John Siegfried to talk on how Economics has improved lives

John Siegfried, Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University and Secretary-Treasurer of the American Economic Association, will be on campus April 6 to talk about his latest book published with Harvard University Press, Better Living through Economics. It examines case studies that demonstrate how economic research has improved economic and social conditions over the past half century by influencing public policy decisions.

Economists were obviously instrumental in revising the consumer price index and in devising auctions for allocating spectrum rights to cell phone providers in the 1990s. But perhaps more surprisingly, economists built the foundation for eliminating the military draft in favor of an all-volunteer army in 1973, for passing the Earned Income Tax Credit in 1975, for deregulating airlines in 1978, for adopting the welfare-to-work reforms during the Clinton administration, and for implementing the Pension Reform Act of 2006 that allowed employers to automatically enroll employees in a 401(k). Other important policy changes resulting from economists’ research include a new approach to monetary policy that resulted in moderated economic fluctuations (at least until 2008!), the reduction of trade impediments that allows countries to better exploit their natural advantages, a revision of antitrust policy to focus on those market characteristics that affect competition, an improved method of placing new physicians in hospital residencies that is more likely to keep married couples in the same city, and the adoption of tradable emissions rights, which has improved our environment at minimum cost.

Prof Siegfried will be presenting on Wednesday April 6 at noon in the Konover Auditorium of the Dodd Research Center.

Next Austin Forum on Economics and Public Policy to address health care reform

This year’s Austin Forum will feature a presentation by Prof. Jonathan Gruber, entitled “Health Care Reform in the U.S.: What Happened and Where Do We Go Now?” It will take place on Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. in the Konover Auditorium of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. This event is open to the public.

Jonathan Gruber is a Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992. He was a key architect of Massachusetts’ health care reform effort and has been a consultant on health care reform for the Clinton, Edwards, and Obama presidential campaigns. The Washington Post called him “possibly the [Democratic] party’s most influential health-care expert.” In addition, in 2006 he was named the 19th most powerful person in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine.

In addition, Professor Gruber is the Director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is a Research Associate, and the author of a leading undergraduate textbook Public Finance and Public Policy. He is also a co-editor of the Journal of Public Economics and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Health Economics.

The purpose of the Forum is to provide an opportunity for discussion and debate about U.S.: What current public policy issues from an economic perspective. The Forum is funded through the Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair, which is currently held by Professor Kathleen Segerson in the Department of Economics.

Prof. Langlois to be inducted in the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences

Prof. Langlois will be one of five inductees at the annual dinner meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. It will take place in the North Reading Room of the Wilbur Cross Building on March 30.

The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was chartered by the State of Connecticut in 1799. It is the third oldest learned society in the United States. Its founders include Noah Webster and Ezra Stiles. Its official purpose is “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest and happiness of a free and virtuous people.” Currently, almost 60 University of Connecticut faculty are members of the Academy, including fellow department member Prof. Segerson

Latest issue of The Connecticut Economy sheds light on public revenue and spending

Connecticut continues to boast the nation’s highest per capita income, but the state is among the bottom four in the percentage of that income used to fund state and local public services, according to a report in the latest edition of The Connecticut Economy: A University of Connecticut Quarterly Review.

In a study seeking to empirically determine the optimal amount of funding states should devote to public services without adversely affecting a state’s economy, Steven P. Lanza, executive editor of the magazine, collected 16 years (1993-2008) of personal income and government spending data for the 50 states from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census of Governments. He finds that Connecticut under-spends on most government activities, including education and infrastructure, while spending more than the optimal amount on health care.

