Department of Economics

Research Seminars

2024-2025 Speakers

2023-2024 Speakers

  • November 9th 2023: Haruka Takayama (SUNY-Albany) ~ Greenfield or Brownfield? FDI Entry Mode and Intangible Capital

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Haruka Takayama, SUNY-Albany

    The talk is titled:

    Greenfield or Brownfield? FDI Entry Mode and Intangible Capital

    Thursday, November 9th, 2023

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract: When a multinational firm invests abroad, it can either establish a new facility (greenfield investment, GF) or purchase a local firm (cross-border merger and acquisition, M&A). Using a novel US firm-level dataset, I provide the first evidence that multinationals with higher levels of intangible capital systematically invest through GF rather than M&A. Motivated by this empirical result, I develop a general equilibrium search model of a multinational firm’s choice between M&A and GF. The model implies that equilibrium FDI patterns can be suboptimal. In particular, policymakers in less developed economies can increase welfare by incentivizing M&A. By allowing highly productive multinationals to use local intangible capital, this policy raises aggregate productivity relative to the laissez-faire outcome.

  • January 11th 2024: Cody Couture (Hamilton College) ~ Political Advertisements and Consumer Sentiment

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Cody Couture, Hamilton College

    The talk is titled:

    Political Advertisements and Consumer Sentiment

    Thursday, January 11th, 2024

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

  • February 15th 2024: Fiorella Pizzolon (Hamilton College) ~ Optimal Time-Consistent Monetary Policy and Sovereign Debt Currency Denomination

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Fiorella Pizzolon, Hamilton College

    The talk is titled:

    Optimal Time-Consistent Monetary Policy and Sovereign

    Debt Currency Denomination

    Thursday, February 15th, 2024

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract

    In the past two decades, the share of external sovereign debt in emerging economies denominated in foreign currency has fallen. I document that in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, foreign currency debt was mainly substituted by debt denominated in local currency, while indexed debt represented a small proportion. In Uruguay, on the contrary, foreign currency debt was largely substituted by inflation-indexed debt. To study these differences, I use a small open economy model in which each period, a government that cannot default and lacks commitment optimally chooses inflation and the issuance of foreign currency, local currency and inflation-indexed debt. The choice of debt currency denomination balances hedging benefits and costs implied by each type of bond. On one hand, the exchange rate features a negative correlation with tradable endowment, making local currency and indexed debt useful securities in terms of hedging. On the other hand, the government is tempted to use inflation surprises (local currency debt) and real exchange rate depreciation surprises (local currency and indexed debt) to dilute the value of its debt. Foreign currency debt acts as a commitment device, because its value cannot be diluted. I derive analytical expressions to gain insight into the nature of these trade-offs and solve the model numerically to explain the difference in currency composition across countries. Large external debt-to-GDP ratios, long debt duration, and low inflation costs encourage more borrowing in inflation-indexed bonds and can explain the larger share of inflation-indexed debt in Uruguay compared to other Latin American countries.

  • April 18th, 2024: Dong Cheng (Union College) ~ State-dependent Distribution Friction and Monetary Policy

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Dong Cheng, Union College

    The talk is titled:

    State-dependent Distribution Friction and Monetary Policy

    Thursday, April 18th, 2024

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract

    We examine the quantitative importance of state-dependent distribution friction using a dynamic multi-sector model. Our model predicts a counter-cyclical distribution margin, consistent with the empirical evidence from Brazilian fuel price data. Estimating an augmented model with price and wage rigidity, we attribute the lion’s share of such countercyclicality to productivity shocks from the service sector. We find that the state-dependent distribution friction significantly amplifies money neutrality as higher distribution friction dampens the consumption response to monetary policy shocks. A model with time-invariant distribution friction cannot replicate this result.

  • April 25th 2024: Ama Baafra Abeberese (Wellesley) ~ Court Efficiency, Contract Enforcement and Informality: Evidence from India

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Ama Baafra Abeberese, Wellesley

    The talk is titled:

    Court Efficiency, Contract Enforcement and Informality: Evidence from India

    Thursday, April 25th, 2024

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract

    Inefficient courts can negatively affect contract enforcement and, hence, reduce the benefits of formalizing. We find evidence of this using data on Indian firms and courts. We find an increase in informality in states where court cases take longer to be resolved. We investigate heterogeneity of this effect by the contract intensity of industries.

  • May 16th 2024: Michael Martell (Bard College) ~ Economic Vulnerability and Mental Health for Sexual and Gender Identity Minorities in the US

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Michael Martell, Bard College

    The talk is titled:

    Economic Vulnerability and Mental Health for Sexual and Gender Identity Minorities in the US

    Thursday, May 16th, 2024

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract

    Despite improvements in the legal and social environment, economic outcomes for LGBTQ individuals suggest a high degree of vulnerability. We use data on over 500,000 individuals collected from July 21, 2021 to May 9, 2022 as part of US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse survey which is the Bureau’s first survey to collect self-reported sexual orientation and gender identity. We use linear probability models to answer several questions related to the economic experience of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals during this time period. We find that lesbian women, bisexual women, and bisexual men were more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to be in a household that experienced pandemic related job loss. Bisexual men were more likely than heterosexual men to have difficulty paying their expenses, experience food insufficiency and experience housing insecurity in the last week. Lesbian and bisexual women were more likely than heterosexual women to report expense difficulty and food insufficiency. The vulnerability we observe may have been exacerbated by the pandemic but appears to be largely due to pre-existing—and likely continuing—inequalities.

