Professor Robin McKnight

Department of Economics AnnualNewsletter

University of OregonEugene, OR 97403-1285http://economics.uoregon.edu

NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

ANOTHER OUTSTANDING YEAR

As usual, the past year has brought numerouschanges to our Department that are ofinterest to our alumni. Our Department

continues to grow in numbers and reputation, andwe hope that you are as pleased with these changesas we are. This year we were able to add one newmember to our faculty, host visiting economistsfrom other universities, and continue to expand bothour graduate and undergraduate programs.

One of the key reasons for this continued expansionis that we have continued to grow in enrollments.Last year the Department provided classes to 5,508student bodies. When compared to 2000-01’s totalof 4,709 this is a 17 percent increase, illustrating thecontinued strength and growth of our Department.Similarly, the number of economics majors hasgrown from 367 in 2001-02 to 415 this year. Oureconomics minors have followed a comparabletrend, reaching a total of 130 this year. Within theUniversity, such trends are important because theyare a signal of the high level of teaching theEconomics Department provides. This in turn givesus access to some additional funds which we canuse to provide computer access to our majors,sponsor career days, bring in outside speakers, andso forth. These perks in turn help us attractadditional students. Outside of the academic life,such trends are important because they representincreasing awareness of the usefulness ofeconomics as both a discipline and a major. This inturn increases the job opportunities for our alumniagain improving the reputation of the EconomicsDepartment. Because of these benefits, theEconomics Department is working hard to ensurethat these trends continue, and we thank our alumsfor their continued support in this endeavor.

Although funds certainly play a part in this success,it would be wrong to ignore the contributions of ourfaculty, staff, graduate teaching fellows, and the

undergraduates themselves. Our faculty continues tocreate top-quality research and provide equallyimpressive instruction to students. In addition to highquality teaching, our Department has continued to offerinnovative classes including a new addition in whichundergraduates provide economic research assistance tolocal non-profit organizations. The GTFs also work hardto make themselves available and to provide high-qualityinstruction to their students. Finally, the undergraduateswork hard to help each other through our peer advisingprogram. All of these elements combine to equal a strongprogram of which all of us can be very proud.

FACULTY NEWS AND NOTES

This year we are pleased to welcome RobinMcKnight as a new assistant professor in ourDepartment. Robin received a BA in economics

and Russian from Amherst College in 1995 and a PhD ineconomics from MIT in 2002. Prior to joining the UOfaculty in 2003, she was a postdoctoral fellow at theNational Bureau of Economic Research (NBER),studying the economics of aging and health. Her currentresearch relates to issues that arise from governmentintervention in health insurance markets, such as throughMedicare reimbursement policy. More generally, her

interests span the fields of publice c o n o m i c s a n d h e a l t heconomics. This fall she hasbeen developing a newundergraduate course on healtheconomics. She told us she wasattracted to the UO EconomicsDepartment by the opportunity tobecome part of a productive,collegial, and supportive

department. In particular, she was impressed by theDepartment's commitment to the development of itsjunior members and its overall track record ofproductivity. The friendly work environment,complemented by the quality of life in Eugene, made foran appealing opportunity.This year Shankha Chakraborty is away from campus and

2 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

Professor Bruce Blonigen

instead visiting the International Monetary Fund’sWashington D.C. campus. We eagerly awaitShankha’s return this summer. Another change thisyear is Bill Harbaugh’s half- time appoint as afaculty research fellow at the Oregon SurveyResearch Lab in which he provides assistance insurvey development.

THE APPLE OF OUR EYE

Our Department’s reputation for excellence inteaching was reaffirmed by Bruce Blonigen.Bruce won the Ersted Award for

Distinguished Teaching, which acknowledgesteaching excellence by faculty early in their careers.

Bruce was one of only fourwinne r s ac ross t heUnivers i ty and waspresented with a crystalapple in class by PresidentDave Frohnmayer. Bywinning the Ersted Award,Bruce joins the ranks ofc u r r e n t D e p a r t m e n tmembers Wes Wilson andEd Whitelaw, who wonErsted Awards in 1996 and

1970, respectively, and Emeritus Departmentmember Bob Smith, who won the BurlingtonNorthern Distinguished Faculty AchievementAward in 1986.

FACULTY PROFILE

Those of you that read last year's newsletterwill recall that Peter Lambert from theUniversity of York in the UK visited us last

year. Happily, we are pleased to report that Peterhas decided to join us on a more permanent basis. Inrecruiting Peter we have unashamedly exploited hispersonal situation. Peter met, fell for, and marriedPolly Jamison, a well-known Eugene psychologist,last year. For the Economics Department, thispresented an opportunity with no cost (that's notwhat we teach!!!), we got a world-class publiceconomist with little or no recruiting effortexpended.

Peter's career has been an interesting one. Hereceived a First Class Honors degree in

mathematics from the University of Manchester (UK) in1968, a Diploma in advanced mathematics from theUniversity of Oxford in 1969, a D. Phil. in mathematicsfrom the University of Oxford in 1971 and an M. Sc. ineconomics and econometrics from the University of Yorkin 1977.

He began his career conventionally enough, teaching puremathematics, at Wadham College Oxford from 1970-71.Then he got a little adventurous, switching to teachingmathematics at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria for

five years. Somewhere along theway, he developed a taste foreconomics receiving an inter-university council fellowship in theDepartment of Economics at theUniversity of York in 1976. Thiswas followed by a lectureship(assistant professorship) at theUniversity of Hull in 1979. Then itwas back to York for a lectureship1979-90, senior lectureship 1990-

92, readership 1992-94, and personal chair 1994-2003.Along the way, he also found time to visit LehighUniversity, the University of Naples, the University ofYaoundé in the Cameroon, the Delhi School ofEconomics, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, theUniversities of Guelph and Western Ontario, the FinnishSchool of Economics and Business Administration inHelsinki, the University of Munich, the University ofBari, the University of Leuven, and the University of theBalearic Islands (We suspect he likes frequent flyermiles!!).

