Turnbull's productivity is evident from his ranking of 22nd in the nation in a study of publications in the top 36 professional journals over the 1984-93 period (Economic Inquiry, April 1996). This study listed the top 50 economists by pages published as one measure of "The Economists Hall of Fame." As might be expected, a substantial majority of this elite group was affiliated with the 20 or so highest-ranked economics departments in the nation. Less than 10 of the 50 "Hall of Fame" economists were affiliated with universities located in the south.

Turnbull's wide-ranging interests include public finance, urban economics, real estate economics, and applied microeconomics. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and Journal of Housing Economics. Not only have his research accomplishments been widely recognized, but also he was awarded the economics department's outstanding teacher award for 1992-93.

Like some of his colleagues, Pat Culbertson has impressive credentials in the three major areas of academic life --teaching, research, and service.

He has won numerous teaching awards, published in prestigious academic journals, and served the University and community in a variety of ways. But what makes Culbertson special is his involvement in two areas in which his colleagues seldom if ever venture--college athletics and local government.

In 1994, Culbertson was appointed by the chancellor as chair of LSU's Athletic Council and as LSU's faculty representative to the NCAA. As faculty rep, he attends all NCAA conventions and many workshops. His duties as chair of the Athletic Council also include chairing the annual meetings of the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame and the LSU Hall of Distinction. In 1996, he was elected secretary to the executive committee of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

He was elected to represent the voters of District 3 on the Metropolitan Council in November 1996 and took office on January 2, 1997, for a four-year term. Culbertson, a Republican, survived a five-person primary and received a 7,500 to 5,100 vote margin over a Democratic opponent in the runoff. Metro Council District 3 includes about 17,000 registered voters. Culbertson's duties include representing his district on the 12-district Metro Council, reviewing and approving the city-parish annual budget, making appointments to various boards and commissions (BREC, the airport, etc.), and voting on zoning issues.

"I get a lot of satisfaction in serving on the council," Culbertson says, "particularly in helping constituents resolve problems. All the textbooks tell us that the government which is closest to the people serves best. After nearly two years in office, I believe that more strongly every day."

Will he run for mayor of Baton Rouge in the year 2000? Maybe! While it is much too early to announce, he is giving the idea serious consideration. "Baton Rouge has been my home for nearly 40 years," he says. "Margaret and I love the community. We raised our family here. I want to see our city-parish continue all the progress and growth we have achieved under the leadership of Mayor Tom Ed McHugh. If I feel that I can best serve by running for mayor, then I will."

Culbertson grew up in Louisiana, receiving both his B.S. and M.S. degrees from LSU. He is among the few Louisianians who will admit that they were NOT in Tiger Stadium the night Billy Cannon made his famous punt return against Ole Miss. He earned his doctorate in economics at the University of Texas in 1972.

He has taught economics at LSU since 1974, specializing in international finance and macroeconomics. His classes gain practical experience by participating in a trading game which involves the students in trading stocks, bonds, currencies, and futures contracts. In the fall semester 1997, he began teaching a course in federal, state, and local taxation--an area much in line with his service on the Metro Council.

Culbertson has frequently been recognized for his outstanding teaching. He was the first recipient of outstanding teacher awards in both the economics department in 1985 and in the college of business administration in 1985-86. In 1988-89, he was named outstanding teacher of economics by the business college students, and the LSU Student Government Association honored him with a distinguished service award in 1996.

Lee Griffin (M.S., economics, 1962) entered LSU with the intention of becoming a college professor. After two years of graduate studies, he took a job as management trainee at Louisiana National Bank (LNB) while waiting for his fiancee to earn her undergraduate degree. As it turned out, Griffin liked banking, and obviously banking liked him, and he opted not to pursue an academic career. Academe's loss was the banking industry's gain. Griffin rose rapidly in the ranks and today is chairman, president, and CEO of Bank One, Louisiana, N.A.

