ECONOMICS UPDATE
VOLUME 4, NUMBER 1
FALL 2000
Department of Economics
E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration
Carter Hill was
recently appointed department chair, succeeding Randy Rice who retired. Hill,
who received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1975, joined
the LSU faculty in 1985. He has held several named professorships at LSU and
has served as the department’s graduate adviser on two occasions. He is
currently Marjory B. Ourso Center for Excellence in Teaching Professor.
Hill is widely recognized for both his research and teaching
accomplishments. He has received numerous department, college, and university
teaching awards, including Outstanding Teacher, College of Business Administration,
1986–87; LSU Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award, 1989; Tiger
Athletic Foundation Excellence in Teaching Award, 1994–95; and LSU Foundation
Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award, 1997. In 1996–97 Hill received the E. J.
Ourso College of Business Administration “Most Valuable Player” award.
Hill has published widely and was named associate editor of the Southern
Economic Journal in 1999. His authored and coauthored journal articles,
papers in books and proceedings, and book reviews number around 70. He has
authored or coauthored seven books (not counting various editions and
instructors’ manuals), many of which are widely used in the United States and
internationally. His latest book, Undergraduate Econometrics, published
in 1997, has been adopted at more than 60 U.S. and Australian universities and
colleges. It has been translated into Orthodox Chinese and Portuguese.
Alumni Profile
President
Flores Delivers LSU Commencement Address
Carlos Roberto Flores,
president of Honduras, delivered the commencement address at LSU’s spring 2000
graduation ceremonies. Flores, who has been described as the “best and
brightest political hope” of his country, received a B.S. in international
trade and finance from LSU in 1973. He also holds an LSU degree in industrial
engineering and in 1995 was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters by his
alma mater.
In 1973 Flores married Mary Carol Flake of Pineville, Louisiana, who is
also an LSU graduate. Their son Carlos David Flores is an international trade
and finance major at LSU who is scheduled to graduate in the summer of 2000.
In his commencement address Flores told the graduates that he had
gained experience of enormous value in the aftermath of hurricane Mitch, which
brought death and destruction to his country in 1998. “We were touched by the
compassion of caring people around the world, and we learned the true
significance of human solidarity and that our greatest strength lies in our
national unity,” he said. “We learned that every ending always shows you to the
path to a new beginning. When the dark night ends, comes a new day and new
dawn. This is what I want to share with you,” he told the graduates.
While a student at LSU, Flores helped the Honduran Students’
Association become one of the most active organizations on campus and helped
create Phi Iota Alpha, a fraternity of Latin American students. Following his
graduation from LSU, Flores returned home to work on La Tribuna, a
newspaper founded by his father in the 1970s. As president, chief executive
officer, and publisher of the largest Honduran newspaper, he championed freedom
of the press and free elections in his country.
From 1983 to 1987, Flores served in the ministry of President Roberto
Cordova, holding a position equivalent to that of vice president. He has served
as president of the Central American Parliament, was a three-term
representative to the national congress, and was president of the national
executive committee of the Liberal Party of Honduras.
In 1989 he narrowly lost election to the Honduran presidency. He won
the election in 1997 and began his presidency by working to weaken the
political and economic influence of the military and to make his country more
attractive to international investors.
Terrell
Named Freeport-McMoRan Chair Holder and Director, Center for Economic
Development and Forecasting
Dek Terrell, an
associate professor, was recently named holder of the Freeport-McMoRan Endowed
Chair and director of the Center for Economic Development and Forecasting. He
succeeds Loren Scott, who retired in December 1998. Terrell received his Ph.D.
from Duke University in 1991 and taught at Kansas State for several years
before joining LSU’s economics department in 1996. He was named Mack Hornbeak
Business Partnership Professor in 1998 and served as interim director of the
center in 1999.
Terrell, whose primary teaching and research interests are in
econometrics, has published widely in professional journals. His research has
appeared in, among others, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Applied
Econometrics, Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources,
Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, and Review of International Economics.