  • May 23rd 2024: Alexander Cardazzi (Old Dominion University) ~ The Impact of Micromobility on Road Safety and Bodily Injury Pricing Misinformation: Evidence from Housing Transactions

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Alexander Cardazzi, Old Dominion University

    The talk is titled:

    1.) The Impact of Micromobility on Road Safety and Bodily Injury

    2.) Pricing Misinformation: Evidence from Housing Transactions

    Thursday, May 23rd, 2024

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

2022-2023 Speakers

  • Sept 29 , 2022: Kaywana Raeburn (Union College) ~ Secure in our Preferences? An Analysis of Security Attachment and Economic Preferences

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Kaywana Raeburn

    The talk is titled:

    Secure in our Preferences? An Analysis of Security Attachment and Economic Preferences

    Thursday, September 29th, 2022

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

  • Oct 13, 2022: Jason Huh (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) ~ More Doctors in Town Now? Evidence from Medicaid Expansions

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Jason Huh, Ph.D., Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    The talk is titled:

    More Doctors in Town Now? Evidence from Medicaid Expansions

    Thursday, October 13th, 2022

    4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    We examine how physicians’ practice locations are affected by Medicaid expansions. We focus on the dramatic Medicaid eligibility expansions for pregnant women that took place between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. Instrumenting for eligibility using a simulated measure of Medicaid generosity, we estimate that the increase in the number of pregnant women eligible for Medicaid between 1982 and 1992 raised the supply of obstetricians and gynecologists (OB/GYNs) by 14 percent in poor counties. Our results are driven by recently graduated OB/GYNs and are concentrated in counties with urban populations. Our results demonstrate that Medicaid coverage rules are an important determinant of physician supply.

    Jason Huh's CV and research interests can be found on his website here.

  • Oct 27, 2022: Salvador Ortigueira (Washington State University) ~ On the Optimal Reform of Income Support for Single Parents

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Salvador Ortigueira

    The talk is titled:

    On the Optimal Reform of Income Support for Single Parents

    (with Nawid Siassi)

    Thursday, October 27th, 2022

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    We characterize the optimal reform of U.S. income support for low-income single parents using a life-cycle heterogeneous agent model with idiosyncratic risk and incomplete asset markets. We use the U.S. tax-transfer system as the benchmark policy and a sample of single mothers drawn from the CPS to assess reforms that maximize the expected utility of single mothers-to-be. When policy cannot be tagged by the age of the children, the optimal reform calls for an increase in out-of-work income support by about 15 percent, and a decrease in earnings subsidies to low-wage workers by roughly 50 percent. This reform delivers substantial welfare gains. Tagging policy by the age of the children makes the government’s trade-off between providing insurance to single mothers with children of pre-school age, on the one hand, and providing work incentives to those with school-age children, on the other hand, more favorable, thus increasing their scope for smoothing marginal utility throughout the life cycle. With tagging, mothers of pre-school age children get a substantial increase in out-of-work income support and no earnings subsidies. Tagging brings additional welfare gains.

  • January 12th, 2023: Jianjing Lin (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) ~ How do Hospitals Respond to Payment Incentives?

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Jianjing Lin,

    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

    The talk is titled:

    How do Hospitals Respond to Payment Incentives?
    (with Gautam Gowrisankaran and Keith A. Joiner)

    Thursday, January 12th, 2023

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    In recent years, a series of payment reforms in the U.S healthcare system have substantially increased coding cost. Literature has found financial incentives are important drivers for coding intensity, but the role of coding costs has been less understood. We examine the impact of both revenues and coding costs on hospital billing practices for Medicare inpatients. We first examine whether increased extra reimbursements from reporting more diagnoses lead hospitals to report more top codes and find positive evidence before the 2007 payment reform but not after, suggesting coding cost could play a more important role post reform. We then test for costly coding by comparing hospitals with electronic medical records (EMRs) to non-EMR hospitals and find adopters reported relatively more top codes after the same reform. We further use a 2008 policy where Medicare implemented financial penalties for documenting certain conditions. EMR hospitals coded relatively more of these conditions following the penalization, lowering revenues. Together, this evidence is consistent with costly coding. Reducing coding costs may increase inpatient Medicare costs by $1.03 billion annually.

  • February 2nd 2023: Dr. Bryan McCannon (West Virginia University) ~ The Right to Counsel: Criminal Prosecution in 19th Century London

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Dr. Bryan McCannon, West Virginia University

    The talk is titled:

    The Right to Counsel: Criminal Prosecution in 19th Century London

    Thursday, February 2nd 2023

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    in Lippman 200

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    Exploiting a novel data set of criminal trials in 19th century London, we evaluate the impact of an accused’s right to counsel on convictions. While lower-level crimes had an established history of professional representation prior to 1836, individuals accused of committing a felony did not, even though the prosecution was conducted by professional attorneys. The Prisoners’ Counsel At of 1836 remedied this and first introduced the right to counsel in common law systems. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy we identify the causal effect of defense counsel. We find the surprising result that the professionalization of the courtroom lead to an increase in the conviction rate, which we interpret as
    a consequence of jurors feeling that the trial became fairer. We go further and employ a topic modeling approach to the text of the transcripts to provide suggestive evidence on how the trials changed when defense counsel was fully introduced.