Griffin, a Texas state high school and high school all-American diving champion, entered the University of Texas at Austin on an athletic scholarship in 1956. Four years later he graduated with honors with a B.S. in economics. One of his professors, C.C. Thompson, encouraged him to pursue graduate work with the objective of becoming an economics professor. Thompson recommended LSU, and a graduate assistantship was quickly secured from Steve McDonald, then department chairman and himself a University of Texas alumnus.

Griffin proved a very able student. In his second year, he received a prestigious Earhart Foundation Fellowship, awarded to only 20 doctoral students in the United States. Griffin fondly remembers the many outstanding professors he had at LSU--among them McDonald, Leon Schur, Bernie Sliger (who directed Griffin's master's thesis), Bill Ross, and especially Bill Breit.

In his banking career at LNB, Griffin moved quickly up the ladder, becoming vice president in 1967. From 1968-71 he initiated LNB's credit card operations, and from 1971-73 he served as president of a newly acquired subsidiary, Louisiana National Leasing Corporation. He was elected senior vice president of LNB's newly organized Administration and Operations Division in 1973 and served there until 1978.

Griffin was elected to the LNB board of directors in 1976, became president in 1978, president and CEO in 1983, and chairman of the board in 1986. Before attaining his current position, he was elected president and CEO of Premier Bancorp, Inc. and Premier Bank in 1988, and chairman, president, and CEO of Premier Bank, N.A. and Premier Bancorp, Inc. in 1990.

His professional activities include immediate past president of the Louisiana Bankers Association and member of the board of directors and chairman of the Government Relations Council of the American Bankers Association. He has been engaged in numerous civic and community activities, not the least of which is his enthusiastic support of LSU. He is a past president and member of the board of the LSU Foundation, and founder, past president, and current board member of the LSU Business Partnership for Excellence. He has been recognized for his considerable accomplishments by induction into the LSU Hall of Distinction and was in the initial group of five alumni to be inducted into the LSU College of Business Hall of Distinction.

Looking back at the enormous changes that have occurred in the banking industry since he started his career, Griffin recalls the highly regulated nature of banking at that time. State and federal regulations constrained products, pricing, and places. For example, LNB's banking operations were limited geographically to East Baton Rouge Parish. As he notes, deregulation began in 1980, and by the mid-1980s federal regulations that placed a ceiling on the interest rates that banks could pay on their deposits had been phased out. The merger phase of the industry began amidst the decline in oil prices that hurt the state's economy and adversely impacted its banking industry. Competition intensified as non-bank institutions began to provide bank-like financial services.

As Griffin emphasizes, banking today is certainly a more competitive industry than it was in the past. And what about the future? Griffin foresees a continuation of the merger trend in banking and a further consolidation of financial services. He predicts changes in federal legislation will allow banks to become more involved in providing investment and insurance services, and at some point one will not be able to tell much difference between banks and other providers of financial services. In the not too distant future, small banks will be able to exist only in smaller communities, while technology will make it almost impossible for them to compete with the larger banks in metropolitan areas.

Jim Richardson is widely recognized for his many contributions not only to the University but to the state of Louisiana and its citizens.

One of his major public service activities is his membership on the state's Revenue Estimating Conference. The conference was created in 1987 by the Louisiana Legislature with the function of establishing the official revenue estimate for state government; the conference became a constitutional body in 1990. The official revenue estimate for the upcoming fiscal year limits the monies that can be appropriated by the legislature.

The conference was created because the state had incurred over $500 million in budget deficits in fiscal 1985, 1986, and 1987. These deficits were partially due to high revenue estimates that were accepted in a political process without appropriately calculating the economic realities of the time. The conference was to provide revenue estimates based only on economic projections as opposed to being swayed by the expenditure side of the budget.

The conference has four members--the governor or his designee, the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, and a university economist selected by the other three members. Richardson has served on the conference since its inception. He was first appointed by the Edwards administration, then reappointed in turn by the Roemer administration, the Edwards administration again, and now the Foster administration.