Since joining the LSU faculty, Terrell has been heavily involved in
contract research. In 1999 he worked on two studies for the Louisiana
Department of Labor—a $98,000 study titled “Forecasting Louisiana Employment”
(with Loren Scott and Doug McMillin) and a $31,324 study titled “An Econometric
Model of Exhaustion and Duration of Unemployment Benefits.” He is currently
participating in a $186,785 study titled “EPSCOT Southeast Region: Phase I
Planning for Knowledge-Based Technology-Intensive Economic Development
Strategies” (with Mary Louis Trammell, William Joubert, and Charles D’Agostino)
and directing a $73,984 study titled “Louisiana Consumer Confidence Survey”
(with Ken Walsh) for the Louisiana Department of Labor. At the time of this
writing, two major grants are pending.
The purpose of the Center for Economic Development and Forecasting is
to engage in research to promote economic development in Louisiana. The center
is in its fifth year of operation.
Randy Rice retired
from LSU in August 2000 following 31 years of outstanding service. He received
his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, joined the LSU faculty as an
assistant professor in 1969, and was promoted to professor in 1983. His
publications are primarily in the area of the personal distribution of income.
In the early part of his career, he taught econometrics and mathematical economics.
Rice has been very active in Omicron Delta Epsilon, the international honor
society in economics. He served as president of the 500-chapter organization,
1984–85, and as chairman of the Board of Trustees, 1988–92.
Rice had a distinguished administrative career at LSU. He ably served
as department chair on two occasions—1976–82 and 1996–2000. The latter period
was a most challenging one as the economics department was faced with the
retirement of no less than six senior faculty (plus two resignations). Due in
no small measure to his quiet but strong leadership, seven outstanding new
faculty were hired. In addition to the duties of department chair, Rice also
served as undergraduate student adviser. The economics department greatly
appreciates Rice’s many contributions to its development over the years.
Rice will continue to live in Baton Rouge. He plans to do some
traveling and will continue his consulting activities.
David Johnson
retired from LSU in May 2000 after a distinguished 33-year career. Johnson, who
received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, joined the LSU faculty as
an assistant professor in 1967 and attained the rank of professor in 1975. From
1975 to 1985, he served as director of the Division of Business Research in the
College of Business Administration.
During the 1970s and early 1980s he spent some time at the U.S.
Treasury, where he served on several energy policy committees and the
International Law of the Sea treaty committee. He was a member of the American
Blood Commission that established United States policy on blood procurement. He
served for many years as a Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute for
Public Policy Research. He founded the Master of Public Administration program
at LSU and was the first director of the Public Administration Institute. He
and Professor Ray Kazmann of the LSU College of Engineering brought to the
world’s attention the economic and engineering impacts of the Atchafalaya
capturing the Mississippi River. Their study was extensively reported in such
national newspapers as the New York Times and Chicago Tribune as
well as being featured on PBS’ Nova, NBC’s Today Show, the BBC,
and many TV stations around this country.
Johnson is highly regarded as a teacher, having received several
outstanding teaching awards from both the economics department and the
college’s MBA program. During the early and middle parts of his career, he was
the economics department’s most prolific dissertation director, with some 10
doctoral dissertations to his credit. He has published widely in refereed
journals and authored or coauthored innumerable book chapters, technical
reports, and invited papers.
Johnson’s teaching and research has covered a wide range of
fields—policy analysis and evaluation, public finance, political economy,
international finance, and money/macroeconomics. Perhaps he is best known for
his work in public finance and public choice. His books include Why the
Draft? The Case for a Volunteer Army (coauthor), 1968; The Economics of
Charity (coauthor), 1970; Public Choice: The New Political Economy,
1992; Finding and Using Economic Information, 1993; and The Black
Book of Economic Information, 1999. His public choice book has been
translated into Hungarian and the languages of the Czech and Slovak republics.
He recently visited the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia, and
the University of Economics in Budapest, where he delivered several lectures
and consulted on the development of a public choice curriculum and a philanthropy
curriculum.
Johnson’s future plans include extensive travel, the revision of his
public choice and data books, and the authorship of some new books in public
policy. He also plans on doing occasional consulting.
In recent years the economics department has developed a strong
econometrics program under the leadership of senior professor Carter Hill.
Hill, an internationally known econometrician, came to LSU in 1985 after
spending 11 years on the faculty at the University of Georgia. He was joined in
1996 by Dek Terrell, a Duke Ph.D., who had taught the previous five years at
Kansas State. In 1998, Hill and Terrell were joined by Mike McCracken.