  • February 16th 2023: Nabamita Dutta (University of Wisconsin - La Crosse) ~ Opportunity And Necessity Entrepreneurship: Do Linguistic Structures Matter?

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Nabamita Dutta, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse

    The talk is titled:

    Opportunity And Necessity Entrepreneurship: Do Linguistic Structures Matter?

    Thursday, February 16th 2023

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    in Lippman 200

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract

    A rapidly growing literature explores the link between linguistic structures and
    economic outcomes. The language a speaker uses systematically influences
    cognition, thinking, and thus behavior. It also influences the form and content of
    cultural information that is shared through time and generations. We examine how
    these linguistic structures influence entrepreneurship. Not all forms of
    entrepreneurship are equally conducive to, nor associated with, economic growth
    and prosperity. A distinction is often made between necessity entrepreneurship,
    which is a result of individuals being pushed into self-employment by adverse
    circumstances, and opportunity entrepreneurship in which individuals choose to
    pursue promising ideas. We find that countries with languages not dropping
    personal pronouns in their major spoken language, or those speaking a weak future
    time reference (FTR) language, have higher proportions of opportunity relative to
    necessity driven entrepreneurs, and that this effect is stronger in countries with
    higher levels of economic freedom.

  • April 27th 2023: Caitlyn Meyers (Middlebury College) ~ Cooling off or burdened? The effects of mandatory waiting periods on abortions and births

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Caitlyn Meyers, Middlebury College

    The talk is titled:

    Cooling off or burdened? The effects of mandatory waiting periods on abortions and births

    Thursday, April 27th 2023

    Time: 3:45 pm-5:00 pm

    in Lippman 200

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    I implement event study and difference-in-differences research designs to measure the causal effects of mandatory waiting periods for abortions, distinguishing between “one-trip” waiting periods that allow counseling and information to be provided remotely and “two-trip” waiting periods that require two in-person appointments. The results suggest that one-trip waiting periods do not have substantial effects on abortions or births. Two-trip waiting periods are estimated to reduce abortions and delay those that still occur, increasing second trimester abortions by 19.1%, reducing resident abortion rates by 8.9%, and increasing births by 1.5%. These effects are larger for young women and for women of color. These effects also are larger in counties that are far from abortion providers and in counties with high poverty and unemployment. These findings support a “burden” rather than a “cooling-off period” interpretation of the findings.

  • May 25th 2023: Rodrigo Schneider (Skidmore College) ~ Does Exposure to Refugees Impact Political Support for Right-Wing Parties? Empirical Evidence from Venezuelan Refugees in Brazil

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Rodrigo Schneider, Skidmore College

    The talk is titled:

    Does Exposure to Refugees Impact Political Support for Right-Wing Parties? Empirical Evidence from Venezuelan Refugees in Brazil

    (with Smriti Tiwari)

    Thursday, May 25th 2023

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm

    in Lippman 200

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    In this paper we study how exposure to Venezuelans refugees in Brazil affected
    the support for right-wing candidates in the 2018 elections of the latter country. We study
    the Venezuelan refugee crisis, which gained traction in 2017 when many fled an authoritarian
    regime and asked for asylum in neighboring country, and take advantage of the granular data
    provided by the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court to build a dataset containing the distance
    from each polling station in the city of Boa Vista in the State of Roraima, which received
    the largest amount of Venezuelan refugees in Brazil, to its closest refugee shelter. We find
    that polling stations that are closer to these shelters showed larger support for right-wing
    candidates. Our results are robust to a placebo test in which we look at the 2014 elections,
    prior to the refugee crisis, to establish that distance the closest shelter is not a pre-treatment
    variable that explains political ideology.

2021-2022 Speakers

  • October 1st, 2021: Billur Aksoy (RPI) ~ Discrimination against Sexual Minorities in Prosocial Domains

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Billur Aksoy

    (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

    The talk is titled:

    Discrimination against Sexual Minorities in Prosocial Domains

    (with Ian Chadd, Boon Han Koh)

    Friday, October 1st, 2021

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    We study the effects of anticipated discrimination in prosocial domains against sexual minorities using a sharing (dictator) game in an online experiment. Recipients are given the opportunity to signal their sexual identity. Decision-makers, upon observing these signals, decide how much of their endowment to share with their matched recipients. We find that female, but not male, recipients are less likely to signal their sexual minority status when they are aware of the potential payoff implications of their decisions. Investigating the treatment of sexual minorities by decision-makers, we find that decision-makers are similarly generous based on the recipient's chosen signal of their sexual minority status. However, the intersection of decision-makers' political affiliations and the perceptions of these signals matter: Republican heterosexual decision-makers are less generous to others whom they perceive to be sexual minorities, while their Democratic counterparts are slightly more generous. This cannot be explained by religious affiliation or perceptions about the recipient's political leaning, but it is consistent with the direction of their implicit bias against homosexuals.

  • October 29, 2021: Younghawn Song (Union College) ~ Do Fathers Have Son Preference in the United States? Evidence from Paternal Subjective Well-Being (with Jia Gao)

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Younghawn Song

    (Union College)

    The talk is titled:

    Do Fathers Have Son Preference in the United States?

