Editing a major economic journal is almost a full time job--just ask Doug McMillin. In addition, he also has his teaching and research responsibilities. McMillin, who is South Central Bell Business Partnership Professor, became an associate editor of the Journal of Macroeconomics in 1990 and in 1995 joined founder David Smyth as co-editor. With Smyth's retirement in 1997, McMillin became the sole editor.

Over the last four years, JMacro has averaged 212 new submissions and 60 resubmissions per year and publishes 40-45 articles annually. McMillin is ably assisted by managing editor Marybeth Theriot, who helps to oversee the peer review process and edits accepted manuscripts. The office staff includes Beth Juneau, Brian Cook, and James Sheffield, student assistants.

JMacro has a strong international flavor in terms of both contributors and readership. Over the past year, slightly less than 50 percent of the authors published were affiliated with a foreign university; of the total subscribers, almost 40 percent are foreign.

Founding editor David Smyth assembled and maintained a very distinguished editorial board, many of whom continue to serve. This group includes nobel laureates Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, and James Tobin, to name only three. In the last two years, McMillin has greatly expanded the editorial board to include well-known economists Torben Andersen, Ben Bernanke, Chris Carroll, Betty Daniel, Martin Eichenbaum, Jim Fackler, John Haltiwanger, Glenn Hubbard, Beth Ingram, William Lastrapes, Cara Lown, Kazuo Mino, Ted Palivos, Anne Sibert, John Taylor, Carl Walsh, and Ping Wang.

JMacro publishes both theoretical and empirical articles on a wide variety of topics. A few selected recent articles include: Lawrence Seidman and Kenneth Lewis, "Conversion to a Consumption Tax in a Growth Model with Heterogeneity," fall 1998; Ray Fair, "Estimated Inflation Costs Had European Unemployment Been Reduced in the 1980s by Macro Policies," winter 1999; Clifton Mark Loo and William Lastrapes, "Identifying the Effects of Money Supply Shocks on Industry-Level Output," summer 1998; Tom Stark and Dean Croushore, "Evaluating McCallum's Rule When Monetary Policy Matters," summer 1998; and Edward Leamer and Mark Taylor, "Estimating Growth Equations for Previously Centrally Planned Economies," fall 1999.

A full listing of recent and forthcoming articles can be found on the JMacro website at www.bus.lsu.edu/economics/jmacro/

McMillin not only edits JMacro but is also a well-known macro and monetary economist in his own right. He has authored or co-authored nearly 40 papers in professional journals and has served as referee for 18 different journals. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Economic Association, 1993-95, and serves on the editorial advisory council of the Pacific Economic Review.

McMillin was a research fellow in the economic studies program at The Brookings Institution, 1978-79, and received his Ph.D. from LSU in 1979.After teaching at the University of Kentucky, he joined the LSU faculty in the mid-1980s and was designated South Central Bell Professor in 1992. He has been recognized by the Department of Economics with excellence in teaching awards on two occasions and has been very active in directing doctoral dissertations. He has directed or co-directed nine dissertations (including those at the University of Kentucky) and currently has two others in progress.

Alumni Profile
Ekelund and Hebert: LSU's Auburn Tigers

Two of the brightest stars in the long history of the department's doctoral program are today two of the most distinguished professors at Auburn University. Bob Ekelund is Edward K. and Catherine L. Lowder Eminent Scholar (Auburn's most prestigious professorship) and Bob Hebert is the Russell Foundation Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies.

In addition to numerous pamphlets, essays in books, edited books, and reprinted papers and translations, their articles have appeared in many of the world's leading economic journals. Ekelund has published nearly 110 papers in professional journals; Hebert, in addition to his administrative duties as head of the Auburn economics department from 1980-87 and 1991-93, has published nearly 30. Sixteen of their refereed articles have been jointly co-authored. Ekelund has written eleven books (not counting numerous editions), three of them co-authored with Hebert. Their co-authored book History of Economic Theory and Method (in its fourth edition and translated into Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Chinese, and Japanese) is, according to a recent survey, the number one book used at the undergraduate level in this subject worldwide. Their most recent book, Secret Origins of Modern Microeconomics: Dupuit and the Engineers, which is certain to excite great interest in the economics profession, is actually the result of an intellectual odyssey that began more than 30 years ago at LSU. Ekelund and Hebert met at LSU as graduate students and became friends as well as classmates.