Given his rise to prominence at one of Britain's leadingresearch universities, it isn't surprising to learn that Peterhas a very distinguished research record. He haspublished 6 papers in mathematics journals and 65 ineconomics journals. He has written 6 books andcontributed to 13 others. (We think he must have beenwriting on all those long plane flights). His contributionshave been widely recognized by the economicsprofession. He is a research associate at the Institute forFiscal Studies in London and at the CESifo ResearchNetwork at the Center for Economic Studies in theUniversity of Munich. He has been elected to membershipof the International Institute of Public Finance. Peteracted as the joint managing editor of Bulletin of EconomicResearch for seven years, is an editor of Social Choiceand Welfare and has been on the editorial board of the

3 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

Professor Bill Harbaugh

Professor Anne van den Nouweland

Professor Wesley Wilson

Review of Income and Wealth. He is currently aneditor of the Journal of Economic Inequality.

At the time of writing, this profile Peter has sevenmore papers in the works, making us believe hemust be on a plane somewhere. We do know that onDecember 5th he will be touching down in Eugene,his new permanent home.

FACULTY RESEARCH TRAVEL

Our faculty continues to be very active andoutgoing to put the University of Oregon onthe radar of the global economics

community. Last year two of our faculty tooksabbaticals and traveled abroad to promote theirresearch and establish new contacts. Bill Harbaughspent the winter 2003 quarter on sabbatical in Aix-en-Provence, France. He did not learn any Frenchworth mentioning, but he did give seminars inLyon, Strasbourg, and Paris. When he called to tellhis high school French teacher that he was giving atalk at the Sorbonne, she paused, and said, “InEnglish, I hope.” While in Aix, Bill sent thefollowing email to the young parents in ourDepartment, the advice of which we now pass on toall of you:

“So, here's a story from France for you new andprospective parents. It happened in Aix, but it could

have been any town - evenPittsburgh, or Eugene. I'min the laundromat, orlavomatique as we call ithere. Just hanging out,watching the wash, readingthe fashion mags. This ladycomes in with her kid andthe biggest damn teddy bearI've ever seen - maybe 5feet tall, really stuffed, andvery, very dirty. The ladytakes the bear and starts

cramming it into the 22 kg washing machine, thelargest they've got. It takes a while, and the kid isstanding there, quietly watching, looking a little sad.The mom starts talking to him - in French; I can'tunderstand but it's pretty clear what she is saying.The lady puts in the soap, the money, and the waterstarts pouring in. The kid looks at the bear,

scrunched up inside the washer and waves to it sadly andthey leave. I watch as the suds start and the bear getscleaner and cleaner. Snowy white. He's a giant polar bear,wet from swimming under the ice. Then I start folding,and when I look back the washer is full of brown foam -the bear burst during the spin and all the stuffing cameout. It gets worse and worse, you can just see the floppywet bearskin in there, surrounded by stuffing. I had toleave, sorry there's no ending. I just didn't want to bethere when the kid came back. So I went across the streetand had a beer. Sometimes not being the parent isn't sobad.”

Anne van den Nouweland took a sabbatical in winter andspring 2003 quarters. She spent six months working as a

fellow at the Economic TheoryCenter at the University ofMelbourne, Australia. She startedjoint research projects withseveral people in Melbourne andgave seminars at the University ofMelbourne, Australian NationalUniversity in Canberra, theUniversity of Sydney, and theUniversity of New South Wales inSydney, the University ofAdelaide, and the University ofQueensland in Brisbane. She also

taught a class in microeconomics and participated in the21st Australian Economic Theory Conference. Whileworking hard during the week, she played even harder onthe weekends and took the opportunity to experience andsee as much as she could of that beautiful country “DownUnder”. She returned to Eugene with renewed energy anda love for Vegimite and Australian Shiraz.

After a two-year delay, Wesley Wilson is on sabbaticalthis year. Two and one-half years ago, he was asked to

put together a panel to describeissues in estimating transportationdemands by the Army Corp ofEngineers. The Army must docost/benefit studies to justify therehabilitation and/or replacementsof locks on the waterway. Theyhave been under considerablescrutiny in their efforts in theWashington Post, CongressionalHearings, and reviews by avariety of organizations including

4 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003the National Academy of Sciences. The panel andpresentations took place two years ago, andeventually led to a multi-year funding package tostudy transportation demands and the benefits/costsof lock improvements on the waterway. Wes hasbeen hired part-time by the Army to organize andwork with academic researchers such as Ken Boyerof Michigan State and Kenneth Train of Berkeley toaddress the central criticisms of the various reviewsof the Army's cost/benefit studies. He has also beeninvolved a number of graduate students in thiseffort. He currently splits his time betweenAlexandria, Virginia and Eugene.

VISITING FACULTY

This fall we are pleased to welcome back anold friend Thórólfur (Toti) Matthíasson fromthe University of Iceland. Toti last visited us

in 1993 and has returned for a three-monthsabbatical this fall. Toti is an expert on fisheries andthe Icelandic economy and has held senior positionsboth in the Icelandic government, department offinance, and in the Icelandic union movement. Akeen runner and kayaker, Toti fits right in toEugene.

