Welcome Back to Campus!
In Economics, we strive to be more than an academic department. We want to be your learning community, a place to call home at CSU. The future of the COVID-19 pandemic may continue to present challenges, but we truly mean it when we say Rams take care of Rams. We hope you had a refreshing summer and are ready to work hard, learn, grow, and connect in the year ahead!
In this issue:
- Department Celebrations
- Upcoming Events
- Feature Story: Undergraduate Research Internship
- Faculty Research Highlights
- Online B.A. Program Student Feature
- Spotlight: Feminist Economics 101
- Summer 2021 Economics Graduates
Department Celebrations
Faculty Promotions
- Daniele Tavani has been promoted to full Professor!
- Anders Fremstad has earned tenure and been promoted to Associate Professor!
- Guy Numa has earned tenure and been promoted to Associate Professor!
Faculty News
- Congratulations to Ed Barbier and Jo Burgess Barbier on the publication of their new book, Economics of the SDGs: Putting the Sustainable Development Goals Into Practice.
- Professor Alexandra Bernasek is on sabbatical this year in Australia. We wish her well and look forward to welcoming her back in August 2022.
- Professor Harvey Cutler is on sabbatical this fall. We wish him well and look forward to welcoming him back in the spring.
Graduate Student Achievements
- Ph.D. candidate Ashish Sedai was awarded a $3,000 cash prize for Best Paper from the Korea Development Institute Conference, where he will present his research in September.
- Ph.D. student Lackson Mudenda was inducted into the inaugural Pan-African Scientific Research Council as an associate member.
- Ph.D. student Kendall Stephenson was awarded a Summer Fellowship at UC Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute working with the Equity Metrics Program, investigating potential racial impacts of California's notorious Proposition 13.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Welcome Back BBQ - Tuesday, August 31, 4-6 PM on Monfort Quad
All Economics students, staff, and faculty are invited to come together on Monfort Quad on Tuesday, August 31 to meet other members of the department and enjoy a complementary burger bar! RSVP requested to ensure we have enough food.
Brown Bag Series returns September 13
Graduate students will resume their weekly Brown Bag series on Mondays from noon to 1 p.m. The series will be on Zoom for the time being. These events provide an opportunity for Ph.D. students to present and workshop a research paper or idea with peers and faculty. Stay tuned for more information and contact Ph.D. student Bhavya Sinha with questions.
Seminar Series returns on Fridays
Join us on Fridays at noon for our Fall Seminar Series, featuring a lineup of economists presenting their latest research. The series will kick off in September via Zoom. For questions, contact Professors Terry Iverson and Daniele Tavani.
FEATURE STORY
Undergraduate Research Internships Increase Student Data Skills, Partnerships across Colorado
This summer, the CSU Department of Economics was thrilled to launch a new program to increase funded research opportunities and data skill development for undergraduate students through paid research internships, matching motivated students who have learned baseline data and econometrics skills with faculty mentors to develop those skills through hands-on experience.
Under the leadership of Undergraduate Program Co-Director Steven Shulman, Economics faculty offered internships to an initial cohort of six students who worked for CSU research centers REDI@CSU, PAC@REDI, and CSAL; Feminist Economics, a peer-reviewed journal edited by Economics Chair Elissa Braunstein; an independent project on U.S. labor, led by Assistant Professor Zachary Schaller; and an external placement with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“The Economics department has always had incredible research collaborations between our faculty and graduate students. Being able to extend these opportunities to undergraduates will go a long way towards preparing students to go into the workforce or on to graduate school when they leave CSU. We were happy to see that in this initial group of pairings, it was often a win/win/win for the students, faculty, and community," said Shulman.
Fall 2021 Undergraduate Internships
Positions pay $15/hour for approximately 10 hours of work per week, up to $2,500 per internship. You must be a major and have completed ECON 235 and/or ECON 335 to be considered.