The two Bobs arrived at LSU's doctoral program by very different paths. Ekelund, a Texan, came to LSU in 1963 after first earning B.B.A. and M.A. degrees in economics from St. Mary's University in San Antonio. As he tells the story, he was a "terrible undergraduate student, but a good master's student." Professor Ludwig Mai of St. Mary's convinced LSU professor Bill Breit, correctly as it turned out, that Ekelund was much better than merely "good." Ekelund was subsequently admitted to the doctoral program and achieved an outstanding record. "LSU turned a scared, ill-prepared kid into a professional economist in three and one-half years," he relates. "I liked economics when I arrived, but loved it when I left (and I still do)."

Hebert, a native Louisianian, entered LSU as a freshman in 1961 after graduating as valedictorian from Ascension Catholic High in Donaldsonville. He recalls that growing up in the shadow of LSU, and perceiving it to be the best university in the state, it seemed natural to enroll there. He entered the business college as an entrée to law school. When he was a senior, Professor Herman Daly persuaded him to think seriously about entering the graduate program in economics. Hebert received a B.S. in economics in January 1965,completing his four-year course of study in three and one-half years. This "early exit" put him out of sync with law school, so he entered the M.S. program with the idea of deferring entry to law school until the fall of 1966.Once into graduate work, he relates, he discovered how much he enjoyed economics and soon forgot plans to study law. He also decided to obtain both of his graduate degrees at LSU--the M.S. in 1966 and the Ph.D. in 1970--a decision, he says, that he has "never regretted. "

Both Bobs share many of the same memories of LSU--the comradery among the graduate students and the lifelong friends they made (e.g., Dubose DeLorme, Pat Culbertson, and Kathie Gilbert). They fondly remember the dedicated faculty, frequently mentioning, among others, Breit, Daly, Bernie Sliger, Tommy Beard, and especially Jim Payne. Payne, they recall, "helped to keep both of us on track and to direct our research into productive channels. He had very exacting standards, which he, thankfully, transferred to us."

Although Ekelund was two years ahead of Hebert in the program, they soon found that their interests converged. In their research each relied on the other for criticism and advice. Louisiana's French heritage was reflected in the library holdings at LSU, which proved a boon to their efforts. Ekelund's dissertation, finished in 1967, was the first systematic, in-depth attempt to evaluate the contributions of Jules Dupuit to economic analysis. In the next five years Ekelund published a number of papers assessing aspects of Dupuit's economic theories, encountering along the way other prescient engineers. Ekelund had piqued Hebert's interest in the French engineers, and in 1970 the latter completed his doctoral dissertation on the contributions to economics of Émile Cheysson.

By 1973, their academic partnership was in full swing, and they began to publish a series of papers on the French engineers. Hebert, who started his academic career at Clemson, accepted a position at Auburn in 1974; Ekelund joined Hebert in 1979, after having risen from assistant professor to professor at Texas A&M. Hebert first began going to Paris in 1980, seeking archival material that would further their joint study, which was expanding with piecemeal discoveries of the cadre of engineers that constituted Dupuit's supporting cast. He has made perhaps half a dozen trips since then. In 1995 he received a Fulbright Grant which gave him the opportunity to live in Paris for eight months and to complete research that had begun in Baton Rouge almost three decades earlier.

Ekelund and Hebert's most recent book, Secret Origins of Modern Microeconomics: Dupuit and the Engineers, is thus the result of almost three decades of cumulative preparation. Published by the University of Chicago Press in 1999, this work is a highly original and important contribution to the history of economic thought. The surprising thesis of the book is that contemporary microeconomic theory was developed first by engineers rather than economists and that its origins were French rather than British. Using documents previously unavailable in English, Ekelund and Hebert argue that the intellectual tradition of microeconomics was initiated not by Alfred Marshall and his colleagues but rather by members of the French corps of state civil engineers, most notably Jules Dupuit. This seminal work will certainly be of great importance to all economists interested in the foundations of modern microeconomics.