OUR SEMINAR SERIES

One of the most important and enjoyableaspects of research is talking to othereconomists. One way we do this is by

attending conferences and seminars, and the UOEconomics faculty logs literally thousands of milesof travel each year as we head across the globe totalk to others. A second and equally important wayto exchange ideas is through the Department’sseminar series. During the academic year, theDepartment brings in top economists to talk abouttheir own research. Past visitors include SeverinBorenstein (Berkeley), Ned Gramlich (FederalReserve Board of Governors), Maurice Obstfeld(Berkeley), and Tom Sargent (Berkeley). When avisitor comes to the UO, they spend their daymeeting one-on-one with members of theDepartment including our graduate students. Thesediscussions give us an opportunity to discuss ourcurrent projects with the speaker and get valuablefeedback. Graduate students also benefit becausethis gives them practice in talking to others about

their work, which combined with the contacts theydevelop, is especially useful when they go on the jobmarket.

The high point of the visit is the seminar, in which thespeaker gives an in-depth presentation of their research.One of the things that sets our seminar series apart fromothers (besides our famous backwards-running clock) isthat our series is Department-wide rather than specializedby field. This provides us with exposure to ideas andtechniques other than those we typically see, furtherhelping us to expand our research horizons. In addition tothe regular seminar series, the Department has a visitingscholar program. These visitors give an additional publiclecture to the University at large, providing both aninteresting economics talk and a way for us to connect tothe rest of the University.

All of our seminars are open to the public and arefrequently attended by faculty and students from theUO business school, the psychology department, andeconomists from Oregon State University. Seminarstypically take place from 3:30 to 5:00 on Fridayafternoons. You can always access the current versionof this year’s seminar schedule at:http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rdavies/schedule2003-2004.pdf.

Finally, our ability to bring in guests depends on ouravailable funds, many of which comefrom alumni donations. Because of thiswe would again like to thank our donors.This year we are particularly grateful toGeorge Slape, whose donations aremaking it possible for us to improve ourseries as detailed below.

BOOST FOR THE VISITINGSPEAKER SERIES

Thanks to a generous gift of $25,000 from GeorgeSlape the Economics Department seminar seriesand visiting scholar program is in fine shape. This

year we shall be using some of this gift to bring ProfessorBen Lockwood from the University of Warwick (UK) tovisit for a week in the spring. Ben is one of Europe's topexperts in political economy and has many researchinterests in common with our faculty. We anticipate histime here will be highly productive. We are also in theprocess of setting up a visit by Professor Tim Besley from

5 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003the London School of Economics. Tim is an editorof the American Economic Review and is regardedby many as the best economist based in Europe.

GIFTS

$2,000 and aboveSlape, George and Connie Ankrim, Ernest and Karen Household Finance

$1,000 - $1,999Girdlestone, Walter Haworth, Charles and Joan Kennedy, John and Leanne Ranlett , John

$500 - $999Chambers, Ollie and Jo Bunting, Fredericka Cortez Development GroupWorthington, David Harms, John Yang, Yung and Jane Gustafson, Craig Hwang, Eui-Gak and Young-JaPrice, Richard

$250 - $499Bonebrake, Mark and Marilyn Gersh, Sheldon and EllenKohl, WilliamFreeman, Clifford Ramsthel, Steven and Margaret Shaw, Kevin and MarshaWard, Kirk Kersnar, JereBerry, Thomas and June Kolb, Jeffrey and Marie Lilley, Charles and DeniseLudwig,David and KateMenacho, Victor and Mary Mikami, Sach and Miki Rader, Willis and Anne Southgate, Douglas, Jr.Thornton, James

$249 and belowCook, Andrew Cote, Edith

Gnazzo, Jerold and Jane Hamilton, James Hiatt, John Mahoney, Michael and DanaMerryfield, Brooks Mills, Michael and Karen Moyer, Jimmy Tibbles, LanceYoon, Suk and YungjaSimasko, James and Darla Rynerson, Charles Giles, DougJordan, LarryKaylor, Jay and Barbara Martin,Christopher and Mary Simpson Mitchell, Alan and Ruth Rasor, Julia Riley, Kevin Smith, Brad and MarieStevens, William and Susan Houchen, Loren and Donna Lehr, Ronald and Dona Anderson, John and Linda Bell, Jess Bhakti, Dharma and Adelina Blake, Daniel Brackebusch, Mark Brammer, Rick Bresee, Jeffrey Connolly, Coleen and James Davis, Richard Davis, Shaun Evans, Matthew and Elizabeth Smith Gardener Jr., WilliamGraham, Bruce Hutchinson, Michael and GretaJackson, LarryJakola, KateJarmin, Ronald and Jennifer Jung, Chang Keil, Stanley and Kathleen Kim, Hyong Kim, Se Chan and JuHee Liebreich, Howard and Wendy Merschdorf, Richard Morrisette, Garth Orito, Ryotaro and Yaemi Peters, WilliamPyle, Jack Reeder, Brian and Bonnie

6 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003Schaper, Susan Schunfoff, John Shoemaker, BrianSlawson, Frank St. Louis, Larry and Elizabeth Thompson, Curtis and Phyllis Tinkler, Sarah Toch, Michael Traa, Bob Weaver, Sheila and Larry Williams, Dougal Wood, Andrew Zimmerman, DonaldArthington, Michelle Feinstein, Charles and Valerie Fischer, Carl Karia, Haridas and Sarojini Knudsen, Steven and LoronaWatts, Harold Rhoads, James and Marilyn Lindsay, Melissa Bauer Jatoi, AnwarullahBlais, James and Natalie Brookes, ThomasCarey, Lee and DebraChiang, Yuan Culleton, MichaelDeatherage, David and Susan Gay, NancyLairson, Edward Lehrkind, Robert and ShelleyMathios, Michael McDaniel, Richard and Nan McWhorter, RizzaMurray , James Ross, Larry and Vicki Sonstegaard, Miles and LorettaVolz, Robert Wagner, Richard and Celia