Members of the conference meet at least four times a year to consider short- and long-run revenue estimates. Initial estimates are prepared by three state government economists holding LSU degrees. The short-run revenue estimates are prepared by David Hoppenstedt (Ph.D., economics, 1987) of the State Budget Office and Greg Albrecht (M.S., economics, 1983) of the Legislative Fiscal Office. The long-run revenue estimate is prepared by Bill Black (M.S., economics, 1971) of the Louisiana House of Representatives, Appropriations Section. After listening to testimony and asking questions, the conference votes on an official forecast. A unanimous vote is required by law. Most observers conclude that the conference has worked very well. While credit must also be given to the expanding economy, the state in the last 10 years has incurred only one budget deficit and only once has ordered midyear budget cuts due to lower than expected revenues.

In addition to his service on the Revenue Estimating Conference, Richardson has distinguished himself in a wide range of areas since his arrival at LSU as a new assistant professor in 1970. Currently alumni professor of economics and director of the Public Administration Institute, he has published widely in the area of taxation, especially the taxation of natural resources. He edited and contributed to an important volume published by the LSU Press in 1988 titled Louisiana's Fiscal Alternatives: Finding Permanent Solutions to Recurring Budget Crises. More recently, he coedited and contributed to Handbook on Taxation, published by Marcel Dekker in 1998, which is a collection of original articles from 38 tax experts dealing with international, federal, and state and local tax issues.

David Smyth, an internationally known macroeconomist, announced his retirement from LSU last June. He will reside in England.

Smyth, who was LSU Foundation Distinguished Professor of Economics, joined the LSU faculty in 1987. He founded the Journal of Macroeconomics in 1977 and edited it until his retirement. In addition to numerous books and reports, Smyth has authored or coauthored over 160 articles in academic journals. His articles have appeared in most of the major economic journals, including American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economics and Statistics, Economica, Economic Journal, and Oxford Economic Papers, to name only a few.

Among his many celebrated articles are "Empirical Evidence on the Acceleration Principle," Review of Economic Studies (Nos. 3 and 4, 1964), "Built-in Flexibility of Taxation and Automatic Stabilization," Journal of Political Economy (August 1966), "The Specification of the Demand for Money and the Tax Multiplier" (with J.M. Holmes), Journal of Political Economy (January-February 1972), "Real Wages, Business Cycles and the Speed of Adjustment of Employment in Manufacturing Sectors of Industrialized Countries," Review of Economics and Statistics (May 1981), and "Public Perceptions of Macroeconomic Policy: An Econometric Analysis of the Reagan Presidency" (with P. Dua), Review of Economics and Statistics (May 1988).

The department recently made several changes in its doctoral program. In addition to the core requirements, all students are now required to complete the same three fields: econometrics, monetary economics, and an applied microeconomic field. (The courses making up the applied micro field for each entering class will be determined by student preferences and by faculty availability and preferences.) Fields are satisfied by successfully completing the course work and passing a written examination in the field in which the dissertation is written. Written exams are no longer required in the other two fields.

Students must complete a total of 48 hours of coursework. This requirement consists of the core macro and micro theory courses, the mathematical economics courses, the econometrics courses, and the field courses. Qualifying exams in micro and macro theory must be passed after the student completes the first two courses in each area.

Five economics students received M.S. degrees in the 1997-98 academic year. They were: Yeong-Nain Chi, Scott Guillory, Asitava Jana, Bala Kamallakharan, and Tolga Onder.

Last year three students received doctoral degrees in economics. Becky Campbell, whose dissertation title was "The Effects of Fiscal Structure, Leviathan, and Interdependent Demands in Local Public Spending Behavior," wrote under Geoff Turnbull. She teaches at Southwest Texas State. Kenan Lopcu, whose advisor was Ted Palivos, teaches at Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus. His dissertation was titled, "Essays on Panel Unit Root Procedures: Applications to the Convergence Hypothesis, PPP, and UCIP." Etienne Pracht, whose dissertation title was "An Analysis of Reimbursement Methodologies and Cost Containment Policies in Medicaid Inpatient Hospital and Pharmaceuticals," wrote under Jeff Moore. Pracht is an instructor at LSU.

Under the direction of Loren Scott, the Division of Economic Development and Forecasting has attracted three new grants in the last year.