    Evidence from Paternal Subjective Well-Being

    (with Jia Gao)

    Friday, October 29th, 2021

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

  • April 13th 2021: Ian Chadd (RPI) ~ The Queer Frontier: Advances in LGBTQ+ Economics (The Valerie J. Hoffman ('75) Lecture Series in Feminist & Queer Studies)

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Ian Chadd

    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

    The talk is titled:

    The Queer Frontier: Advances in LGBTQ+ Economics

    (The Valerie J. Hoffman ('75) Lecture Series in Feminist & Queer Studies)

    Wednesday, April 13th, 2022

    Time: 4:00 pm-6:00 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Dr. Ian Chadd is a behavioral and experimental economist who uses a combination of experimental methods and theory to study questions surrounding limited attention and the intersection of risk and reciprocity. He has several on-going projects on gender and economic preferences covering topics such as gender and artificial intelligence, and competitiveness preferences in transgender individuals.

  • April 29th 2022: Pinka Chatterji ~ Medicare Part D and Disparities in Health

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Pinka Chatterji

    SUNY-Albany

    The talk is titled:

    Medicare Part D and Disparities in Health

    (with Min Jang)

    Friday, April 29th, 2022

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract

    Over the past three decades an influx of new prescription drugs has transformed the treatment of chronic disease in the US and endowed the nation with a wide range of effective medications. However, historic progress in reducing mortality rates was recently reversed, educational and racial disparities in mortality persist, and gaps in life expectancy by education have widened in recent years. Attempting to shed light on these discordant facts, we examine whether a prescription drug benefit program can reduce education-related disparities in outcomes related

    to chronic diseases. Specifically, we investigate the effect of Medicare Part D on drug insurance coverage, medical utilization, and mortality, while also exploring these effects by education. We find that Part D is associated with increased drug insurance rates, greater utilization of prescription drugs, and decreased out-of-pocket spending. These improvements are magnified among low-educated individuals. Part D is associated with a mixed pattern of healthcare utilization that varies by education. Among low-educated individuals, the program increases outpatient care utilization, while among higher-educated individuals, it is associated with reductions in inpatient stays. These effects in medical utilization are translated into health benefits, as the prescription drug program reduces mortality and the effect is magnified among those with lower educational attainment. Our findings show that Medicare Part D increases medical utilization and reduces mortality among the elderly, especially for groups such as the low-educated elderly, who would otherwise lack drug insurance coverage.

2020-2021 Speakers

  • February 26th, 2021: Paul Gaggl ~ Capital Composition and the Declining Labor Share

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Paul Gaggl

    (University of North Carolina at Charlotte)

    The talk is titled:

    Capital Composition and the Declining Labor Share

    (Maya Eden and Paul Gaggl)

    Friday, February 26th, 2021

    Time: 3:30 pm-4:30pm

    Online

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    To what extent can technological advances in the production of capital account for the recent, worldwide decline in the labor income share? We pose two challenges to the automation narrative: first, estimates of the elasticity of substitution (EOS) between capital and labor tend to fall below or around one, suggesting that a decline in the price of capital should not lead to a decline in the labor income share. Second, we illustrate that, despite technological improvements, the price of capital relative to output has remained roughly constant, worldwide. This poses a challenge to the view that cheaper capital has caused the displacement of workers. We show that a more nuanced approach, which takes seriously the composition of capital, ascribes a prominent role to the automation hypothesis. Though information and communications (ICT) capital is a small fraction of the capital stock, it is highly substitutable with labor, and its user cost declined sharply over the last few decades. A framework that distinguishes between ICT and non-ICT capital is empirically plausible and suggests that automation accounts for more than one quarter of the global decline in the labor share, even if the aggregate EOS is substantially less than unity.

  • April 16th, 2021: Belinda Archibong ~ The Epidemic Effect: Global Governance Institutions Mitigate the Effects of Epidemics

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Belinda Archibong
    (Barnard College)

    The talk is titled:

    The Epidemic Effect: Global Governance Institutions Mitigate the Effects of Epidemics

    (Belinda Archibong, Francis Annan and Uche Ekhator-Mobayode)

    Friday, April 16th, 2021

    Time: 3:30 pm-4:30pm

    Online

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    Epidemics can negatively affect economic development except mitigated by global governance institutions. We examine the effects of sudden exposure to epidemic disease on human capital outcomes using evidence from the African meningitis belt. Meningitis shocks reduce child health outcomes, especially in periods when the World Health Organization (WHO) does not declare an epidemic year. These effects are reversed when the WHO declares an epidemic. Children born in meningitis shock areas during a year when an epidemic is announced are 10 percentage points (pp) less stunted and 8.2 pp less underweight than their peers born in non-epidemic years. We find suggestive evidence for the crowd-out of routine vaccination during epidemic years. We analyze data from World Bank projects and find evidence that an influx of health aid in response to WHO declarations may partly explain these reversals.

  • May 7th, 2021: Prabal Kumar De ~ The Effects of Compulsory Schooling Expansion on Intergenerational Education Mobility

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Prabal Kumar De
    (The City College of New York)

    The talk is titled:

    The Effects of Compulsory Schooling Expansion on Intergenerational Education Mobility

    Friday, May 7th, 2021

    Time: 3:30 pm-4:30pm

    Online

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

2019-2020 Speakers

  • September 13th, 2019: Hakan Yilmazkuday ~ Gains from Trade: Does Sectoral Heterogeneity Matter?