Wells,. James Jr. and HazelWong, Barry McKinlay, Bruce Baker, Terri and Ross Barsby, StevenDalenberg, Doug and Kristi Donald, David Green, Doug and Barbara McDonald, William, Jr. and PatriciaRanslem, Wayne and Tracy Ross, Steven Saunders, John and Janet Tack, Helen Tripp, Thomas and Linda Mann DavisDe Young, Wilbur Harris, WilliamSummerfelt, Robert Kembuan, FranklinKurland, Brian

THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

The undergraduate economics program at theUniversity of Oregon continues to be strong with415 majors this fall term, over 100 minors, and 150

graduating seniors this past spring. While totalundergraduate enrollment at the University of Oregon hasgone up significantly in the last five years, the percentageincrease in UO economics majors has far outpaced thisgeneral increase. Interestingly, this trend has come solelyfrom increases in U.S. students, as the number ofinternational students University-wide and in theeconomics major has been relatively constant. Anothernoticeable trend has been the increasing number of femalestudents in UO economics, who now comprise almost 30percent of our majors.

The job market was (not surprisingly) more difficult forour graduates this year than in previous years, yet therewere solid placements by our undergraduate majors withcompanies such as Wells Fargo, Afflac Insurance, BatesPrivate Capital, Addeco USA, and the Corps ofEngineers. As usual, a number of recent graduates wenton to top graduate schools in economics, law, andbusiness, including programs at Cornell University,Dartmouth, University of Arizona, University ofPittsburgh, and Willamette University.

7 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

Professors Tim Duy (TL) and Bruce Blonigen (BL) enjoying an outing with economics peer advisors.

Students Reva Shrestha andFelicia Lorilli co-wrote honorspaper entitled, “The EconomicEffects of Local PurchasingPreferences: A Case Study ofComputer Systems West inLane County.”

During the schoolyear, there was anactive group of over30 peer advisors thathelped advise manyc u r r e n t a n dp r o s p e c t i v eeconomics majors, aswell as coordinate anumber of publicevents focusing oncareer, internshipsand graduate study possibilities for economicsmajors. In both the fall and spring terms, we had an"Economics Career Day" where the focus was apanel of alumni that discussed how the economicsdegree prepared them for their career and answeredquestions from the audience of current majors. Bigthanks go to alums Gary Feldman (1977), MarkStevens (1996), Matt Kershner (1997), AdrianneBurns (1999), Eric Christenson (2000), and CrissyColeman (2000), who came to campus to share theirexperiences with current majors. Any alums outthere who would be interested in participating infuture panels, please contact our Director ofUndergraduate Studies, Prof. Bruce Blonigen (Ph:541-346-4680, Email:bruceb@darkwing.uoregon.edu). This fall ourstudents also participated in “Meet the Firms” nightwith finance and accounting majors.

Our students have also been active in pursuinginternship experiences. Approximately 20 studentsreceived academic credit for internships this pastyear at such places as the Adam Smith Institute(London, UK), RBC Dain Rauscher, Merrill Lynch,Eugene Country Club, Victoria’s Secret, ArtesiaIndustries, Smith Barney, American Express, andthe Springfield Chamber of Commerce. A numberof our graduating seniors turned internshipexperiences into full-time positions with the samecompany. A big thanks goes to Prof. Tim Duy forall of his assistance in coordinating the Internshipprogram, assisting with undergraduate advising, andcontinuing to teach excellent subjects in economics.

Finally, our undergraduate majors receivednumerous Departmental and University-wideawards. Fourteen students received honors ineconomics, which required a high GPA in their

u p p e r - d i v i s i o neconomics courses andan honors thesis writtenin consultation with afaculty member. Thismay be a record numberof honors theses, thoughmany of them camethrough the new honorsresearch class developedby Profs. Blonigen andHarbaugh. Six of our

students were also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa honors,with Oliver Levine also being named as one of the"Oregon Six". This is a prestigious honor at the Universityof Oregon that goes to the top six Phi Beta Kappa scholarson campus each year. Hope Siler graduated Summa CumLaude (GPA in top 1 percent of her class), while five othereconomics majors graduated Magna Cum Laude or CumLaude. Finally, Graham Crawford was honored as "PeerAdvisor of the Year” at the University of Oregon, whileReva Shrestha was named recipient of the Daniel CohenScholarship in Economics, receiving a $1000 award for herfuture academic studies. Supported by a generous gift fromalumnus Daniel Cohen, candidates were evaluated on thebasis of the overall quality of their academic record,potential for further academic achievement, and leadershipin community service activities. In summary, it was trulya talented graduating class.

NON-PROFIT CLASS

Bill Harbaugh and Bruce Blonigen have started a newcourse in Non-Profit andCommunity Economics,

an honors course. The objectiveof the course is to have studentscomplete a research paper thatwill satisfy the Department’srequirements for graduating withhonors, provide them with somepractical experience applyingskills in economics andstatistics, and give thecommunity groups a finishedresearch project that gives themuseful answers to questions thatmatter for their decision making.Generally, this involves identifying a problem, collectingdata, doing some statistical analysis, writing a paper, and

8 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003giving a PowerPoint presentation of the results tothe community group.