A $117,615 grant with the Baton Rouge Community College was completed in August 1998. Carter Hill generated enrollment forecasts for both traditional and nontraditional students, and faculty members from vocational education and marketing developed curricula for the new college and investigated methods to market optimally the college's graduates.

The division received a $79,404 grant from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to develop models for estimating the return on investment in the state's intermodel transportation plan. David Johnson is a principal investigator on this grant which also contains $18,000 in funding for graduate students and research associates. The grant covers the period May 1998-February 1999.

Most recently the division received a three-year grant totaling $110,000 to supervise teams of second-year M.B.A. students who will analyze inner-city firms to improve profitability. Two faculty members from accounting and marketing will coordinate.

Each year the division issues a 60-page publication titled Louisiana Economic Outlook (LEO) which contains employment forecasts by industry and for the state's eight largest metropolitan areas. The September 1997 LEO had two principal sponsors--Whitney National Bank and Hibernia National Bank. Each donated $10,000 to the forecasting fund. In addition, another $11,134 was raised through subscription sales. Funds generated by LEO have greatly benefited the economics department.

Omicron Delta Epsilon (ODE) is the International Honor Society in Economics. The Gamma chapter at LSU was founded in 1967. The current president is Vera Tabakova, who has just begun her term. She is assisted by treasurer/factotum Etienne Pracht. The faculty advisor is Carter Hill.

Minimum eligibility requirements for undergraduates are completion of 12 semester hours of economics courses with at least a "B" average and an overall "B" average in all classes. Students do not have to be economics majors, but must have a genuine interest in economics in addition to meeting the above requirements. Graduate students in economics are judged solely on their graduate work. They must have completed one semester of full-time work with attainment of a "B" or better average. A life-membership fee, currently $27, is paid upon election to the society. In return, the member receives a membership card, scroll, and a year's subscription (two issues) to The American Economist.

The objectives of ODE are recognition of scholastic attainment and outstanding achievements by economists at all levels. In addition, it fosters closer ties between students and faculty within the LSU community and establishes connections between students and faculty at different universities. The Gamma chapter sponsors social events, including the biennial "chicken roast," and professional development seminars. Past seminars have addressed topics such as how to obtain a job in economics, tips on teaching the principles of economics, how to write a dissertation, and a roundtable discussion of fields within economics.

Information about ODE can be found at the national organization's website (http://www.cba.ua.edu/~ode/). Vera Tabakova has also developed an excellent site for the local chapter (http://www.bus.lsu.edu/economics/organizations/main.html).

Currently, the local chapter does not have any undergraduate members. This is something that we would like to change. Membership is prestigious for undergraduates, adding a nice line to the resume, and it can provide interactions with economics faculty and graduate students outside the classroom environment.

If there are any questions feel free to call Vera Tabakova at 225/388-5211 or Carter Hill at 225/388-1490, or email eohill@lsu.edu.

Michael R. Conwell, senior vice president and manager of international banking for Hibernia National Bank, was the featured speaker last fall for the Undergraduate Economics/International Trade and Finance Club.

Conwell is also a board member of the International Business Committee of the World Trade Center of New Orleans and is a member of the Louisiana District Export Council. Following his address, the question-and-answer period proved interesting as students engaged Conwell with inquiries such as: "What will be the international language of business in the next century?"

The Economics/ITF Club serves both the professional and social extracurricular needs of undergraduate students. Membership is open to all students, and there are no dues. An active professional and social calendar is planned for 1998-99.

Three ECON/ITF students graduated with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages at the fall 1997 and spring 1998 commencements.

Receiving the University Medal for highest academic achievement at LSU were Heidi Lea Hebert, Renee McFarland, and Chris Popov. Hebert, an ITF major, is enrolled at Stanford Law School and hopes later to go into international corporate law with a concentration in intellectual property. McFarland, also an ITF major, is attending Harvard Law School. Popov, an economics major in the College of Business Administration, is attending law school at the University of Texas at Austin. Among other accomplishments, Popov was named outstanding senior in the college, was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, served as president of Sigma Chi fraternity and president of the Interfraternity Conference, and was selected as 1997 homecoming king.