During the past 27 years, the relationship between Jeff Moore and Bob Newman has evolved from teacher/student to co-authors and ultimately to colleagues at three different institutions. Today, both are at LSU where Moore is Gulf Coast Coca Cola Distinguished Professor and Newman is South Central Bell Distinguished Professor. In addition to their other research, which is substantial, Moore and Newman have jointly co-authored over 20 papers in professional journals as well as several reports and monographs. They currently have several co-authored papers under review.

They first met in 1972 when Newman was a student in Moore's graduate labor economics class at the University of Houston, and Moore was a young assistant professor. Newman liked Moore's encyclopedic coverage of the subject and found it thoroughly interesting; this course, in fact, had a profound influence on the young scholar's decision to specialize in labor.

Shortly after completing the labor course, Newman expressed a desire to work on a joint research paper, but Moore thought it desirable to wait until after Newman had taken his graduate econometrics course. After completing that course, they agreed on a research topic. Both found the area of trade union activity and empirical modeling of trade union growth to be fascinating. This began what was to become a long and productive research association. This first project ultimately led to the publication of their first four joint papers, each dealing with various aspects of trade union activity.

After earning his M.A. and teaching at Southwest Texas State University for one year, Newman returned to the University of Houston as a lecturer. He and Moore continued their collaboration and in the process shifted their research focus to the academic labor market for economists. This research collaboration produced four published papers. Over twenty years later they have returned to this topic once again and are actively engaged in several additional research projects (jointly with Geoff Turnbull).

After attending UCLA and spending two years on the faculty at the University of British Columbia, Newman accepted an appointment as assistant professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1981). Moore, after ten years at the University of Houston, also went to Miami University, in his case as Julian Lange Professor of Economics. Their joint moves were not coincidental as the prospect of both being in the same place had a definite influence on their decisions. They once again began jointly working on trade union issues. This work led to a U.S. Department of Labor grant and four publications.

They were to make one further move, this time to LSU. In 1983, Newman joined the department as an associate professor--a move that brought him close to his family. (He was promoted to professor five years later.) In 1985, Moore joined the department as a professor. While this move also brought him closer to his family, his decision was influenced significantly by the department's "Quality Thrust" efforts. While they continued working on labor topics, an accidental consulting opportunity in the late 1980s led to a shift away from labor to the area of pharmaceutical economics. Research in this area has produced not only several reports but also five journal articles. Their interest in this area motivated Moore to develop both an undergraduate and a graduate course in health economics.

Not surprisingly, their long professional association has resulted in the formation of a very close friendship, a friendship that extends to their wives as well. While they have been accused of being clones, such a description is not entirely accurate. It is certainly true that they share the same general research interests and academic values, but their nonacademic interests differ remarkably. Moore enjoys golf, attending Broadway plays, and eating out at fine restaurants. Newman's tastes are best described as "bluecollar." He likes to fish, listen to country music, and work in the yard (a task Moore dislikes). Another big difference, Newman gleefully points out, is one of the duo has grandkids and the other does not!

Lamar Jones has returned to full-time teaching in the Department of Economics after holding a wide variety of administrative posts under no less than four business college deans. Jones, who has an M.A. from LSU and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, began his academic career at Kansas State University and then taught for one year at VPI. He joined the LSU faculty in 1967 with major teaching and research interests in labor economics.

His first administrative post came in 1971 when he was elected chairman of the department. He remained in that position until 1976, working closely with Dean Bill Ross, himself an economist and public finance expert. When Don Woodland succeeded Ross as dean of the College of Business Administration, he asked Jones to become the college's new associate dean and director of graduate studies. Jones stayed in this position until Woodland's resignation in1983, at which time he returned to full-time teaching and research in the economics department.

By this time, Jones had expanded his teaching interests to include economic history and his research interests to include the relationship between biology and economics. His research papers looked at, among others, Darwin and Malthus. His outstanding teaching was recognized by excellence in teaching awards from the LSU Student Government Association in 1988 and the economics department and the College of Business Administration in 1990.

His comparatively quiet professorial life was again to be disturbed when Dean Jim Henry asked Jones in 1991 to become director of the college's M.B.A. program. In addition to directing the traditional program, he was instrumental in establishing a new and highly successful executive M.B.A. The current dean, Tom Clark, wanted Jones to continue in these positions, but in1997 Clark asked him to take on a very unusual assignment for an economist--interim chair of the accounting department. Jones bravely rose to the new challenge, holding this position for 15 months until a suitable outside candidate could be hired as chairman.