McCracken, the junior member of the econometrics trio, earned his doctorate at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Today, these three faculty members offer a solid set of econometrics
courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Due to their research
and the quality of their course offerings, the economics department is quickly
achieving a regional and even national reputation in this area.
The department offers three econometrics courses at the 4000-level that
are designed for business and social science undergraduates, MBA students, and
beginning graduate students. Undergraduate majors in economics and
international trade and finance can earn a concentration in empirical economic
analysis by completing these three courses.
Terrell normally offers Economic Forecasting (ECON 4540) in the spring
semester. The goal of this course is to provide students with the tools
typically used for business applications such as forecasting firm sales,
revenues, macroeconomic variables, and output of commodities. Students are
encouraged to help build forecasting models in class and to use the econometric
software package EViews to generate forecasts for individual and group
assignments.
Hill typically offers Introduction to Econometrics (ECON 4630) in the
fall semester. While neither calculus nor matrix algebra is required, this
course is nonetheless rigorous as it combines basic economics, algebra,
statistical concepts, and computer applications. Students gain much hands-on
experience using real data and are taught to use EViews.
A new course, Financial Econometrics (ECON 4632), was offered for the
first time last fall. This course, taught by Terrell, focuses primarily on
stock prices and indices but also includes agricultural commodities, bonds, and
exchange rates. EViews is used to demonstrate the empirical techniques in
class, and students use this software for required assignments.
The department offers four econometrics courses at the graduate (7000)
level. Doctoral students in economics must take all four offerings and master’s
students in economics must take at least the first two courses. These classes
are also frequently taken by graduate students in finance, accounting,
agricultural economics, and sociology.
The first two courses—Econometric Methods I (ECON 7630) and Econometric
Methods II (ECON 7631)—are normally offered by McCracken and Hill,
respectively. Hill also teaches the more advanced Econometric Theory III (ECON
7632), which has the alternative, and perhaps more descriptive, title of
“Microeconometrics.” An advanced “Macroeconometrics”—Dynamic Econometric Theory
(ECON 7633)—is taught by McCracken.
All three econometricians have impressive credentials. Hill, who was
recently appointed department chair, is widely recognized for both his research
and teaching accomplishments (see separate article on Hill). He is also renown
for an active involvement with his econometrics students. To mention only four,
his proteges include Lee Adkins, now a full professor at Oklahoma State
University, with whom he has published six papers and currently has a number of
works in progress; Randy Campbell, a recent graduate and an econometrician for
Southwestern Bell, with whom he has coauthored a paper on maximum entropy
estimation and has another paper in progress; Mimbo Kim, who works for the
prestigious SAS Institute developing econometric software, with whom he has
jointly published two papers, one in the highly rated Journal of
Econometrics; and last, but certainly not least, Melissa Waters, with whom
he has coauthored one paper. Waters is a tenured associate professor at the
University of Louisiana-Lafayette, where she teaches econometrics and
forecasting; in her spare time, she is Hill’s spouse.
Hill has several more budding econometricians nearing the final stages
of their training. Asli Ogunc (cochair Dek Terrell) is writing a dissertation
on Bayesian econometrics. Dan Teodorescu is beginning his dissertation research
on panel data problems with binary variables. Kang-sun Lee is beginning a
dissertation on semi-parametric econometric methods. These students, and
others, meet for a brown-bag lunch (dubbed “Lunch-o-metrics”) every Friday with
Hill, Terrell, and McCracken to discuss their research and other diverse
topics.
Dek Terrell, another member of the econometrics faculty trio, has also
published widely, his research appearing in a number of leading economic and
econometric journals. Since joining the LSU faculty, he has been very active in
contract research and was recently named holder of the Freeport-McMoRan Endowed
Chair and director of the Center for Economic Development and Forecasting (see
separate article on Terrell).
Mike McCracken, the newest member of the econometrics faculty group,
has completed his second year as an assistant professor. During the past year
he published papers in both the Journal of Econometrics and in Advances
in Econometrics (Volume 14) and submitted several papers to prestigious
journals. He attended the NBER Summer Institute and presented papers at both
the Midwest Econometrics Group fall meetings and the Midwest Economic
Association spring meetings. For a young assistant professor his technical
expertise is already widely recognized as he has served as a referee for no
less than five of the world’s leading economics and econometrics journals.