Raley Alford also graduated summa cum laude, a designation for students with grade-point averages from 3.90 to 4.0. Alford, who is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa and who served as president of Sigma Chi fraternity, is enrolled in LSU Law School.

Nine other ECON/ITF majors also graduated with honors. Graduating magna cum laude, with averages of 3.80 to 3.89, were Scott Dwyer, Ramon Hasbun, Brian Patrick Pitre, and Natalie Runyon. Dwyer is now attending LSU Law School. Hasbun, a native of Honduras, held the Russel Sledge Memorial scholarship. He plans to work for several years before returning to academia for a master's degree. Runyon, a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, will work for the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia, and later plans to pursue an MBA at George Washington University.

Graduating cum laude, with averages from 3.70 to 3.79, were James Edward Chancey, Jonah Freedman, Scott Hackler, Cora Klapper, and Travis Warziniack. Hackler was president of AIESEC and represented LSU in the 1995 "Jeopardy!" College Tournament. He has the unusual distinction of being selected for Phi Beta Kappa, an honor not normally available to business school students. Klapper works for the Industry Economics Division of the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. and plans to pursue an M.B.A. on a part-time basis in the future. Warziniack was a conscientious and valuable student worker in the economics department office for four years. He plans to do missionary/volunteer work before beginning a Ph.D. program in economics in the fall 1999.

The economics department salutes the above-mentioned graduates and others of this exceptionally talented class as they pursue their postgraduate studies or varied careers. While the faculty will miss having such talented students in their classes, the good news is that the department anticipates another bumper crop of honors graduates in 1998-99. To name only two, Miyuki Iwaya, an ITF major, has maintained a near-perfect grade point average with only one "B" in over three years of undergraduate work. Another senior, Todd Keator, has a 3.95 average. Keator, an economics major in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and plans to enter law school after graduation.

Parisun Chantanahom (M.S., economics, 1989; Ph.D., economics, 1991) has been promoted to executive officer, statistics group 4 (real sectors) in the economic research department of the Bank of Thailand.

John Eckalbar (M.S., economics, 1972) has taught at California State University at Chico since 1978. His publications, mostly in mathematical/theoretical areas, have appeared in such prestigious journals as Econometrica, Journal of Economic Theory, Economic Journal, and Oxford Economic Papers. He received his doctorate in economics from the University of Colorado.

Carlos Roberto Flores (B.S., international trade and finance, 1973) was elected president of Honduras in December 1997. Formerly the president of the National Congress of Honduras and owner of the Central American country's largest newspaper, La Tribuna, he was elected on a platform dealing with issues such as health, public safety, and moral values. Flores, who also received an LSU degree in industrial engineering, was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters by LSU at its May 1995 commencement ceremony.

Sam Fraser (Ph.D., economics, 1978) works for the Minerals Management Service, an agency of the U.S. Interior Department. MMS is the land manager for the U.S. outer continental shelf. He previously worked for 14 years analyzing hardrock mineral issues with the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

Bill Green (Ph.D., economics, 1974) is managing to stay busy doing some real world applications of public choice. Besides being economics department chairman at Sam Houston State University, he is in his second term as mayor of Huntsville. He writes, "Although I enjoy being mayor it takes much more time than I ever thought that it would."

Suzanne Hawkins (B.S., international trade and finance, 1994) is manager of business development for Taxware International software company in Mountain View, California.

Bob Hebert (B.S., economics, 1965; M.S., economics, 1966; Ph.D., economics, 1970) has been Russell Foundation Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Auburn University since 1987. He served as head of the Auburn economics department from 1980-87 and 1991-93, and was Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Paris and visiting professor at the Universite de Paris I (Sorbonne) in 1994-95. His extensive research has appeared in leading professional journals as well as in numerous books and contributions to books. His latest book, coauthored with Bob Ekelund, is a "definitive" treatment of the French engineers and their contribution to economic theory; it is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press in 1999.

Tim Hopper (M.S., economics, 1994) works as an economist for the Houston branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He was married in October 1996 and he and his wife are expecting their first child this September.

