Juan Carlos Cordoba, associate professor in the Department of Economics, has recently published an article entitled, "What Explains Schooling Differences Across Countries?" in The Journal of Monetary Economics. The article's co-author is Marla Ripoll, University of Pittsburg. View at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2012.12.005

Kayla Reiter is the fall 2012 winner of the Leadership Excellence Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University. The award acknowledges strength of leadership and academic excellence amongst students in the agricultural college.

Reiter majored in agricultural business in the Department of Economics, with additional minors in agronomy, international agriculture, and general business. She graduated in December 2012. While at Iowa State she was involved in Mortar Board, served as a CALS Ambassador, was a member of the award winning Agricultural Business Club, a member of Sigma Alpha, was the secretary of the honorary fraternity Alpha Zeta, and for two years was a peer mentor to incoming students who transferred to Iowa State to major in agricultural business.

Brent Kreider, professor in the Department of Economics, helped develop a new framework to determine the benefit of government programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Using this framework, researchers determined SNAP reduces food insecurity among high-risk children by at least 20 percent and poor general health by at least 35 percent.

The research has recently been published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association. Read the ISU News Service article by reporter Angie Hunt at: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2013/01/14/foodstamps

Three agricultural business students from the Department of Economics were each recently awarded $1250 scholarships by the Iowa Chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA).

Those students include Jordan Hanson (pictured left), a senior with majors in agricultural business and dairy science; Jordan Vittetoe (right), a junior with majors in agricultural business and agronomy; and Janelle Erwin (center), a junior with majors in agricultural business and public service in administration.