Three members of the economics faculty received the department’s annual
teaching excellence awards in December 1999. Chris Papageorgiou received
the faculty award for undergraduate teaching, Geoff Turnbull received
the faculty award for graduate teaching, and Asli Ogunc received the
teaching excellence award for instructors. In May 2000 Ogunc was also
recognized for her outstanding classroom performance by the E. J. Ourso College
of Business Administration.
The economics department faculty, as professional teachers, recognize
the importance of preparing teachers in a professional manner. As a pleasant
and rewarding way to partially achieve this goal, Carter Hill, during the fall
semester 1999, led a series of roundtable discussions for graduate students and
instructors on the teaching of the principles of economics. Regular
participants included Janet Daniel, Dennis Edwards, Asli Ogunc, Charles
Roussel, Tom Swain, Vera Tabakova, and visiting assistant professor John
Thompson. Readings from Teaching Undergraduate Economics: A Handbook for
Instructors, by William Walstad and Phillip Saunders, were the starting
point for the weekly discussions. In addition, each participant read and
summarized for the group an essay on including writing in the curriculum. Each
participant also collected and shared with the group some websites that will be
useful for teachers of principles. Professor emeritus Loren Scott shared with
the group his techniques for introducing current events into classes. This
roundtable discussion experiment in teacher preparation was a success.
Several ECON/ITF majors graduated with honors at the fall 1999 and
spring 2000 commencements. Ashley Vinson and Taylor Robertson
graduated summa cum laude, a designation reserved for students with grade-point
averages from 3.90 to 4.0. Vinson received a B.A. in economics in the College
of Arts & Sciences, and Robertson received a B.S. in international trade
and finance in the College of Business Administration. Robertson was a member
of Beta Gamma Sigma and treasurer of Sigma Chi in 1999. He will attend LSU Law
School this fall.
Jessica Bishop
graduated cum laude, a designation for students with grade-point averages from
3.70 to 3.79. An ITF major, she held Louisiana’s Top Five Percent and AIPAGIA
Educational Foundation scholarships and was a member of Alpha Lambda Delta and
Phi Eta Sigma. A former Tiger Girl and Miss LSU contestant, she was Student
Finance Association president in 1999. She interned for two years at Merrill
Lynch in Baton Rouge. She now has a financial analyst position at Dynegy, a
power and natural gas company, in Houston, Texas.
Three outstanding students graduated with 3.5 to 3.7 averages. Rebecca
Coman, an ITF major, was a member of Golden Key National Honor Society,
Alpha Lambda Delta, and Phi Eta Sigma. Last spring, she was undecided whether
to pursue an MBA at LSU or attend the LSU Law School. Jonathan Jolivette,
an economics major in the College of Business Administration, was a member of
Omicron Delta Epsilon, the international honor society in economics. He plans
to work in the banking industry. Tomi Kayode, an ITF major, is from
Nigeria. She was a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society and Gamma
Beta Phi and received the LSU Black Faculty and Caucus Honor Achievement Award.
She has taken a business analyst position with Hewitt Associates in the
Woodlands, Texas.
The economics department salutes the above-mentioned graduates and
others of this excellent class. We wish them the best as they pursue their
postgraduate studies and varied careers.
A bumper crop of honors graduates is anticipated in 2000–2001. Mike
DuBose and Stacie Lambert have maintained perfect 4.0 averages. Both
are economics majors in the College of Arts & Sciences. DuBose is a member
of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi. He serves as vice president of the LSU
Student Alumni Association. Lambert, who has been extremely active in campus
affairs, is a member of Mortar Board, Scotch Guard, Phi Kappa Phi, and Golden
Key National Honor Society. She is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa and
represented LSU at the ODK national convention in St. Louis, Missouri. She also
represented LSU as one of eight college students nationwide at the National
Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Subcommittee on College
Drinking Meeting in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a senator in LSU Student
Government and has been active in the work of LSU Ambassadors and the LSU
Campus-Community Coalition for Change.