Patrick Krake (M.S., economics, 1992) received his M.D. from the LSU Medical Center at Shreveport. He was elected as a delegate to the American Medical Association, Louisiana State Medical Society, and to the Board of Governors of the State Medical Society.

Tim Phinney (M.S., economics, 1985) is information systems manager for a customs broker/international freight forwarder in New Orleans. He manages an IBM AS/400 and Novell LAN with 120 users. He maintains import/export software which manages cargo movement and communicates with U.S. Customs and other government agencies.

Mike Watts (B.A., economics, 1972; M.A., economics, 1974; Ph.D., economics 1978) is professor of economics and director of the Center for Economic Education at Purdue University. He serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Education and as a member of the AEA Committee on Economic Education. His articles have appeared in such journals as American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Inquiry, Southern Economic Journal, and Journal of Economic Education. Since 1992 he has made over 20 trips to Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, to work with instructors revising the university and secondary economics curriculum.

Robert Benton Weathersby (B.S., international trade and finance, 1982) is a partner in a Dallas law firm, Andrews and Kurth LLP, specializing in commercial litigation.

Trent Williams (M.S., economics, 1976) is a principal of Regional Technology Strategies (RTS), a non-profit public policy consulting firm with offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Cambridge, Massachusetts. RTS develops and tests innovative approaches to generating wealth and encouraging higher wage jobs within regional economies. Williams earlier served as undersecretary of the Louisiana Department of Commerce, vice president and research director at Gulf South Research Institute (GSRI), and executive vice president of the Louisiana Partnership for Technology and Innovation. He has also served as director of seven different technology-based companies.

Keith Bender has joined the Social Security Administration in Washington, D.C., where he will help to coordinate a project to evaluate proposed reforms to ensure the solvency of social security retirement benefits. He visited the economics department during 1997-98 as a professional-in-residence. His recent publications have included articles in Industrial and Labor Relations Review, British Journal of Industrial Relations, and Journal of Economic Surveys.

Carter Hill, who is Mack H. Hornbeak Distinguished Professor, has just received the official Chinese translation of his latest book, Undergraduate Econometrics, which he coauthored with Bill Griffiths from the University of New England, Armidale, Australia, and George Judge from the University of California, Berkeley. The English version was published by John Wiley and Sons in early 1997. It is accompanied by a bank of examples, data sets, software instruction files, and Powerpoint slides. The book has been adopted at 50 U.S. universities and colleges so far, including Michigan State, Columbia, Rochester, Iowa State, Texas A&M, and Pittsburgh, to name a few. It is also being used in 11 Australian universities. The book is currently being translated into Portuguese.

David Johnson received the economics department's graduate teaching excellence award for 1997. He is recognized as one of the most popular professors in the MBA program of the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration.

Lamar Jones has returned to full-time teaching in the economics department after holding a variety of administrative positions in the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration. Most recently, he served as interim chair of the accounting department for 15 months.

Andy Kleit has resigned from LSU to take a position at Penn State. He joined the LSU faculty in 1992 with research and teaching interests in industrial organization and environmental economics.

Faik Koray continues to serve as the department's graduate advisor. His primary research and teaching interests are in macroeconomics and international finance.

Kaz Miyagiwa was on leave last year as a professor at the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, Japan. In addition to presenting papers at a number of universities, in March he coorganized a highly successful three-day conference on international trade that was attended by several top international economists from the U.S. He has a paper forthcoming in International Economic Review titled "Credibility of Protection and Incentives to Innovate," and two papers forthcoming in Pacific Economic Review.

Jeff Moore, who is Gulf Coast Coca Cola Business Partnership Professor, conducts research in the areas of labor and health economics. A coauthored paper with Bob Newman and Geoff Turnbull on "Academic Pay and Seniority" appeared in the April 1998 issue of the Journal of Labor Economics. A second paper, "The Determinants and Effects of Right-To-Work Laws: A Review of the Recent Literature," appeared in the summer 1998 issue of the Journal of Labor Research. Moore has recently revised his undergraduate labor economics course to focus on personnel economics, and he attended a week-long conference at Stanford University on this topic. During the last academic year Professor Moore worked on two consulting projects for the state of Louisiana. The first dealt with industry location and the second focused on developing an evaluation system for education and job training programs within the state.

