduate students: Carolina Felix, Ruoyan Huang, Bing Jiang, Xiaochun (Martin) Liu, Handie Peng, and Jing Xu.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Our faculty and graduate students had a strong year of scholarship in 2007-2008. The peer reviewed journals in which they published or have forthcoming article in are on par with top ranked programs. A sample of the journals in which faculty published or have forthcoming articles in during 2007-2008 includes: American Economic Review, International Economic Review, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal of Macroeconomics, American Law and Economics Review, Economic Theory, Review of Economic Dynamics, Economic Letters, Canadian Journal of Economics, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, and NeuroImage. Congratulations on your accomplishments!

Our program has been ranked in a new article published in the Southern Economic Journal examining Ph.D. granting institutions for areas of expertise. Emory Economics ranked #13 in Law and Economics and #21 in General Economics and Teaching. See Grijalva, Therese and Clifford Nowell. 2008. A Guide to Graduate Study in Economics: Ranking Economics Departments by Fields of Expertise. Southern Economic Journal 74(4): 971-996.

Two of our graduate students graduated last year, and have secured jobs: Berrak Buyukkarabacak is an assistant professor at the University of Richmond in Richmond, VA and Jasminka Ninkovic is an assistant professor at Oxford College in Oxford, GA. Best luck to both ladies as they embark on their professional academic careers.

We have had two new additions to our departmental family:
Alexa DeVetter welcomed her grandson, Aiden Jon Lynch, on May 27, 2008.
Charles Noussair and Katia Soriano welcomed their daughter, Linda Sabrina Noussair, on May 29, 2008.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

Mark your calendars for our Annual Welcome Party! It will take place in Rich 329A on Wednesday, September 3 at 5:00 p.m. Faculty, staff, grad students, and invited undergrad students are welcome.

Orientation for new faculty members will be held in Rich 329A on Wednesday, August 27 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. There will be presentations by the Chair, DGS, and DUS about the Economics Department.

Other upcoming events will be posted on the Events webpage.

OTHER UPDATES

Paul Rubin has been invited to participate as a roundtable panelist in the "FTC at 100" workshop scheduled for the afternoon of July 30 in Washington as part of a project aimed at enhancing the Agency's quality as it approaches the 100th anniversary of its establishment in 2014. Professor Rubin served as Director of the Division of Consumer Protection in the Bureau of Economics at the FTC in the early 1980s, and has written extensively about consumer protection issues related to the FTC's mission. He has also taught courses to FTC staff on the economics of consumer protection in Washington and Chicago.

Esfandiar Maasoumi was very moved to be at a Dean's dinner party in mid-May at SMU honoring 4 new Ph.d graduates in Economics whom he had the distinct pleasure of advising (as director or committee member). This was surely an emotional highlight at least for this year.

In late May, Professor Maasoumi was invited to attend two workshops organized by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Department of International Development, University of Oxford. One was on "Measuring Capabilities/Freedoms (theoretically and empirically)", and one was on "Weighting Dimensions" of well-being.

In mid July, Professor Maasoumi is invited to participate and present a paper at a conference at Singapore Management University to honor Peter Phillips.

He is excited that he and his daughter, Maya, will be living within walking/biking distance of the Department and Maya's school as of this Fall.

Shomu Banerjee sends greetings from Seoul! He is teaching intermediate micro at a 6-week summer session there at the Institute of International Education at Korea University. The funny thing is that three Korean Emory students who couldn't register for his 201 class at Emory in the Fall because it is overloaded found out that he was going to be teaching it there and registered! He looks forward to seeing everyong again in mid-August.

Monica Capra will be visiting GATE (Group for Economic Analysis and Theory) at the University of Lyon in France in the Fall. During her visit, she will be giving a series of lectures. She also plans to visit Read Montague’s lab at the Baylor School of Medicine in Houston to get exposed to some of the most exciting new discoveries in behavioral neuroscience.

Milt Kafoglis leaves on July 4 for a Norwegian cruise, then will go to Ronda, Spain for 10-12 days to participate in a writing program sponsored by ISCLT (a secret cult)  where Emily is presenting her play "(Popcorn and Martinis)"  and then will head on to Paris. He will be back in Atlanta around August 20.

Steve Kiebzak has been experiencing life post-core exams traveling to Denver, San Francisco, and Houston.

Erik Nesson is enjoying his summer working for his previous consulting firm which reminds him daily about why he left for graduate school.

Kelli Lanier and her husband Joe traveled to Machu Picchu and Cusco, Peru in June.