Five other students maintaining averages of 3.8 or better are Petra
Kasova, Katie Marx, Blanca Nieto, Danelia Stefan, and Sachiyo
Yoshida. All are in the College of Business Administration. Marx is an
economics major and the other four are ITF majors. Kasova, who is an
international student from the Czech Republic, holds an LSU Board of
Supervisors scholarship and is a member of Phi Eta Sigma and Beta Gamma Sigma.
Marx received a Centennial Award scholarship and is considering law school
after graduation. Nieto plans to pursue an MBA after graduation. Stefan is from
Honduras and came to LSU on a full tuition exemption scholarship. She is a
member of Phi Eta Sigma and Beta Gamma Sigma. Her future plans include working
for a year or two and then pursuing a master’s degree in finance or management
somewhere in Europe. Yoshida, who is a transfer student from Japan, is a member
of Golden Key National Honor Society and Beta Gamma Sigma. After graduation she
plans to pursue graduate studies in either economics or business
administration.
Five other College of Business Administration students maintaining 3.5
or better averages are Megan Boneno, Kate Fort, Jason Goltz,
Chrisy LeBlanc, and Ana Paula Mores. Boneno, an ITF major, is a
member of Golden Key National Honor Society, Phi Eta Sigma, and Alpha Lambda
Delta. She attends LSU on a Board of Supervisors Scholarship and plans to enter
law school after graduation. Kate Fort has a double major in ITF and
accounting. She works as a bookkeeper in her family’s rental property company
and tutors other students in economics, ISDS, finance, and accounting. Jason
Goltz, an economics major, is a four-year letterman on the LSU swimming team
and has the fifth best time in school history in the 400 individual medley. For
each of the last four years, he has earned the LSU Director’s Cup (for athletes
with a 3.0 average or above) and been on the Southeastern Conference honor
roll. Chrisy LeBlanc, an ITF major, plans to pursue a career based in
California in international importing and exporting. Ana Paula Mores, an ITF major, was captain of the LSU women’s
tennis team and its number one or two player in singles and number one in
doubles. She was twice selected Academic All-SEC. She was a member of Golden
Key National Honor Society and Phi Eta Sigma. Originally from Brazil, Mores is
planning to remain in the United States to pursue an MBA and probably work here
later.
Another student, Thomas Halphen, an ITF major with a 3.8
average, received a scholarship through the National Security Education Program
for an academic year study abroad. He will be attending Bosphorus University in
Istanbul, Turkey.
On the graduate front, six students received the M.S. in economics in
1999–2000. They were Kerim Peren Arin, Dennis Edwards, Aleksandr
Gevorkyan, Vera Tabakova, Dan Teodorescu, and Qiaozhen Zhu.
Receiving the Ph.D. was Keuk-Soo Kim, whose dissertation was titled
“Essays on Identification of Monetary Policy Shocks in Vector Autoregressive
Models: Alternative Identification Schemes and Lag Structures.” His
dissertation adviser was Doug McMillin. Kim is now with the Korean
International Trade Association in Seoul, Korea.
A revitalized ECON/ITF Club, which is open to all economics and
international trade and finance majors, had an active spring semester. The club
serves as a liaison between majors and the economics department, as well as a
vehicle for educational and professional development. Jeremy Diamond and
Richard Magee served as president and vice president, respectively. John
Thompson is the faculty adviser.
Club activities are organized through three committees. The advisory
committee serves as a liaison between majors and the department chair. A
special events committee is in charge of organizing speakers, field trips, or
any other special events that members might find useful. The social committee
organizes semester or year-end social events.
Four meetings were held in the spring. At the March meeting Professor
Karen Adams from LSU’s political science department made an interesting and
timely presentation on wealth, power, and political economy. She discussed the
interplay between economics and politics in relation to the origins of markets
and the state. At the April meeting Professor Carter Hill discussed internships
available for economics and ITF majors, the student resources link in the left
margin of the economics department’s homepage, and the department’s graduate
program.
In addition to the four meetings on campus, members of the club went to
New Orleans in April to visit with several members of Whitney Bank’s
International Division, as well as the director of the International Trade
Association. In the morning the group met with Bob Chamberlain, who is
vice president for international banking at Whitney, and in the afternoon met
with Ruperto Chavarri at the World Trade Center. Later in the month the
club held a social at Serrano’s, a Mexican restaurant near the LSU campus.