Now, for yet another time, Jones is back to full-time duties in the economics department. He seems to be happy, and his colleagues are certainly glad to have him back full-time. JOBS well done, Lamar!

Loren Scott retired from LSU in December 1998 after a distinguished 30-year career. He previously served for 13 years as chair of the economics department and more recently was holder of the Freeport-McMoRan Endowed Chair and director of the Division of Economic Development and Forecasting. Under his direction, the division has been very successful in securing grants and other funding to support faculty and graduate student work in economic

development.

Although retired from full-time duties, Scott will maintain close ties with LSU. He will continue to have primary responsibility for the annual Louisiana Economic Outlook, which contains employment forecasts by industry and for the state's eight largest metropolitan areas. In addition, he will continue to teach in LSU's Executive Development and Executive M.B.A. programs.

Scott is president of Loren C. Scott and Associates, Inc., an economic consulting firm founded in the early 1980s. He will continue to do consulting work. In addition, he gives 60-70 speeches a year on the state of the economy. In the first half of 1999, Scott made presentations in Texas (twice), North Carolina, California, Utah, Maryland, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Michigan, in addition to those in Louisiana. Since his "retirement" Scott has tried to play more golf but wisely has no current plans to play on the PGA Seniors tour.

Mary Jo Neathery, who has run the economics department office for 27years, received two prestigious staff awards last year for her outstanding service.

She was one of 13 employees from LSU, the LSU Agricultural Center, and the LSU Law School to be selected for Staff Outstanding Service Awards in November 1998. The employees, who were nominated for outstanding job performance and selected by a panel of off-campus judges, were presented certificates and cash awards of $300 from the LSU Foundation.

In April 1999, Neathery was the first recipient of the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration Staff Award for Outstanding Service. This honor included a $500 cash award.

Among many superlatives, she was described as a "treasured employee," "absolutely indispensable to the functioning of our department," "a model of efficiency," possessing an extraordinary "work ethic" and "duty-first attitude," "extremely conscientious," and "always in a good and helpful mood." In addition to the high regard in which she is held within the economics department by both faculty and students, one of the greatest testimonies to her job performance is the respect that she receives from the staff in other departments within the college. Perhaps department chairman Randy Rice best summed it up when he wrote that "our faculty would be unanimous in agreeing that the one person we could not do without is Mary Jo."

Ted Palivos and Jeanne Ringel were honored by the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration in April 1999. Palivos received the college award for excellence in research. Ringel received two honors. She was presented the Sternberg Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching and was named to a Marjory B. Ourso Center for Excellence in Teaching Professorship.

In addition to her college awards, Ringel received the economics department's excellence in teaching award, undergraduate category, in December 1998.Other winners of the annual department teaching awards were: Faik Koray, graduate category; Janet Daniel, instructor; and Dennis Edwards, teaching assistant.

During the last few years, the technology available to instructors has evolved rapidly, and LSU economists have integrated this technology into many of their courses. Multimedia classrooms allow the instructor to project the contents of a computer monitor to a screen visible to a large class. Student access to the internet allows the instructor to make materials available immediately and offers the potential for interaction.

A good example of the use of technology is ECON 4540, Economic Forecasting. This course often allows students to build a forecasting model. The computer screen is projected across the wall, where students see the exact screens that they will use to construct forecasts. A class might begin by downloading the data for a project from a government data site on the internet. The class then makes suggestions on how to construct a forecasting model, which can be immediately implemented, often by a student at the terminal. The instructor offers advice to move the class toward better models over the course of the period. Because many basic mistakes occur in class, students are well-prepared when they download assignments from the internet and tackle forecasting projects of their own.

ECON 4540 is currently taught by Dek Terrell. The course is easily accessible to juniors and seniors. In the spring of 1999, 28 of 32 students enrolled were undergraduates, a majority of whom were economics, ITF, and finance majors. The course will be offered again in the spring of 2000.

Currently, the department has access to multimedia classrooms with a single computer, as well as rooms with computers for all students in small classes. Instructors in a number of economics courses are finding new and innovative ways to employ multimedia and other new technologies. While the old classroom interaction between professors and students will always play a crucial role in education, supplementing the old classroom with these new tools offers the promise of taking education to a new level.