- Water/Sanitation Access, assisting PAC@REDI and Anita Alves Pena
- Literature Review of Mangrove Loss, assisting Edward Barbier
- CORE Research Study, assisting Anders Fremstad
- Economic Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise, assisting Martin Shields
- Instructional Staff Employment in Higher Education, assisting CSAL and Steven Shulman
- Developing Novel Digital Dashboards for Rural Colorado, assisting REDI@ CSU and Stephan Weiler
- Local Government, assisting the State Demography Office/Department of Local Affairs under the mentorship of Stephan Weiler
- Solar Analyst, assisting the National Renewable Energy Laboratory under the mentorship of Stephan Weiler
Apply on Handshake (posting #5167063) by 11:55 PM on Wednesday, August 25.
New Research
Selected Papers
Elissa Braunstein and Levi Altringer, "Estimating the Role of Social Reproduction in Economic Growth," International Journal of Political Economy
Ashish Sedai, Ramaa Vasudevan, and Anita Alves Pena, "Friends and Benefits? Endogenous Rotating Savings and Credit Associations as Alternative for Women’s Empowerment in India," World Development
Ashish Sedai and Ray Miller, "Electrification and Welfare for the Marginalized: Evidence from India," Energy Economics
Jo Burgess Barbier, "Economics of the Biodiversity Convention," Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science
Terry Iverson and Ed Barbier, "National and Sub-National Social Distancing Responses to COVID-19," Economies
Ed Barbier, Angela Cindy Emefa Mensah, and Michelan Wilson, "Valuing the Environment as Input, Ecosystem Services and Developing Countries," Environmental and Resource Economics
Kendall Stephenson, "Colorado's Unemployment Insurance Experience: 1980-2020," REDI@CSU Report
Summer Conference Highlights
Prof. Elissa Braunstein presented the opening plenary at the annual conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics in July
Prof. Ed Barbier presented "Habitat Loss and the Risk of Disease Outbreak" at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists virtual conference in June
Prof. Anita Pena presented “Impacts of COVID-19 in U.S. Agriculture: Evidence from Representative Farmworker Data” during the Latin American Studies Association 2021 Annual Congress in May
Profs. Martin Shields and Harvey Cutler presented “Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study: Aggregate and Distributional Economic Impacts" at the annual meeting of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) in June
Ph.D. candidates Sarah Small and Teresa Perry and post-doctoral researcher Diksha Arora each presented at the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) annual meeting in June
Ph.D. candidate Ashish Sedai spoke to the Asian Development Bank Institute in August about a newly accepted working paper, "Who Benefits from Piped Water in the House? Empirical Evidence from a Gendered Analysis in India"
Ph.D. student Bhavya Sinha presented "Land and Labour in SEZs: Instruments of Capitalist Development for India" at the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) session with the Economic Development Working Group (EDWG) at the Association of Heterodox Economics (AHE) annual conference in July.
Online B.A.
Graduating senior Donnie Osborne (pictured) works full time in Japan as a structural engineer for the U.S. government. CSU Online gave him the flexibility to continue working overseas while pursuing an accredited, four-year degree in Economics. Read more about Donnie in CSU Online's recent student spotlight >>
SPOTLIGHT: FEMINIST ECONOMICS 101
Chair and Professor Elissa Braunstein was recently interviewed by Rebecca Gomez Betancourt about her journey into feminist economics and work on macroeconomics. Watch below!
Congratulations, Class of 2021!
Summer Graduate Degrees
- Hwayoung Jeon, Ph.D. Economics
- George Kiss, M.A. Economics
- John Ohakim, Ph.D. Economics
- Hiep Nguyen, Ph.D. Economics
Summer 2021 Graduating Economics Majors and Minors
- Mohammed Ageeli
- Trent Berens
- Joe Bergner
- Jaden Booth
- Luis Caro
- Alex Chavez
- Zach Fees
- Vincent Garcia
- Austin Herman
- Marlene Hight
- Tanner Johnson
- Sreenath Reddy Koppula
- Dylan Krieger
- Brian Larson
- Tony Li
- Megan Little
- Alvaro Molina
- Jialong Niu
- Donnie Osborne
- Jake Pottle
- Jackson Rudin
- Max Rutberg
- Maury Schuessler
- Merhawi Tesfai
- Jack White
- Maxwell White
Credits:
Created with an image by Pasko Maksim - "Barbecue Grill. Fire Flame"