The club maintains an informative and useful website
(www.bus.lsu,edu/economics/econclub). Some members have chosen to list the ECON
courses they have taken at LSU, and students can e-mail them if they have any
questions regarding the course, professor, etc.
The ECON/ITF Club wants to encourage all majors to become members and
anticipates a highly active year in 2000–2001.
Charles D. DeLorme
(Ph.D., economics, 1966) is a professor and interim department head of
economics at the University of Georgia. He has been selected for a number of
the University of Georgia teaching awards, including the highest university
award, the Josiah Meigs Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is the coauthor of
three textbooks. The most recent is titled Macroeconomics, published by
the West Publishing Company. He has also published more than 70 articles in
business, economics, financial, and statistical journals. DeLorme received and
completed in 1992 a $138,000 National Science Foundation Grant, Industrial
Simulation of Macroeconomic Concepts. He taught in the Oxford Program of the
University of Georgia in Oxford, England, in the summer of 2000.
Salpie Djoundourian
(Ph.D., economics, 1993) is an assistant professor of economics at the Lebanese
American University.
Mohammad Fheili (M.S.,
economics, 1987) works for the Association of Banks in Lebanon as a research
economist and academic adviser. He has published a number of articles in the
association’s Monthly Bulletin on Lebanese banking and bank-related
issues. He also oversees the association’s training programs. In addition, he
is a part-time instructor of economics at the Lebanese American University.
Scott Hackler (B.S.,
international trade and finance, 1998), who also holds a B.A. in French from
LSU, is an international software sales specialist for the IBM Transarc Lab in
Pittsburgh. This is where several of the company’s e-business software products
are developed—namely, several members of the WebSphere family and the
Enterprise File Systems called AFS and DFS. Hackler’s team is responsible for
selling these products in many areas of the world, and he has represented IBM
at events in Sweden, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Matthew H. Hindman (B.S.,
international trade and finance, 1994) passed the CPA exam in November 1998.
Gaby Lozada (B.A.,
economics, 1981) is the coauthor with Randy Beard of Auburn University of a new
book on famous economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen titled Economics, Entropy
and the Environment. Lozada, who received both his economics degree and a
physics degree summa cum laude from LSU, attended graduate school at Stanford
University, where he earned an M.S. in engineering-economic systems in 1983, an
M.A. in economics in 1984, and a Ph.D. in economics in 1987. He is currently an
associate professor of economics at the University of Utah. He previously
taught at Texas A&M and held a post doctoral fellowship at the University
of California at Berkeley. Lozada’s research concentrates on the economic
theory of exhaustible resource industries, and he has published a number of
papers in leading economic journals.
Pete Manville (B.S.,
international trade and finance, 1964) is a systems analyst for Southwest
Student Services in Gilbert, Arizona. He was in the U.S. Air Force until 1986.
Jimmy Roy Taylor
(B.S., economics, 1959) is the owner and president of H.V.A.C. Systems, Inc.,
in New Mexico. H.V.A.C. Systems is a mechanical contracting company involved
with heating, air conditioning, ventilation, and refrigeration. He recently
relocated to New Mexico and now enjoys “semi-retirement.”
Donnie Vandal (M.S.,
economics, 1975) is Deputy Commissioner for Administration with the Louisiana Board
of Regents. He is responsible for administration and general oversight of the
operations of the Regents and is the chief administrative assistant to the
Commissioner of Higher Education. He began his career in Louisiana state
government in 1975 with the Legislative Fiscal Office as a budget analyst and
staff economist. In 1981 he became primary staff to the Senate Finance
Committee. In 1987 he moved into higher education administration, serving for
five years as System Vice President for Finance and Administration, or chief
financial officer, for what is now the University of Louisiana System. After
serving again on the staff in the legislative branch, he returned to higher
education administration in 1997 in his current position.
Tony Villamil (B.S.,
economics, 1968; M.A., economics, 1971) has been appointed director of economic
development for the state of Florida. He will play an active role in shaping
the state’s international trade policies. Villamil previously served under
President George Bush as U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs.