A large number of ECON/ITF majors graduated with honors at the fall 1998 and spring 1999 commencements.

Three majors graduated summa cum laude, a designation reserved for students with grade-point averages from 3.90 to 4.0. These graduates were John Christopher Champion and Johnson Kon in the College of Business Administration and Todd Keator in the College of Arts and Sciences. Keator, who is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, is attending LSU Law School on a full scholarship.

Graduating magna cum laude, with averages of 3.80 to 3.89, were Miyuki Iwaya and Paige Holden. Both were ITF majors in the College of Business Administration. Holden, who was a Rhodes Scholarship semifinalist, also graduated with honors in the LSU Honors College. She wrote her honors thesis, "The Entrepreneur in Economic Theory," under the supervision of Bob Newman. She was awarded a Hamilton Fellowship by the Columbia University Law School and will defer her enrollment there for a year, probably spending some time in Thailand.

Graduating cum laude, with averages of 3.70 to 3.79, were Ronald Bourgeois, Seth Henderson Precht, Ruxandra Tentis, and Brian McMahon. Bourgeois, who received a B.S. in economics in the College of Business Administration, plans to work for Bell South while eventually getting an M.B.A. Precht and Tentis both received the B.S. degree in international trade and finance. Precht, who minored in political science, traveled across Europe over the summer and entered the Ph.D. program in political science at Rice University in the fall. Tentis, who attended LSU on a Board of Supervisors full tuition scholarship, also received Fund for American Studies summer scholarships for Prague and Washington, D.C. She is working as a financial analyst in the Schwab Accounting Group, PFPC, at the PNC Bank. McMahon received a B.A. in economics in the College of Arts and Sciences and achieved Upper Division Honors Distinction in the LSU Honors College. He wrote his honors thesis, "A Theoretical Investigation into the Role of Central Bank Independence in the Recent East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1999," under the supervision of Doug McMillin. McMahon will return to LSU in the fall of 1999 to attain an undergraduate degree in mathematics and will probably attend law school or graduate school in economics the following year.

Rebecca Woolf, who graduated with a B.S. in economics with a near 3.70 average, recorded an impressive list of accomplishments and honors while at LSU. Among these were membership in ODK; treasurer of Mortar Board; and the Arthur Ensminger Award for the outstanding member of student government, in which she held important positions in three consecutive years. She plans to pursue an M.B.A. and eventually hopes to work as a political consultant. Shannon Smith, who graduated with a B.S. in international trade and finance and a B.A. in German as well as receiving College Honors in the LSU Honors College, wrote her thesis on "Germany and the European Monetary Union: A History of Western European Integration and Germany's Relationship, Then and Now."

The economics department salutes the above-mentioned graduates and others of this talented class as they pursue their postgraduate studies or varied careers. Another bumper crop of honors graduates is anticipated in1999-2000. Three majors with above 3.8 averages are Ashley Vinson, Katie Marx, and Taylor Robertson. Vinson is an economics major in the College of Arts and Sciences, Marx is an economics major in the College of Business Administration, and Robertson is an ITF major. Marx is currently undecided whether to go to graduate school in economics or to work for two or three years after obtaining her undergraduate degree. Robertson, who has a 3.95 average, is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and treasurer of Sigma Chi fraternity. He plans to attend law school after graduation.

On the graduate front, one student received a doctoral degree and six students received master's degrees in 1998-99. Randy Campbell received the Ph.D. in economics. His dissertation, "An Empirical Examination of Maximum Entropy Estimation," was directed by Carter Hill. Six students received the M.S. in economics. They were Keuksoo Kim, Kang-Sun Lee, Winford Henderson Masanjala, Hastings Oliver Mzoma, Robert James Ragland, and Eonseon Rym.

Manuel Martin Alvarez (B.S., international trade and finance, 1992), after serving as VP-External Relations for AIESEC-US in New York, received a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship and obtained his M.B.A. at the International Graduate School of Management in Barcelona, Spain, in 1995.Following his tenure in Costa Rica as sales/marketing manager for DHL Central America, he was promoted to network global accounts manager for DHL Airways and moved to corporate headquarters in California. Effective March 1999, he was promoted by DHL to president/country manager of DHL Panama, S.A., and now resides in Panama City.