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Hakan Yilmazkuday

    (Florida International University)

    The talk is titled:

    Gains from Trade: Does Sectoral Heterogeneity Matter?

    Friday, September 13th, 2019

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    This paper assesses the quantitative importance of including sectoral heterogeneity in computing the gains from trade. Our theoretical framework has sectoral heterogeneity along five dimensions, including the elasticity of trade to trade costs. We estimate the sectoral trade elasticity with the simulated method of moments estimator and micro price data. Our estimates range from 2.97 to 8.94. Our benchmark model is calibrated to 21 OECD countries and 20 sectors. We remove one or two sources of sectoral heterogeneity at a time and compare the gains from trade to the benchmark model. We also compare an aggregate model with a single elasticity to the benchmark model. Our main result from these counterfactual exercises is that sectoral heterogeneity does not always lead to an increase in the gains from trade, which is consistent with the theory.

  • September 19th, 2019: Steve Schmidt ~ Student Loans, Financial Aid, and College Retention Rates

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Steve Schmidt
    (Union College)

    The talk is titled:

    Student Loans, Financial Aid, and
    College Retention Rates

    Thursday, September 19th, 2019

    Time: 12:50 pm-1:50pm

    Abstract:

    Colleges and universities have an interest in increasing their retention rates, both because it is socially desirable for students to complete their educations, and because college rankings are substantially affected by retention rates. Retention of individual students is affected by the way they finance their educations, so it is natural for colleges to ask whether changing their aid policies could affect their retention rates. We examine the relationship between institutional aid, loans, and retention using a panel data set for 8 years and 1292 four-year US colleges. Comparisons to the student-level literature suggest that including fixed and period effects substantially controls for endogeneity arising from non-random assignment of students to schools and cohorts. We find heterogeneous effects of aid and loans on retention for different schools, which is not surprising since the student-level literature often finds heterogeneous effects on students. At selective schools, more institutional aid increases retention, though the effect is small. There is no effect at less selective schools. With loans, we find a reverse pattern; more students with loans has no effect on retention at selective schools but decreases it at less selective schools. Institutions that want to know how changes in institutional aid policies will affect their retention rates need to consider their own circumstances carefully, thinking about both how the changes will affect the particular students they currently enroll and how changes in aid policy will affect the mix of students that attends the institution.

  • September 26th, 2019: Don Lehman '73 and Russ Winer '66 ~ Research Frontiers in Marketing

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Don Lehmann ‘73 (Columbia)

    &

    Russ Winer ‘66 (NYU)

    The talk is titled:

    Research Frontiers in Marketing

    Thursday, September 26th, 2019

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

  • October 25th, 2019: Nam T. Vu ~ Asymmetric Effects of Sectoral Shifts under Low and High Uncertainty

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Nam T. Vu

    (Miami University of Ohio)

    The talk is titled:

    Asymmetric Effects of Sectoral Shifts under Low and High Uncertainty

    Friday, October 25th, 2019
    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm
    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.
    Abstract:
    This paper studies the asymmetric effects of sectoral shifts on economic performance under low and high uncertainty using US data. A sectoral shift is found to induce more depressed economic activity under high uncertainty relative to under low uncertainty. These effects are statistically different across the two uncertainty regimes and are not driven solely by recessions. A tractable two-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with sectoral shifts and stochastic volatility is able to qualitatively explain these empirical findings.

  • November 7th, 2019: Tanseli Savaser ~ CEO Incentives and Bank Risk Over the Business Cycle

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Tanseli Savaser (Vassar College)

    The talk is titled:

    CEO Incentives and Bank Risk Over the Business Cycle

    Thursday, November 7th, 2019

    Time: 4:00 pm-5:30pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    We examine whether the relationship between managerial risk-taking incentives and bank risk is sensitive to the underlying macroeconomic conditions. We find that risk-taking incentives provided to bank executives are associated with higher bank riskiness during economic downturns. We attribute this finding to the increase in moral hazard during macroeconomic downturns when the perceived probability of future bailouts and government guarantees rises. This association is particularly strong for larger banks, banks that maintain lower capital ratios and banks that are managed by more powerful Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). Our findings highlight the importance of the interaction between managerial incentives and the macroeconomic environment. Boards and regulators may find it useful to consider the countercyclical nature of the relationship between risk-taking incentives and bank riskiness when designing managerial compensation.

2018-2019 Speakers

  • October 18th, 2018: Lewis Davis ~ On the Origin of Religion Values: Does Italian Weather Affect Bolivian Values

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Lewis Davis

    Union College

    The talk is titled:

    On the Origin of Religion Values: Does Italian Weather Affect Bolivian Values

    Thursday, October 18th, 2018

    Time: 4:00 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    In this paper I advance and empirically support the indigenous religious values hypothesis, which holds that religions espouse the values indigenous to the countries in which they develop. To identify the indigenous values of a religion’s homeland, I rely on the negative relationship between individualism and rainfall variation. I find strong empirical support for the hypothesis that contemporary individualism depends on rainfall variation in the homelands of religions to which a country’s population adheres. Indeed, this relationship explains over a quarter of the international variation in individualism. This effect is robust to controls for the role of religion in institutional and technological transfers and the confluence of conversion and colonization. In keeping with the explicitly religious nature of the mechanism proposed here, I also find that rainfall variation in religion homelands plays a greater role in explaining the values of countries with greater religious freedom and the values of individuals who are more religious or members of religious minorities.