Doug McMillin, who is South Central Bell Business Partnership Professor, is editor of Journal of Macroeconomics and serves on the editorial advisory council of Pacific Economic Review. A coauthored paper with J.S. Fackler entitled "Historical Decomposition of Aggregate Demand and Supply Shocks in a Small Macro Model" appeared in the January 1998 Southern Economic Journal. A coauthored paper with O. Ozcicek, titled "Lag Length Selection in Vector Autoregressive Models: Symmetric and Asymmetric Lags," is forthcoming in Applied Economics.

Mary Jo Neathery has completed her 26th year in the economics department office. She continues to be the department's biggest asset.

Bob Newman, who is South Central Bell Professor, teaches and conducts research in the areas of labor and health economics. Over the past two years, he has been involved in two research projects for the state. The first project provided an economic analysis of a proposed reservoir in the state, and included a contingent valuation study of the recreational benefits associated with the lake. Newman is currently involved in a Department of Labor contract, which among other things, will develop an evaluation system for all education and job training programs in the state.

Ted Palivos published several papers last year including "On the Existence of Balanced Growth Equilibrium," jointly written with P. Wang and J. Zhang, in the February 1997 issue of the International Economic Review, and "The Gains from Trade for a Monetary Economy Once Again," with C.K. Yip, which appeared in the February 1997 issue of the Canadian Journal of Economics. He also presented a paper in the third Midwest Macro- economics Conference, and visited the Chinese University of Hong Kong where he gave a seminar on "Optimal Monetary Policy" and initiated several joint research projects with the faculty.

Chris Papageorgiou, who joined the LSU faculty in 1997, holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Papageorgiou's primary research interest is in macroeconomics, with particular interest in the theory and empirics of economic growth. His recent work centers around the role of technological innovation and human capital accumulation in economic growth. He currently teaches principles and intermediate macroeconomics.

Randy Rice recently completed his second year as economics department chair. He served in this same capacity from 1976-82. In addition to his arduous duties as chair, he also acts as undergraduate student advisor

Jeanne Ringel joined the LSU faculty in the fall of 1997 after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. Her current research is in the area of applied microeconomics. Recent topics of study include: the effect of cigarette taxes on maternal smoking behavior and infant health, the labor market consequences of early child bearing, and the effect of maternity leave policies on the labor market transitions of new mothers. In addition, Ringel and a coauthor have been asked by the National Bureau of Economic Research to write a paper examining the potential effects of the excise tax policies included in the global tobacco settlement. The article will appear in the Bureau's publication, Tax Policy and the Economy.

Loren Scott holds the Freeport McMoRan Chair and directs the Division of Economic Development and Forecasting. Though only in its third year of operation, the division has been very successful in securing grants and other funding to support faculty and graduate student work in economic development.

Dek Terrell recently finished his second year at LSU and was promoted to the rank of associate professor. He worked on two funded projects last year. Terrell teamed with Loren Scott and Doug McMillin on the Louisiana Workforce Development project to forecast future employment and skilled labor requirements for Louisiana industries, and he also worked with Andy Kleit to measure efficiency of electric power generating plants in Louisiana and quantify the potential benefits of deregulating electricity generation in the state. Terrell also completed several other research projects during the year and his work was presented in Kuwait, Pakistan, and at several conferences in Europe and the United States.

Marybeth Theriot has been managing editor of the Journal of Macroeconomics since 1989. She oversees the peer review process and edits accepted manuscripts. The journal averages about 220 new submissions each year with about 80 resubmissions, and it publishes 40-45 articles annually.

John Thompson is beginning his second year as an instructor. He will receive his Ph.D. from Auburn this fall. Last year, he received the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration Award for outstanding instructor.

Donna Burton, who served as a secretary in the economics department from 1988-97, died June 16, 1998, in Gonzales, Louisiana. She was 39 and a resident of St. Amant, Louisiana. At the time of her death, she was a secretary in the Department of Residential Life at LSU.