Tor Berthelsen (B.S., international trade and finance, 1994) holds the position of shipbroker for Torvgaarden, Havnegt in Lillesand, Norway.

Robert Bowers (B.S., economics, 1970) is a revenue accountant at Ocean Energy in Houston, Texas.

Larry Collins (B.S., international trade and finance, 1983) is Director, Trade Division, Office of International Trade, Finance, and Development of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development. The Trade Division manages the activities of the state's offices in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. It runs programs designed to increase the activities of the ports and airports and assists Louisiana companies in finding customers, agents, distributors, and partners in and from other countries. Collins is the immediate past chair of the National Association of State Development Agencies' International Division.

John Ellis (B.S., international trade and finance, 1994) is vice president of sales at Comp Tech International in Baton Rouge.

James A. George (B.S., foreign trade, 1956) is an attorney-at-law for George & George, Ltd. in Baton Rouge. He received his L.L.D. from LSU in1962. George is vice chair of the committee on professionalism and quality of life for the Louisiana Bar Association and was also selected as a fellow of the American Bar Association.

Alan Germany (B.S., economics, 1986) is the marketing education coordinator for Caddo Parish and was named outstanding teacher of 1998 by the Louisiana Business Partnership.

Dale Mathews (B.S., economics, 1971), a highly successful outdoor equipment retailer, was featured in the spring 1998 issue of Business Line, published by the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration. Mathews opened the original Backpacker, a two-employee operation, on the edge of the LSU campus in 1974. Today, the Backpacker is a full 20,000 square feet at its current location on Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge. Mathews boasts the largest selection of outdoor gear in the four-state area of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as the largest selection of maps and books in the South.

Alicia Rambaldi (Ph.D., economics, 1992) is a senior lecturer at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia. A senior lecturer is a rank equivalent to associate professor in the United States.

Ed Ranck (M.S., economics, 1970) has served as state fiscal officer, the equivalent of chief financial officer or comptroller, for the state of Mississippi since March 1991. Originally appointed by former Governor Ray Mabus, he was reappointed by Governor Kirk Fordice and has served in this office longer than anyone since the office was established in 1984. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky.

Tom Sale (Ph.D., economics, 1972) is professor of finance at Louisiana Tech University. Last year he received the C. Stewart Sheppard Award from the Association for Investment Management and Research. This nationally recognized award is presented to "an individual holding the CFA designation in recognition of his/her outstanding contributions, through dedicated effort and inspiring leadership in fostering the education of professional investors through the advancement of the Body of Knowledge, and development of program and publications to encourage continuing education in the investment profession. "The announcement was featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Byoung Chul Yoon (M.S., economics, 1987) is an information innovation team manager in the Kwangju Bank in Kwangju, Korea.

Tommy Beard, who is Alumni Professor Emeritus, continues to teach one course a year in Comparative Economic Systems and to edit Economics Update. He also teaches an opera class for Lagniappe Studies Unlimited, a learning and retirement program for persons over 50 years of age.

Pat Culbertson has announced that he will be a candidate for mayor of Baton Rouge in the year 2000. He was elected to represent the voters of District 3 on the Metropolitan Council in 1996 and is currently serving a four-year term.

Carter Hill, Marjory B. Ourso Center for Excellence in Teaching Professor, visited the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, during his spring 1999 sabbatical. While at UNE he worked with Bill Griffiths, with whom he has done research and written books over the past 20 years, and Chris O'Donnell on several projects concerning Bayesian econometric methods. This project was funded by the Australian Research Council. He also worked on two papers with Alicia Rambaldi, who received her Ph.D. from LSU in 1992. Hill presented seminars at UNE, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Otago University in Dunedin, New Zealand.

David Johnson studied last spring the economic impact of highways and port construction under a grant from the Louisiana Department of Transportation. He will visit the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia, for two to three weeks this fall or winter. At the university, he will deliver several lectures and consult on the development of a public choice and political economy curriculum. He will also be consulting with the legislative body in Slovakia.

Faik Koray has served for several years as the department's graduate advisor. He has a forthcoming paper, co-authored with Doug McMillin, in the Journal of International Money and Finance titled "Monetary Shocks, the Exchange Rate, and the Trade Balance."

