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Announcements for Friday, February 25, 2011

News

  • Department of Economics alumni Schipper named new state banking superintendent

    Former Department of Economics (BS ag business, 1972) alumni James M. Schipper was recently appointed by Governor Terry Branstad as Iowa's new superintendent of banking. The Des Moines Register recently featured an interview with Schipper, written by Adam Belz.

    Read the full article here...

  • Jolly receives distinguished service honor from ASFMRA

    Professor Bob Jolly recently received a "Distinguished Service to Iowa Agriculture" award from the Iowa chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA).

    Jolly's ties to ASFRMA go back to the early 1990s when he involved the group in a large project in the Czech and Slovak Republic. They worked collaboratively on issues of privatization and land appraisal in the region. "It was a good public/private working relationship," he said.

    Larry Trede (pictured left with Jolly) said the award is given to individuals in Iowa "who have made outstanding contributions to agriculture in the state over their career." He said that Jolly's contributions to international projects, involvement in ISU's undergraduate ag entrepreneurship program, and his 29 years of educational support for Agricultural Credit Schools had left a lasting impression. Trede is the secretary treasurer for the Iowa chapter of ASFMRA.

    Jolly said the award was a "total surprise" to him, and "much appreciated because of the constructive working relationship" he and members of the Iowa chapter of ASFMRA developed over the years.

    He continues to work internationally on agricultural entrepreneurship, and will soon travel to Central America to work on second stage financing of dairy projects.

  • Frankel featured in ISU News Service article

    Professor David Frankel's recent work on segregation measurement was featured in an article this week through ISU News Service, written by Dan Kuester.

  • Radio Iowa features Orazem on public/private sector worker pay

    Professor Peter Orazem was featured in a Radio Iowa piece on public/private sector worker pay. He was asked to respond to a report released by the Iowa Policy Project, which said that public sector workers make less in pay and benefits than those in the private sector.

    Read the full article here...

     

  • Paul Niehaus of UC San Diego to speak on "The Marginal Rate of Corruption in Public Programs"

    Paul Niehaus, University of California, San Diego, will speak on "The Marginal Rate of Corruption in Public Programs." Thursday, March 3rd, 3:40-5pm, 368A Heady Hall.

    The marginal benefits of public spending are a key determinant of optimal fiscal policy. In developing countries public funds are often stolen by corrupt officials, so optimal policy should reflect marginal corruption. We study marginal corruption in India's largest welfare program, an employment scheme, with respect to a wage increase. Strikingly, none of the increase was passed through to workers even though initially most were if anything overpaid. Theory and supporting evidence suggest that this is because the threat of exit to the private sector, and not the threat of complaints, is workers' main source of bargaining power.

    Paul Niehaus completed his PhD at Harvard University in 2009 and is currently Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego.  His research explores two distinct themes: how people learn about themselves and their environment, and how to administer social programs in less-developed countries where corruption is a serious constraint.  His projects are funded by the NSF, NIH, and Omidyar Foundation, among others.

  • Weekly media connections for the Department of Economics

    (From Jackie Kings daily E-Media recap, ISU News Service)

    Chad Hart, assistant professor of economics and grain markets specialist, has taken a few calls recently from reporters: John Pocock, Corn and Soybean Digest, about the soybean market and the acreage competition for 2011; Kurt Allemeier, Quad City Times, about food prices; and Orlan Love, Cedar Rapids Gazette, about crop prices and demand.

    An associate scientist in economics and staff member in ISU's Regional Economics and Community Analysis Program, Dave Swenson was interviewed by Tom Beaumont, Washington political reporter, The Des Moines Register, who asked him questions about which measure of employment gain should be used to evaluate the likelihood of Gov. Branstad's goal of creating 200,000 jobs and a 25 percent rise in personal income over the next five years. Lynda Waddington, a reporter with The Iowa Independent, also asked Swenson about the governor's staff comments that government workers make significantly more than private sector workers. Swenson pointed out that based on his research using Public Use Micro-Sample data of Iowa workers -- from the ongoing American Communities Survey -- on a full-time and full year basis and controlling for education levels, the private sector significantly out-paid the public sector and that gap increased as education level increased.

    News Service was contacted by Laura Millsaps of the Ames Tribune looking to speak with David Frankel of economics about  a study Frankel did on segregation in schools. Millsaps was put in touch with Frankel. The contact was the result of News Service release.

Graduate Student Announcements

  • GLOPE II International Fellowship Program for Junior Researchers

    Short term fellowships available for young scholars at the Waseda Center for Political Economy of Institutional Construction. Tokyo Japan -- October 2011 to March 2012

    more information available