Last year the course had ten students, working onfive research projects. These students, withoutexception, saw this as a capstone to their experienceas economics majors and they told us the classprofoundly affected their understanding of whatthey could do with their economics skills. Inaddition, the community groups were blown awaywith the project results and the projects look greaton student resumes.

The course starts with presentations byrepresentatives from local non-profit andgovernment agencies, talking about what they doand how they think economic analysis might helpthem do it better. There’s a lot of discussion here,since they often don’t have a complete idea of whatsorts of things economic analysis can accomplish.Then Bruce and Bill give some lectures aboutrelevant economic techniques, such as benefit/costanalysis, concentrating on how to apply them. Thenstudents set to work on the projects. There is a lot ofinteraction with the agencies, as well as with Bruceand Bill.

One of the projects tackled in the class involved ananalysis of the economic benefits of the Eugenehiking trail network. Dane Jensen and JaredDurham got data on every housing sale for the lastten years in the areas around the South RidgelineTrail System. (If you've ever hiked up Spencer'sButte, you know the area we're talking about.) Thedata that is available is pretty impressive -everything from the date and amount of the sale tothe square footage of the garage and the number ofbathrooms. They then built a regression model,explaining the sales price as a function of the housecharacteristics, and the distance to a hiking accesspoint. They found that houses closer to a trail wereindeed worth more money, and they came up withestimates for the value of the trail system, in termsof higher property values, ranging from 80 to 300million dollars. They presented these results to theEugene city planners and parks people, who werevery excited about the results, and a bit surprised tofind that our economics undergraduates have theability to apply their econometric skills to such apractical and important question. Next year we hope

to put more students to work on this, extending theanalysis to the general question of how much the cityshould charge land developers in development fees for useof a wide range of city services.

Another project undertook a detailed benefit/cost analysisof local tax incentives used to attract Hynix Semiconductorto the Eugene area in the mid 1990s. This has been acontroversial issue for the Eugene community. However,in talking with economic development staff at the LaneCouncil of Governments, Jen Witt and Melinda Rowanrealized that there had been almost no objective analysis ofwhat the actual costs and benefits have been from Hynix'slocation here. Jen and Melinda undertook extensive datacollection from state and local agencies, as well as Hynix,and used the data to make economic estimates of the localimpacts of Hynix on the Eugene community. Theiranalysis came to the surprising conclusion that it wasn'teven close - the positive impacts outweighed the negativeimpacts by a considerable margin. Their presentations torepresentative from Hynix and the Eugene Chamber ofCommerce were well received, and even led to talk ofusing their study to lobby state legislators to enhanceEugene's ability to offer such incentives for prospectivefirms. It also led to press releases from the Chamber ofCommerce and interesting debates that played out in theRegister Guard. There is much interest from many tofollow up this study with similar ones - for example, abenefit/cost study of Sony Disc Manufacturing, a high-profile firm that recently left the area after receiving taxbreaks.

Papers from this and other honors projects can be found atthe website http://economics.uoregon.edu/honors/.

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM

This remains one of the country's few quality terminalMaster’s programs. This year we welcome sevenMaster’s students. Mohammed Alotaibi received his

Bachelor’s degree in 1991 from Umm Al-Qura Universityin Saudi Arabia majoring in mathematics and educationalpreparation and a Master’s degree from the University ofCentral Florida in 2003 in mathematical science. TimothyR. Berry received his Bachelor’s degree in 2002 from theUniversity of Oregon majoring in economics and Chinese.Stephen Imperiale-Hagerman received his Bachelor’sdegree in 2003 from Saint Mary’s College of California inMoraga majoring in economics. Chang Yong Kimreceived his Bachelor’s degree in 1999 from Inje

9 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

Professor Trudy Cameron

University in Korea majoring in applied statisticsand a Master’s of Business Administration in 2002from Western Washington University inBellingham. Chanwoo Park received his Bachelorof Business Administration degree in 2000 fromKyonggi University in Korea majoring ininternational trade. Oleg Smirnov received hisBachelor’s degree in 2000 from Rostov StateUniversity in Russia majoring in journalism and aMaster’s degree in 2003 from the University ofOregon in political science.

Our Ph.D. program continues to go from strength tostrength. This year we graduated five students all ofwhom found excellent jobs. Michael Enz, BenLiebman and Grace Wang took faculty positions atWestern New England College, St. Joseph'sUniversity (Philadelphia) and Marquette University(Milwaukee) respectively. Aaron “Iceman” Guse isworking as a post doc with Professor Honkapohja atthe University of Helsinki. Seunggi Kim took anexcellent (4th level) job with the Korea NationalAssembly.

Our current graduate students continue to upholdthe traditions of excellence. This year the “BestPh.D. Research Paper Award” went to MichaelVisser, for a paper entitled "Auction SellerBehavior". Mike is working with professorsHarbaugh and van den Nouweland. Outstandingteaching awards were earned by Oguzhan Dincer,Steve Kosovich, Mark Stater, and Miao Wang.