Mike McCracken, who joined the LSU faculty in 1998, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over the past year, he published "Regression-Based Tests of Predictive Ability," co-authored with Kenneth West, in the November issue of the International Economic Review. McCracken's primary research interest is in time-series econometrics with emphasis on forecast methodology. He currently teaches principles of macroeconomics and graduate econometrics.

Kaz Miyagiwa published a paper in International Economic Review titled "Credibility of Protection and Incentives to Protect. "Two papers called "Quota-Induced Cycles" and "Stochastic Innovation and Research Joint Ventures" are under review. He is currently working on issues concerning illegal immigration.

Ted Palivos received the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration excellence in research award in April 1999. His latest paper, "Metzler's Paradox and the Optimum Tariff in a Monetary Economy," co-authored with Chong Yip and Terence Chong, appeared in the June 1998 issue of Journal of Economic Integration.

Chris Papageorgiou is currently in his third year at LSU. His research projects tackle both theoretical as well as empirical issues. Recent research projects include, among others, the estimation of aggregate production functions, the investigation of the effects of education and technology on the macroeconomy, and the theoretical exploration of the relation between property rights and economic development. Last year, he presented his work at a number of meetings including the International Conference of the Society of Computational Economics in Cambridge, England, the Midwest Macro Conference, and the Southern Economic Association Annual Conference.

Randy Rice recently completed his third year as economics department chair. He served in the same capacity from 1976-82. He also serves as undergraduate student advisor.

Jim Richardson, John Rhea Alumni Professor of Economics and director of the Public Administration Institute, co-edited Handbook on Taxation, which is a compendium of articles on state and local, federal, and international taxation and tax issues. He authored two of the chapters in the book, one being on the economic principles of taxation and the other on state severance taxes. Richardson also authored an article on severance taxes in The Encyclopedia of Taxation, published by the National Tax Association.

Jeanne Ringel published several papers last year, including one from her dissertation entitled "Can Cigarette Taxes Improve Birth Outcomes?" in the April 1999 issue of the Journal of Public Economics. She was also a co-author of a paper presented at the National Bureau of Economic Research Conference on Tax Policy and the Economy in Washington, D.C. This paper examined the effects of public policies to discourage smoking. In addition, she received three department and college teaching awards.

Dek Terrell, whose primary research interest is in econometrics, co-authored articles published in the Journal of Human Resources and in World Development. His paper, "Biases in Assessments of Probabilities: New Evidence from Greyhound Racing," appeared in the March 1999 issue of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.

John Thompson, an instructor the last two years, has accepted a one-year appointment as visiting assistant professor. In the fall of 1999, he will teach principles and intermediate microtheory.

Geoff Turnbull, who is both Gulf Coast Coca-Cola Bottling Company Professor of Business Administration and C.J. Brown Distinguished Professor of Real Estate, authored or co-authored six papers appearing in professional journals during 1998. His research appeared in Journal of Labor Economics, Southern Economic Journal, Journal of Housing Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, and European Journal of Law and Economics.

Cagla Okten, whose primary fields of specialization are public economics and industrial organization, has joined the department in a tenure-track assistant professor position this fall. Her pre-doctoral studies were at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey, and she holds the Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University. Her dissertation is titled "Three Essays in Public Economics and Development."

At the time of this writing, LSU doctoral students Janet Daniel and Dennis Edwards are scheduled to be full-time instructors, as is Charles Roussel, a doctoral student at the University of Tennessee. They will be joined by part-time instructors Kyle Farrar, Paula Gant, Asli Ogunc, John Rombach, and Tom Swain.

What are our alumni doing? Please let us know about your present job, promotions, awards, and other interesting news. Include your current home address, the year you graduated, and degree received. News, comments, and suggestions should be directed to:

Thomas R. Beard, Editor
Economics Update

Department of Economics
E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration, LSU
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-6306
225/388-5211
Fax 225/388-3807

E-mail addresses:

Newsletter Editor: Thomas R. Beard: trbeard@lsu.edu

Department Chair: Randy Rice: rrice@lsu.edu

Graduate Adviser: Faik Koray: eokora@lsu.edu

On the internet:

Economics Department homepage: www.bus.lsu.edu/economics/

College of Business homepage: www.bus.lsu.edu

LSU homepage: www.lsu.edu