He also founded the Miami-based Washington Economics Group, an economic,
financial, and government relations consulting firm for corporate management
and governments of the Americas.
Melissa Waters (Ph.D.,
economics, 1989) is a tenured associate professor of economics at the
University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
Currently, her primary research interests are in economics of household
production and economics of religion. Among her recent publications are “The
Effect of Female Earnings on the Divorce Rate: A Simultaneous Model,”
forthcoming in Applied Economics, and “An Economic Model of Cohabitation
and Divorce” in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Her
working papers include an examination of heterosexual HIV transmission rates
and a study of economic incentives underlying child adoption rates.
Mark Worthen (B.S.,
economics, 1977), who also received an M.S. in finance from LSU in 1979, passed
the CPA exam in November and earned the highest grade in the state on the exam.
Pat Culbertson,
saying he had too little time to campaign, bowed out of the race for
Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish in June. He indicated that he could
not continue working as an economics professor and a consultant while
adequately representing his Metro Council district and campaigning for mayor.
Culbertson, a Republican, is a member of the Metro Council (District 3) and
chairs its Finance and Executive Committee.
Kaz Miyagiwa has a
paper forthcoming in International Economic Review titled “Quota-
induced Cycles.”
Jeff Moore, who is
Gulf Coast Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Inc., Distinguished Professor of Business
Administration, spent the fall 1999 semester on sabbatical leave at the
University of Aberdeen in Scotland. While there, he spent his time conducting
research on the economist academic labor market in the U.K. and traveling
whenever possible.
Doug McMillin, who
is South Central Bell Business Partnership Professor, published papers in the
April 1999 issue of Applied Economics and the December 1999 issue of the
Journal of International Money and Finance. The first paper, coauthored
with Omer Ozcicek, is titled “Lag Length Selection in Vector Autoregressive
Models: Symmetric and Asymmetric Lags.” The second paper, coauthored with Faik
Koray, is titled “Monetary Shocks, the Exchange Rate, and the Trade Balance.”
He also has a forthcoming paper in the Southern Economic Journal.
McMillin continues to edit the Journal of Macroeconomics.
Mary Jo Neathery has
now completed 28 years in the economics department office. She serves as office
manager, secretary, counselor, student worker coordinator, and a lot more.
Bob Newman, who is
South Central Bell Business Partnership Professor, has initiated several
research projects dealing with various issues in labor economics. A paper
titled “Reputational Capital and Academic Pay” (coauthored with Jeff Moore and
Geoff Turnbull) is currently under review. They are also in the process of
writing a paper tentatively titled “Who Becomes Chair and Why?” Another paper,
with Jeff Moore, uses survey data from academic economists in Great Britain to
test whether the human capital model provides a “better” explanation of
age-earnings profiles than contracting models. Newman has also discovered a way
to combine his interest in labor economics with his passion for fishing. He
recently obtained data from the national Bass Anglers Sportsman Society. Data
from a 10-year panel will permit him to test whether tournaments actually
elicit positive effort responses.
Cagla Okten
published a paper with Burton A. Weisbrod titled “Determinants of Donations in
Private Nonprofit Markets” in the February 2000 issue of the Journal of
Public Economics. Last year, her first at LSU, she offered an undergraduate
class in Industrial Organization and Public Policy (ECON 4400).
Ted Palivos, an
associate professor, was recently named Mack Hornbeak Endowed Professor. He was
on sabbatical leave in the spring 2000 and spent a week as a visiting scholar
at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he presented a paper on social
norms. He also presented a paper at the Taipei International Conference on
Economic Growth, organized by the Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica,
Taipei, Taiwan; this paper, “Social Norms, Fertility Behavior and Development
Traps,” will appear in the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. In
addition, he presented a paper on the U.S. unemployment insurance system at an
international conference organized by the Greek National Institute of Labour,
which took place in Athens, Greece.
Chris Papageorgiou traveled
extensively last year, both nationally and internationally, presenting his work
in conferences and invited seminars. His most current work studies the
relationship between the elasticity of substitution between inputs and economic
growth. His paper titled “A Cross-Country Empirical Investigation of the
Aggregate Production Function Specification,” coauthored with John Duffy, was
recently published in the Journal of Economic Growth. Papageorgiou is
currently cochair with Dek Terrell of the economic department’s seminar series.