This year we have a large class of new students.Daniel Burghart who received his Bachelor’s degreein 2001 from Oregon State University majoring ineconomics and has successfully completed twoterms in our Master’s program. Beilei Cai whoreceived her Bachelor’s degree in 2002 fromChangchun University in China majoring ininternational trade. Cody Custis received hisBachelor’s degree in 2003 from the University ofMontana in Missoula majoring in economics andmathematics. T. Scott Findley who received hisBachelor’s degree in 2000 from Utah StateUniversity in Logan majoring in political scienceand philosophy, and is currently completing aconcurrent Master of Science and Master of Arts inpolitical science and economics at Utah StateUniversity. Kelii Haraguchi who received his

Bachelor’s degree in 2002 from Puget Sound University inTacoma majoring in economics. Ryan Herzog whoreceived his Bachelor’s degree in 2003 from PacificLutheran University in Tacoma majoring in economics.Jeffrey Hoffman received his Bachelor’s degree in 2003from the University of Kentucky majoring in economics.Jia Lu received her Bachelor’s degree in 2001 from theUniversity of Colorado at Denver majoring in economics.Andrew Margeson received his Bachelor’s degree in 1972from Colgate University in New York majoring in politicalscience and received a Master’s of Public Affairs fromPrinceton University in 1975. Nino Sichinava received herBachelor’s degree in 2002 from Whitworth College inSpokane majoring in economics and internationalbusiness. L. Christina Steiger received her Bachelor’sdegree in 2001 from the University of Chicago in physics.Danai Tanamee received his Bachelor’s degree in 1998from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology in Bangkokmajoring in construction engineering. He also received aMaster’s degree from Eastern Michigan University inYpsilanti in economics in 2003. Nga Tran received herBachelor of Science degree in 1997 from the University ofCalifornia at Davis majoring in mathematics and herBachelor of Arts in 2001 from the California StateUniversity in Sacramento majoring in economics. She alsoreceived her Master’s degree in 2003 from the CaliforniaState University in San Francisco in economics.

GRANTS AND OUTSIDE FUNDING

Trudy Cameron recently secured a one-year extension onthe Statistical Lives project, along with another $70,000 insupplementary funding. The majority of this funding willcome to the University of Oregonas a subcontract to continue thesupport of Ryan Bosworth, one ofour Ph.D. students.

10 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

SEMINAR SERIES FOR 2003-2004

As always, we are very pleased to be able to continue to bring in top researchers for our seminar series. Oursuccess in this is due in no small part to the generosity of our donors, and we thank them for it. A list of ourspeakers for 2003-2004 is below. These seminars are open to the public, and we invite all of you to attend.

If you would like more information or if you would like to be placed on our email list for announcements, pleasecall the Economics Department at (541) 346-4661. You can always find the current list athttp://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rdavies/schedule2003-2004.pdf.

SPEAKER DATE AFFILIATIONFall 2003

John Leahy 9/29 NYUPaul Oyer 10/3 StanfordBennett McCallum 10/10 Carnegie MellonDavid Neumark 10/17 PPICThorolfur Matthiasson 10/24 IcelandPhilip Cross 10/31 GeorgetownAndrew Dyke 11/7 NCEric Fisher 11/14 Ohio StateMichael Noel 11/21 UCSDBob Slonim 12/5 CWRUBen Lockwood TBA Warwick

Winter 2004Alan Deardorff 2/20 MichiganEd Lazear 2/27 StanfordPeter Kuhn 3/5 UCSB

Spring 2004Eric Bettinger 4/2 Case WesternAmitabh Chandra 4/9 DartmouthPeter Egger 4/16 WIFO/Notre DameHelen Levy 4/23 ChicagoMatt Slaughter 4/30 DartmouthKen Hendricks 5/7 TexasJim Ziliak 5/14 KentuckyMarianne Bertrand 5/21 ChicagoNisvan Erkal 5/28 MelbourneGordon Hanson 6/4 San Diego

11 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

Bruce Blonigen“Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of AntidumpingPolicy: Theory and Evidence.” AmericanEconomic Review, forthcoming, with Jee-HyeongPark.

“The Cost of Antidumping: The Devil is in theDetails.” Journal of Policy Reform, forthcoming,with Thomas J. Prusa.

“Antidumping and Retaliation Threats.” Journal ofInternational Economics, Vol. 60 (August 2003),pp. 249-273, with Chad Bown.

“Food Fight: Antidumping Activity in AgriculturalGoods.” in G. Anania, M. Bohman, C. Carter, andA. McCalla (Eds.), Agricultural Policy Reform andthe WTO: Where Are We Heading?, Edwin ElgarPublishers, forthcoming.

“Antidumping.” in E.K. Choi and J. Harrigan(Eds.), Handbook of International Trade, Oxford,U.K. and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers,2003, with Thomas J. Prusa.

Bruce Blonigen and Ron Davies “Estimating the Knowledge-Capital Model of theMultinational Enterprise: Comment.” AmericanEconomic Review, Vol. 93 (June 2003), pp. 980-994, with Keith Head.

“Do Bilateral Tax Treaties Promote Foreign DirectInvestment?” in J. Hartigan (Ed.), Handbook ofInternational Trade: Economic and Legal Analysisof Laws and Institutions, Oxford, U.K. andCambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers,forthcoming.

Shankha Chakraborty“Endogenous Lifetime and Economic Growth.”Journal of Economic Theory, forthcoming.

Ron Davies“Gradualism in Tax Treaties with IrreversibleForeign Direct Investment.” InternationalEconomic Review, forthcoming, with RichardChisik.

“Asymmetric FDI and Tax Treaty Bargaining: Theoryand Evidence.” Journal of Public Economics,forthcoming, with Richard Chisik.

“Tax Treaties, Renegotiations, and Foreign DirectInvestment.” Economic Analysis and Policy,forthcoming.

“State Tax Competition for Foreign Direct Investment:A Winnable War?” Journal of International Economics,forthcoming.