  • October 26th, 2018: Joel Rodrigue ~Decomposing the Impact of Trade on Aggregate Skill Demand: Evidence from Indonesia

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Joel Rodrigue

    Vanderbilt Univ.

    The talk is titled:

    Decomposing the Impact of Trade on Aggregate Skill Demand: Evidence from Indonesia

    Friday, October 26th, 2018

    Time: 3:00 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    This paper studies the impact of plant-level trade on the aggregate demand for skilled workers among Indonesian manufacturers. We combine regression methods with standard decomposition techniques to counterfactually quantify the impact of plant-level integration into import and export markets on the aggregate demand for skilled labour. Our analysis reveals four striking results: (1) the aggregate demand for skilled labour in the Indonesian manufacturing sector grew by 14 percentage points over the 1996-2006 period; (2) plant-level import and export decisions could have induced a change in the demand for skilled labour of a similar magnitude; (3)the observed import and export decisions did not significantly affect the aggregate demand for Indonesian skilled labour between 1996 and 2006; (4) importing affects skill upgrading largely through changes in within-plant skill-intensity, while export-ing affects both across-plant reallocation and within-plant skill-intensity. Counter-factual policy experiments suggest that a 10 percent reduction in internal shipping costs would induce a 0.5-8 percentage point increase in aggregate skill demand through changes in import behavior. Similarly, the elimination of tariffs on Indonesian exporters would induce a 4-17 percentage point increase in aggregate skill growth through changes in plant-level export decisions.

  • November 2nd, 2018: Minsik Choi ~ A Comparative Study of East Asian Adolescents’ Time Preference and Smartphone Addiction

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Minsik Choi

    Ewha Womans University, Korea

    The talk is titled:

    A Comparative Study of East Asian Adolescents’ Time Preference and Smartphone Addiction

    Friday, November 2nd, 2018

    Time: 3:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

  • November 9th, 2018: Kaywana Raeburn ~ Learning in a Bandit Game and Technology Choice

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Kaywana Raeburn

    Union College

    The talk is titled:

    Learning in a Bandit Game and Technology Choice

    Friday, November 9th, 2018

    Time: 3:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    We present a decision-making experiment, conducted in the field, that explores the extent to which learning in a bandit game predicts technology choice on the farm. We find evidence of heterogeneity of learning in the bandit game, including overweighting of winning draws and Bayesian updating. Our results suggest that learners who overweight recent draws are more likely to have adopted new farm crops within the previous year.

  • April 5th, 2019: Stephanie Seguino ~ The Costs of Exclusion: Gender Job Segregation, Structural Change, and the Labour Share Income

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Stephanie Seguino, University of Vermont

    The talk is titled:

    The Costs of Exclusion: Gender Job Segregation, Structural Change, and the Labour Share Income

    Friday, April 5th, 2019

    Time: 3:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    While women’s share of employment has risen in many countries over the last two decades, gender job segregation has worsened, with women increasingly excluded from ‘good’ jobs in the industrial sector. In this article, the determinants of gender job segregation are assessed using panel data for a broad set of developing countries covering the period 1991–2015. The effect of gender job segregation on all workers, via the labour share of income, is also analysed. The results identify two major contributors to gender job segregation — the rising capital/labour ratio and the ratio of female/male labour force participation rates — indicative of ‘crowding’ and exclusion as economies move up the industrial ladder. The analysis further indicates that the crowding of women into lower quality jobs has a negative effect on workers as a whole by dampening the labour share of income. Those processes are influenced by global and macroeconomic conditions and policies that have circumscribed the expansion of high-quality jobs relative to labour supply, intensifying competition for ‘good’ jobs and weakening labour’s bargaining power.

  • April 26th, 2019: Michael Klein ~ Trade Secret Protection in a Small Open Economy

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Michael Klein, RPI

    The talk is titled:

    Trade Secret Protection in a Small Open Economy

    Friday, April 26th, 2019

    Time: 3:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    Multinational firms indicate that the threat of trade secret misappropriation by current

    and former employees remains a substantial impediment to conducting business in emerging mar-
    kets. In this paper, I examine the economic implications of strengthening international standards

    in trade secret protection. I develop a general equilibrium model featuring heterogenous firms that

    differ in the degree to which they must expose employees to trade secrets. To prevent employee mis-
    appropriation, firms offer incentive compatible wage premiums based on their individual exposure

    and the common level of legal protection. Entry selection into the international market generates
    an endogenous distribution of firm specific wages and positive unemployment in equilibrium. I find
    that stronger protection stimulates multinational investment and increases aggregate productivity.
    However, distributional effects leave many workers worse-off.

2017-2018 Speakers

  • October 13th, 2017: Cynthia Bansak ~ Refugee Admissions and Public Safety: Are Refugee Settlement Areas More Prone to Crime?

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Cynthia Bansak, St. Lawrence University

    The talk is titled:

    Refugee Admissions and Public Safety:

    Are Refugee Settlement Areas More Prone to Crime?