Jim Richardson, John
Rhea Alumni Professor of Economics and director of the Public Administration
Institute, served as a member of the Louisiana Law Institute Tax Study
Commission. This group was created by the Louisiana Legislature and chaired by
former President of the Senate Randy Ewing. The commission reported its
findings on updating and reforming the Louisiana tax structure to the
Legislature prior to the beginning of the regular legislative session in April
2000.
Jeanne Ringel
continued last year her research on issues related to public policy and
maternal and child health. One project measured the effect of various smoking
cessation policies on the smoking behavior of pregnant women. In related work
she teamed up with researchers at Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge to study the
effects of quality prenatal care on birth outcomes. Ringel resigned from LSU in
May 2000 to join RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, as an associate
economist.
Loren Scott, who
retired from full-time duties at LSU in December 1998, continues to be very
active in department and college affairs. He teaches in LSU’s Executive
Development and Executive MBA programs and continues to have primary
responsibility for producing the annual Louisiana Economic Outlook. With
Dek Terrell and Doug McMillin he is completing work on a grant from the
Louisiana Department of Labor that involves forecasting industry employment to
2008 for the state and its eight planning districts.
Marybeth Theriot has
been managing editor of the Journal of Macroeconomics since 1989. She
efficiently oversees the peer review process and edits accepted manuscripts.
John Thompson, who
is a visiting assistant professor, serves as adviser to the ECON 2020
instructors and faculty adviser to the ECON/ITF Club (see separate article on
Econ/ITF Club). His paper “Joint Supply and Modern Economic Theory: A
Historical Perspective” is forthcoming in History of Political Economy.
Geoff Turnbull, who
is C. J. Brown Distinguished Professor in Real Estate and Gulf Coast Coca-Cola
Bottling Co., Inc., Distinguished Professor of Business Administration,
presented a paper titled “Recreation Demand and Location Choice” at the annual
ASSA meetings in Boston. He presented two papers, “Land Ownership Risk and
Urban Development” and “Property Rights by Squatting: Land Ownership Risk and
Adverse Possession Statutes,” at Berkeley during the spring 2000 semester.
During the last year he had papers accepted for publication in Regional
Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal
of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and Public Choice. He remains
active in LSU’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and returned to the Executive Board
last summer.
Three new faculty have joined the economics department in tenure-track
assistant professor positions this fall.
Tricia Gladden holds
a B.A. in political science (with honors) and an M.A. in economics from the
University of Missouri-Columbia. She is completing a Ph.D. in economics at
Northwestern University. Her primary field of specialization is labor
economics, with secondary fields in applied econometrics, information
economics, and industrial organization. Her dissertation is titled “Essays on
Wage Growth and Mobility”; a paper with Christopher Taber, “Wage Progression
Among Less Skilled Workers,” is forthcoming in Finding Jobs: Work and
Welfare Reform, edited by Rebecca Blank and David Card.
Sudipta Sarangi’s
dissertation is titled “Three Essays in Game Theory: Exploring Beliefs,
Payoffs, and Strategies.” A paper with R. Verbrugge, “Late Fees and Price
Discrimination,” is forthcoming in Economics Letters. Sarangi’s fields
of interest include industrial organization, applied game theory, and
development economics. He received a B.A. in economics (with honours) from the
University of Delhi, India; an M.A. in economics from the Delhi School of
Economics; and a M.A. in economics, M.S. in industrial and systems engineering,
and Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech.
Marios Zachariadis
holds a B.S. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.A.
and Ph.D. in economics from Ohio State University. His dissertation is titled
“Models of R&D-Induced Growth: An Empirical Investigation.” In addition to
macroeconomic theory, his other areas of specialization include international
economics, economic growth, and applied econometrics.
Let Us Hear from You
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 the addresses listed below.
Thomas R. Beard, Economics Update
Editor
Department of Economics
E. J. Ourso College of Business
Administration
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-6306
Phone: 225/388-3789
Fax: 225/388-3807
Newsletter Editor: Thomas R. Beard trbeard@lsu.edu
Department Chair: Carter Hill eohill@lsu.edu
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