Chris Ellis and Anne van den Nouweland“A Mechanism for Inducing Cooperation in Non-Cooperative Environments: Theory and Applications.”Journal of Public Economic Theory, forthcoming.

George Evans“Coordination on Saddle Path Solutions: the EductiveViewpoint. - Linear Univariate Models.”Macroeconomic Dynamics, Vol. 7 (Feb. 2003), pp. 42-62, with Roger Guesnerie.

Introduction to the Special Issue “Coordination inDynamic Expectations Models: Learning and Sunspots.”Macroeconomic Dynamics, Vol. 7 (Feb. 2003), pp. 3-6,with Roger Guesnerie.

“Expectational Stability of Stationary Sunspot Equilibriain a Forward-looking Linear Model.” Journal ofEconomic Dynamics and Control, Vol. 28 (2003), pp.171-181, with S. Honkapohja.

“Existence of Adaptively Stable Sunspot Equilibria Nearan Indeterminate Steady State.” Journal of EconomicTheory, Vol. 111 (2003), pp. 125-134, with Seppo Honkapohja.

“Friedman's Money Supply Rule vs. Optimal InterestRate Policy.” Scottish Journal of Political Economy,forthcoming, with Seppo Honkapohja.

“Adaptive Learning and Monetary Policy Design.”Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, forthcoming,with Seppo Honkapohja.

“Stable Stationary Sunspot Equilibria withPredetermined Variables.” Journal of EconomicDynamics and Control, forthcoming, with BruceMcGough.

12 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

“Comment on Orphanide’s and William’s Paper”in Inflation Targeting, ed. M. Woodford, NBER,forthcoming.

Bill Harbaugh and Anne van den Nouweland“Demonstrating Worker Quality Through StrategicAbsenteeism.” International Game Theory Review,forthcoming.

Van Kolpin“Voting Power Under Uniform Representation.”Economics Bulletin (Jan. 2003).

Larry Singell“Come Stay a While: Does Financial Aid AffectRetention at a Large Public University.” TheEconomics of Education Review, forthcoming.

Anne van den Nouweland“An extension of the -value to games withτcoalition structures.” European Journal ofOperational Research, Vol. 148 (2003), pp. 494-513, with Balbina Casas-Mendez, Ignacio García-Jurado, and Margarita Vázquez-Brage.

Robin McKnight“Why Did Employee Health InsuranceContributions Rise?” Journal of HealthEconomics, forthcoming, with Jonathan Gruber.

Wesley Wilson“Industry Costs and Consolidation: EfficiencyGains and Mergers in the Railroad Industry.”Mountain Plains Consortium Report MPC-03-145,Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (June2003), with John Bitzan.

“Costing Individual Railroad Movements.” UpperGreat Plains Transportation Institute DepartmentPublication No. 153 (Sept. 2003), with John Bitzan.

“The Economics of Railroad Operations.”Transportation Engineering Handbook,forthcoming, with Mark Burton.

FACULTY PRESENTATIONS

Bruce Blonigen presented papers at theNational Bureau of Economic Research,Syracuse University, Pennsylvania StateUniversity, Utah State University,Western Washington University, and the2003 American Economic AssociationMeetings in Washington, DC.

Trudy Cameron presented work at Lewis and ClarkCollege (the Steinhardt Lecture), the NBER summerworkshop in Environmental Economics, the Canadian

Resource and EnvironmentalEconomics conference, the SouthernCalifornia Occasional Workshop inEnvironmental Economics, theH e a r t l a n d C o n f e r e n c e i nEnvironmental Economics, an EPAWorkshop on Valuing EnvironmentalHealth Risk Reductions to Children,and the Annual Workshop of the

Association of Environmental and Resource Economics.

Shankha Chakraborty presented papers at the St. LouisFed, the New York Fed, and the NorthAmerican Summer Meetings of theEconometric Society at NorthwesternUniversity.

Ron Davies presented papers at theFragmentation and Services Conference

in Claremont, CA, the MidwestInternational Economics Conference inBloomington, IN, the 2003 AmericanEconomics Association Meetings andGeorgetown University, both inWashington D.C.

Chris Ellis presentedpapers at the 2003 American EconomicAssociation Meetings in WashingtonD.C., the conference “Crime, Corruptionand Violence: Theory and Applicationsto Brazil and Latin America”, the PublicEconomics Working Group (PublicFinance Weekend), the 2003 Public

13 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003Economic Theory Meetings, and the EuropeanMeeting of the Econometric Society. Chris alsovisited the University of Birmingham.

George Evans presented papers at Vanderbilt(Terry Dornbush Lecturer), San Francisco FederalReserve Bank, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank,the JMCB conference on Recent Developments in

Monetary Macroeconomics, the2003 American EconomicAssociation annual meetings inWashington D.C., the NBERconference on InflationTargeting, the Atlanta FederalReserve Bank ConferenceMonetary Policy and Learning,the CEPR Conference in Berlin

(Germany), and the CFS Research Conference inEltville (Germany). He also delivered the PlenaryAddress to the Society for ComputationalEconomics Annual Meeting at the University ofWashington (Seattle). In addition, George was aVisiting Scholar/Consultant at the Federal ReserveBank of Cleveland, and a Visiting Scholar at theFederal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Bill Harbaugh has given talks about his researchon the development of economicbehavior in children at theSorbonne, the ASSA meetings,Stanford University, CaseWestern Reserve University, CU-Denver, the Exeter UniversityPsychology Department, UtahState University, and theEnvironmental Protect ionAgency.

Van Kolpin presented papers at“The Value at 50 Conference” inhonor of the 50th anniversary ofthe Shapley Value and at RutgersUniversity.