    Friday, October 13th, 2019

    Time: 3:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of refugees worldwide rose to 21.3 million in 2015. Yet, resistance to the welcoming of refugees appears to have grown. The possibility that refugees may commit acts of terrorism or engage in criminal behavior has served as fuel for the Trump Administration’s position in 2017. Is there any basis for these fears? We exploit the variation in the geographic and temporal distribution of refugees across U.S. counties to ascertain if there is a link between refugee settlements and local crime rates or terrorist events in the United States. We fail to find any statistically significant evidence of such a connection.

  • October 27th, 2017: Hyunseok Jung ~ Adaptive LASSO for Stochastic Frontier Models with Many Efficient Firms

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Hyunseok Jung

    The talk is titled:

    Adaptive LASSO for Stochastic Frontier Models with Many Efficient Firms

    Friday, October 27th, 2017

    Time: 3:30 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    We apply the adaptive LASSO (Zou, 2006) to select a set of maximally efficient firms
    in the panel fixed-effect stochastic frontier model. The adaptively weighted L1 penalty
    with sign restrictions allows simultaneous selection of a group of maximally efficient

    firms and estimation of firm-level inefficiency parameters with a faster rate of conver-
    gence than least squares dummy variable estimator. Our estimator possesses the oracle

    property. We propose a tuning parameter selection criterion and an efficient optimiza-
    tion algorithm based on coordinate descent. We apply the method to estimate a group

    of efficient police officers who are best at detecting contraband in motor vehicle stops
    (i.e. search efficiency) in Syracuse, NY.

  • April 27th, 2018: Andrea Robbett ~ Voter Expression and Information Acquisition in Common Value Elections

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Andrea Robbett, Middlebury College

    The talk is titled:

    Voter Expression and Information Acquisition in Common Value Elections

    Friday, April 27th, 2018

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

  • May 4th, 2018: Ryan Decker ~ Firm Dynamics and Local Economic Shocks: Evidence from the Shale Oil and Gas Boom

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Ryan Decker, Federal Reserve Board of Governors

    The talk is titled:

    Firm Dynamics and Local Economic Shocks: Evidence from the Shale Oil and Gas Boom

    Friday, May 4th, 2018

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

  • May 24th, 2018: Smriti Tiwari ~ Long-term effects of temporary shocks

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Smriti Tiwari, Skidmore College

    The talk is titled:

    Long-term effects of temporary shocks

    Friday, May 24th, 2018

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    A national level unconditional cash transfer programme, Bantuan Langsung Tunai (BLT), in Indonesia allows an empirical assessment on whether there are long-term benefits in terms of food consumption and overall well-being. The results show that a positive albeit temporary income shock increases the quantity of food consumed by the poorest households and the overall subjective well-being among the poorest recipients. It is also found that poor households are more likely to invest in farm and non-farm businesses, which in turn helps them sustain a higher level of food consumption and overall satisfaction months after the end of the programme.

  • May 31st, 2018: Jia Gao ~ Religion, Employment and Female Happiness

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Jia Gao, Union College

    The talk is titled:

    Religion, Employment and Female Happiness

    Friday, May 31st, 2018

    Time: 4:00 pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    The gender gap in employed share of the population differs significantly across individuals from different religious backgrounds and living in societies with different religious traditions. We document this relationship and explore to what degree it reflects the role of religion on the preference for employment, and to what degree it is accounted for by other, non-voluntary factors related to religious affiliation and religious traditions. To this end, we estimate the gender gap in the employment happiness premium, which is the happiness gain associated with being employed. We find significant differences across religions in the employment happiness premium for women and between women and men. Our results indicate that the oppression of working outside exists among Hindus, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants women, and the severity is in that order.

2016-2017 Speakers

  • September 16, 2016: Chris Hanes ~ Quantitative Easing in the 1930s

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Chris Hanes, SUNY Binghamton

    The talk is titled:

    Quantitative Easing in the 1930s

    Friday, September 16th, 2016

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    Wage inflation surged in the 1930s though unemployment remained high and output below trend. This is an anomaly in terms of the “Phillips curve” relationship prevailing in other eras. Proposed explanations include New Deal labor policies, and Roosevelt’s package of inflationary exchange-rate and monetary policies. In standard new Keyesian models the latter could boost inflation immediately by raising the expected long-run future price level. I find the anomalous wage inflation can be entirely explained by New Deal labor policies. The 1930s U.S. does not give evidence that policymakers can manipulate long-run inflation expectations to boost current inflation

  • September 23rd, 2016: Chiara Farronato ~ Market Structure with the Entry of Peer-to-Peer Platforms: The Case of Hotels and Airbnb

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Chiara Farronato (HBS)

    The talk is titled:

    Market Structure with the Entry of Peer-to-Peer Platforms: The Case of Hotels and Airbnb

    Friday, September 23th, 2016

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    We study the effects of enabling peer supply through Airbnb in the accommodation industry. We present a model of competition between flexible and dedicated sellers - peer hosts and hotels - who provide differentiated products. We estimate this model using data from major US cities and quantify the welfare effects of Airbnb on travelers, hosts, and hotels. The welfare gains are concentrated in locations (New York) and times (New Year's Eve) when hotels are capacity constrained. This occurs because peer hosts are responsive to market conditions, expand supply as hotels fill up, and keep hotel prices down as a result.

  • November 11, 2016: Christina Houseworth ~ Divorce Among European and Mexican Immigrants in the U.S.

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Christina Houseworth, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

    The talk is titled:

    Divorce Among European and Mexican Immigrants in the U.S.

