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Announcements for Friday, April 22, 2011

News

  • Underwood honored for role in ISU philanthropy

    Alumnus Roger Underwood, BS'80 Agricultural Business, was recently honored for his work to support philanthropy at ISU. Read the full ISU Alumni Association article here.  

  • Senior Ag Business majors honored at Learning Communities Peer Mentor Recognition Ceremony

    CALS Learning Community peer mentors were recently honored at the 10th annual Learning Communities Peer Mentor Recognition Ceremony held on April 6. Seniors Carly Cummings and Elizabeth Burns-Thompson were two ag business majors recognized for their work as exemplary mentors.

  • Wednesday's Department Seminar: "The Political Economy of OPEC," with Gal Hochman, University of California, Berkeley

    Gal Hochman, after receiving his Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia University in 2004, joined the Faculty of Indstrial Engineering and Management at the Technion, Israel. Since September 2007, he is visiting UC Berkeley. Gal works on trade agreements, energy, the environment, and biotechnology. While Gal’s research on trade agreements sheds new light on the economics of multilateral trade agreements, and shows how uncertainty affects the enforceability of these self-enforcing agreements. Gal’s research on energy shows the importance of modeling OPEC as a cartel-of-nations but also quantifies the importance of inventories in the 2007/08 food commodity price spike. Gal has attended and presented papers at numerous conferences, including the ASSA, the ACS, the CEA, the Econometric Society, the EEA, and the IAEE.

    Abstract: Building on the political economy literature, we develop a conceptual model and apply it to explain the OPEC pricing behavior. We model OPEC as a cartel-of-nations where politician use two instruments: production quotas and domestic fuel consumption subsidies. Our model explains the wedge between domestic fuel prices in OPEC countries and in the rest of the world. The empirical estimates show that when OPEC sets the production quotas it places similar weights on consumers and producers welfare. But when OPEC countries set the subsidies some countries place extra weight on consumer benefits from domestic fuel consumption. Our analysis suggests OPEC pricing behavior employs domestic cheap oil policies.

  • Student seminars this week
    • Tong Wang will present an Agricultural Economics Workshop/Econ 693 Presentation: "Where are the Veterinarian Shortage Areas Anyway?" Monday, April 25, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, 368A Heady Hall.
    • Fanzheng Yang will present a Behavioral/Experimental Workshop:"Behavioral Incentives in an Experimental Labor Market: Individual Performance and Self-Selection." Thursday, April 28,11:05 am - 12:05 pm.
    • Ranojoy Basu will present a Public Economics Workshop/Econ 693 Presentation: "Public Provision of Security in an Insecure Property Rights Environment." Thursday, April 28, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm, 568B Heady Hall.
    • Qiqi Wang will present a Behavioral/Experimental Workshop: "Discrimination in an Experimental Labor Market." Thursday, April 28, 3:40 PM to 5 PM, 368A Heady Hall.

     

  • Weekly media connections for the Department of Economics

    Information courtesy of Jackie King, ISU News Service.

    • Jacinto Fabiosa, co-director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at Iowa State, talked to Scott Kilman of the Wall Street Journal about policy implications of the recently released FAPRI-ISU 2011 World Agricultural Outlook.
    • CARD Director Bruce Babcock was interviewed for an AgriTalk broadcast about his latest Policy Brief, "The Impact of Ethanol and Ethanol Subsidies on Corn Prices: Revisiting History."
    • Chad Hart, assistant professor of economics and grain markets specialist, spoke with Dan Pillar of the Des Moines Register about the factors driving higher crop prices.
    • Dave Senson, from  ISU’s Regional Economics and Community Analysis Program, was interviewed by Donnelle Eller, a business reporter with The Des Moines Register, who asked questions about interpreting the new state unemployment numbers and the relative performance of the Des Moines metro.

    Links to the following articles can be found at:http://www.public.iastate.edu/~nscentral/mr/11/0415/0415.shtml

    • Farm Subsidies: Sacred Cows No More, Wall Street Journal, NY , 04-08-11 (Chad Hart, Assistant Professor of Economics, Iowa State University)
    • Farm Subsidies May Not Have Their Revenge In Washington,Reason Online, CA , 04-11-11 (Chad Hart, Assistant Professor of Economics, Iowa State University)
    • Chicken companies feel the pinch as corn prices soar, Tasley Eastern Shore News, DE , 04-14-11 (Bruce Babcock, Professor of Economics, Director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University)
    • Vilsack: Jobs will be lost if ethanol subsidy ends, Des Moines Register, IA , 04-15-11 (Bruce Babcock, Professor of Economics, Iowa State University)

Conferences and Calls for Papers

Funding Opportunities

  • Funding opportunity -- research in pork topics

    More information available at www.pork.org. For specific questions regarding the website and submission process contact the following: beveritt@pork.org or 515/223-2750

  • USDA and Dept. of Energy $30M Biomass Research and Development Initiative

    See:  http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/recentReleasedGrants.cfm

    Preapplications due May 31; full proposals due Oct. 4, 2011. $3 million to $7 million per award, up to four years. One to two DOE awards, five to six USDA-NIFA awards. Cost share: 20% for R&D projects, 50% for demonstration or commercial projects

  • RFP for Keck Foundation

    The ISU Foundation and the VPR/ED office is soliciting concept papers to submit to the Keck Foundation competition in November 2011.  We would like to invite you to an informal brown bag session on Thursday, May 12 from 11:45 to 1:30 p.m. in 3150 Beardshear. More information also available at:http://www.wmkeck.org/grant-programs/grant-programs.html