Larry Singell presented a paper at theNBER Higher Education Meetings atLehigh University.

Anne van den Nouweland presented papers at theAustralian National University, theUniversity of Sydney, the University ofNew South Wales, the University ofMelbourne, the University of Adelaide, theUniversity of Queensland, and at the 21st

Australian Economic Theory Conference,all in Australia. She also presented at theUniversity of California in Santa Barbara.

Glen Waddell presented papers at the North AmericanSummer Meetings of the Econometric Society inChicago, at the IZA/SOLE Transatlantic Meeting ofLabor Economists in Buch am Ammersee (Germany), and

at the NBER Universities’ ResearchConference on Corporate Governancein Cambridge. Glen’s recent workingpaper, which demonstrates significantlabor-market consequences of poorattitude and low self-esteem in youth,was used by The National Campaignto End School Violence. DennisMurphy, the movement's founder,

encourages charitable donations by citing results fromthis paper, as “a much more compelling case can be madefor the importance of developing solutions” when realeconomic consequences may be improved by thecampaign's efforts.

Wesley Wilson presented papers atthe TPUG ASSA meetings and the 16th

Annual Meetings Advanced Workshopin Regulation and Competition.

FACULTY SERVICE

Bruce Blonigen continues to do an excellent job asDirector of Undergraduate Studies. This year theUndergraduate Studies Committee worked to betterstandardize our core courses in theory and econometricsfor the undergraduate program, including adoption of

14 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

Professor JoAnna Gray

Professor and AssociateDepartment ChairStephen Haynes

common textbooks and syllabi. In conjunctionwith the Registrar’s Office, we also established asystem to automatically enforce courseprerequisites before students can enroll in an upperdivision economics course. Our goal is to betterdevelop students’ fundamental economic skills forthe important upper-division field courses andearly returns suggest that we are getting moreprepared students in these classes.

Trudy Cameron continues her work as Chair ofthe Council for Clean Air Compliance Analysis ofthe US EPA's Science Advisory Board. Ron Davies has given guest lectures inEnvironmental Studies, the Social Sciences HonorsTrack, and the Science Honors College. He iscurrently on the UO’s Foreign Study programcommittee and coordinates the Department’sseminar series. He continues to serve as theFaculty Advisor for the UO Chapter of Alpha PhiOmega, a national co-ed service fraternity. He alsowrote a sidebar on international trade for an articleby Representative Peter DeFazio that appeared inOregon’s Future.

Chris Ellis continued to be involved in the UOSenate and on the Campus Planning Committee. Inaddition, he served on the Dean’s AdvisoryCommittee, and the Department’s PersonnelCommittee. He was also our Director of Master’sStudies. In addition, Chris is preparing a newundergraduate course, “Games people play”.

George Evans served as our Director of PhDstudies and was on the Personnel Committee. Healso is Associate Editor for JEDC andMacroeconomic Dynamics and he is on the Boardof Advisors for Journal of Economic Surveys. Hewas Co-Editor for a Special Issue ofMacroeconomic Dynamics.

Jo Anna Gray continued to serve on the GraduateCouncil, and was on the Department’s PersonnelCommittees.

Bill Harbaugh served as a Grant Review Panelistfor the National Science Foundation.Stephen Haynes continues to do an excellent jobas Economics Department Associate Head. Also,

is serving on Personnel Committee, serving as chair offall 2003 Faculty Search Committee, is a member of theUniversity Senate, and the University EducationTechnology Committee.

Van Kolpin continues to do an excellent job asEconomics Department Head.

Larry Singell was appointed an Associate Editor of theEconomics of Education Review and he wrote reports onthe economic impact of the University on the State ofOregon as well as a report on the economic impact ofMajor League Baseball in Portland on the State for thePortland Sports Authority.

Shankha Chakraborty gave several guest lectures in theInternational Studies program.

Robin McKnight developed a new undergraduate coursein Health Economics for our Department. She also wasappointed as a Faculty Research Fellow in the NBERHealth Care program.

Glen Waddell discussed minimum wage legislation withlocal ABC and CBS affiliates. He also discussed gasolinemarkets with ABC and CBS affiliates, as well as thePortland Oregonian.

Wesley Wilson chaired the University Committee forOSRL Director and served on the Advisory Boards ofOSRL and the Career Center. He also served on theExecutive Committee of the TPUG AEA.

15 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

ALUMNI WEB PAGE

We encourage you all to visit the Department of Economics web page at http://economics.uoregon.edu/.There is a link to the alumni web site as well. On this web site, there is a directory of alum that has justbeen added. Please fill out the provided form on the web site to be added to the directory.

If you wish to be added through more conventional methods, please fill out the following form and mail it to us.

Name:

Address:

Class /Year:

Degree:

My News:

Please return this form to:

Newsletter 1285 Department of EconomicsUniversity of OregonEugene, Oregon 97403-1285

The Envelope

Gifts from our alumni support a wide variety of programs that would be impossible to otherwise provide,given shrinking state support for higher education. Donations fund prizes for undergraduates, and programsthat encourage student/faculty interaction. These gifts expose the students and faculty to current research

by funding campus visits and lectures by distinguished faculty from other universities. They buy computers andsoftware for our students, ensuring that they will develop up-to-date skills. We welcome your contributions of anyamount.

If you want your gift to go to the Economics Department, please check the appropriate box on the donor card.

Thank you!

16 NUMBER 25 FALL 2003

The Economics faculty and families celebrate Burn’s night (kilts required) hosted by Professors Chris and Jenny Ellis.