    Friday, November 11th, 2016

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    This paper analyzes the status of being currently divorced among European and Mexican immigrants in the U.S., among themselves and in comparison to the native born of the same ancestries. The data are for males and females age 18 to 55, who married only once, in the 2010-2014 American Community Surveys. Among immigrants, better job opportunities, measured by educational attainment, English proficiency and a longer duration in the U.S. are associated with a higher probability of being divorced. Those who married prior to migration and who first married at an older age are less likely to be divorced. Those who live in states with a higher divorce rate are more likely to be divorced. Thus, currently being divorced among immigrants is more likely for those who are better positioned in the labor market, less closely connected to their ethnic origins, and among Mexican immigrants who live in an environment in which divorce is more prevalent.

  • January 13th, 2017: Gerald Caprio Jr. ~ Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators Work for Us

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Gerald Caprio Jr. (Williams College)

    The talk is titled:

    Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators Work for Us

    Friday, January 13th, 2017

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    How the unaccountable, unmonitorable, and unchecked actions of regulators precipitated the global financial crisis; and how to reform the system.

    The recent financial crisis was an accident, a “perfect storm” fueled by an unforeseeable confluence of events that unfortunately combined to bring down the global financial systems. Or at least this is the story told and retold by a chorus of luminaries that includes Timothy Geithner, Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan.

    In Guardians of Finance, economists James Barth, Gerard Caprio, and Ross Levine argue that the financial meltdown of 2007 to 2009 was no accident; it was negligent homicide. They show that senior regulatory officials around the world knew or should have known that their policies were destabilizing the global financial system and yet chose not to act until the crisis had fully emerged.

    Barth, Caprio, and Levine propose a reform to counter this systemic failure: the establishment of a “Sentinel” to provide an informed, expert, and independent assessment of financial regulation. Its sole power would be to demand information and to evaluate it from the perspective of the public—rather than that of the financial industry, the regulators, or politicians.

  • January 27th, 2017: Jia Gao ~ Language Environment at Home and Academic Achievement During Early Childhood

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Jia Gao, Union College

    The talk is titled:

    Language Environment at Home and Academic

    Achievement During Early Childhood

    Friday, January 27th, 2017

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

  • February 10th, 2017: Allan Zebedee ~ Hear Me Write: Does CEO Narcissism Affect Disclosure?

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Allan Zebedee, Clarkson University

    The talk is titled:

    Hear Me Write: Does CEO Narcissism Affect Disclosure?

    Friday, February 10th, 2017

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    Through earnings announcements, conference calls, and other press releases, corporate executives have an opportunity to frame the narrative of financial disclosures. Numerous studies have shown that textual tone significantly influences stock returns, suggesting that through word choice, upper management may impact market reaction. In this study, we examine the influence of CEO personality traits on corporate disclosures by analyzing the tone of earnings announcements for a sample of Fortune 500 CEOs over nearly two decades. Our hypotheses are twofold: (1) that qualitative disclosures in firms with narcissistic leaders will be biased upward and (2) the bias will moderate as CEOs becomes older. Our empirical results support these hypotheses and suggest that more narcissistic CEOs tend to reinforce their grandiose self-image by issuing more positive earnings announcements but this desire wanes with CEO age. We also find that the stock market response to the tone of the earnings announcement is less pronounced for more narcissistic CEOs, suggesting the market takes into account the bias in narcissistic CEO announcements.

  • April 7th, 2017: Zsófia Barta ~ Rating Politics? Partisan Discrimination in Credit Ratings in Developed Economies

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Zsófia Barta, SUNY

    The talk is titled:

    Rating Politics? Partisan Discrimination in Credit Ratings in Developed Economies

    Friday, April 7th, 2017

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    How does government partisanship influence sovereign credit ratings of developed countries? Given the convergence of fiscal and monetary outcomes between left and right governments in the past decades, credit rating agencies (CRAs) should in principle not discriminate according to ideology. However, we hypothesize that CRAs might lower ratings for left governments as a strategy to limit negative policy and market surprises as they strive to keep ratings stable over the medium term. A panel analysis of Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch’s rating actions for 23 Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1995 to 2014 shows that left executives and the electoral victory of nonincumbent left executives are associated with significantly higher probabilities of negative rating changes. We find no evidence of similar systematic partisan bias in spreads on government bonds, but spreads do adjust to partisan-biased downgrades. This suggests that CRAs may introduce partisan discrimination into sovereign credit markets.

  • April 21st 2017: Russell Weinstein ~ Geography and Networks in Employer Recruiting

    The Economics Department welcomes

    Russell Weinstein (RPI)

    The talk is titled:

    Geography and Networks in Employer Recruiting

    Friday, April 21st, 2017

    Time: 3:30 pm-5:00pm

    There will be a 30-minute post-seminar discussion as well.

    Abstract:

    I analyze whether reducing geographic distance to high-wage jobs increases access to those employment opportunities. I collect office locations and campus recruiting strategies for over 70 prestigious banking and consulting firms, from 2000 to 2013. Using an event study framework, I find firms are 2 times more likely to recruit at local universities after opening a nearby office, and 6 times more likely outside industry clusters. New target campuses outside industry clusters are less academically selective. The results suggest place-based policies may improve access to high-wage firms, and also suggest the importance of a university’s local labor market for post-graduation outcomes.