“Public spending in the Nutmeg state averaged just 17.6 percent of income in the years surveyed, more than six points below the optimal share,” Lanza writes. “With such a lean public sector, Connecticut essentially forfeited an additional 1.2 percent in yearly income it would otherwise have earned, had it adopted the optimal mix,” because public services could have been added that would have helped the private sector grow. According to the study, the optimal share of non-federal public spending is about 24 percent of income, somewhat higher than the 50-state average of 22 percent, and well above the figure for Connecticut.
Lanza also points out that public opposition in Connecticut to the expansion of government services may reflect dissatisfaction with the present tax mix, which seems to rely too heavily on property taxes and too little on “other revenue”—a category that includes tolls, excise taxes, or other special revenue sources.

The Connecticut Economy’s other editors, Prof. Dennis Heffley and emeritus Prof. Arthur W. Wright also weigh in with articles based on recent research. Wright considers whether the recent downturn in casino revenues can be staunched, and Heffley examines teacher salaries in Connecticut.

In addition to briefly tracing the history of Connecticut casinos—Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun—and their significant contribution to state and local revenues since the early 1990s, Wright examines the impact of the recent recession on this source of public funding. He also considers how the anticipated rebound in casino gaming revenue in Connecticut might be affected by the expansion or development of new casinos in surrounding states.

Professor Heffley compares the annual wages of teachers—pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, middle school, and high school—across states and finds that Connecticut ranked 9^th, 4^th, 3^rd, 1^st, and 4^th, respectively, in May 2009. But, according to the same data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Connecticut also ranked 2nd in annual wages across all occupations. Relative to the all-occupation figure, Connecticut ranks 41^st, 15^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 17^th in teacher pay for the five categories. At the March 15^th press release, it was also noted that, relative to other states, Connecticut has been falling in the rankings of teacher pay over the last decade.

Read the complete issue of The Connecticut Economy here.

Yonghong An to join the department

Yonghong An will be joining the department this Fall as assistant professor. A graduate from Johns Hopking University and a Chinese citizen, he is an econometrician with a particular interest in applications to industrial organization, for example the estimation of the distribution of buyer valuations in auctions, issues in the estimation of structural functions and measurement error in self-reported data. He has also published in the Journal of Econometrics.

Prof. Randolph and collaborators announce their Economic and Social Rights Empowerment Initiative

Today the challenge of economic and social rights fulfillment has never been more pressing. Despite global growth and rising per capita GDP, malnutrition, deaths from preventable disease and other forms of socioeconomic exclusion remain endemic: in 2010, the worst performing countries met less than 40% of their economic and social rights obligations.

Countries are bound under international law to respect, protect, and fulfill economic and social rights—but there are few viable tools to hold States accountable for meeting these human rights obligations. We are therefore pleased to announce the launch of a new website and online database for the Economic & Social Rights Empowerment Initiative.

At the core of the Initiative is the Index of Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment (SERF Index), which allows rigorous analysis regarding economic and social rights guaranteed under international law: the right to adequate food, right to education, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the right to adequate housing, the right to decent work, and the right to social security. SERF Index innovations permit cross-country comparisons in rights fulfillment, and objective assessment of whether the situation in a country is improving or deteriorating; consider countries’ available resources in determining rights obligations, as required by the legal principle of progressive realization; and provide a methodology to examine disparities in rights fulfillment between population sub-groups. These innovations create a powerful tool for civil society to hold governments accountable for fulfilling rights guaranteed under international law.

Please visit www.serfindex.org to learn more about the Initiative, access SERF Index cross-country data, and read associated research papers. The Economic & Social Rights Empowerment Initiative is a project initiated jointly by Prof. Susan Randolph at the University of Connecticut and her collaborators at the New School, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Terra Lawson-Remer, and is undertaken collaboratively with the Social Science Research Council.

Kasey Kniffin to join administrative staff

The department is pleased to announce the addition of Kasey Kniffin to the administrative staff of the economics department beginning on Monday, March 7th. Kasey’s primary responsibility will be to serve as the chief administrator of the graduate program, but her capabilities and experience will no doubt make her a valuable presence, along with Rosanne and Margie, in the overall operation of the department.

Since 2006 Kasey has been working as a legal administrative assistant at Diana, Conti, and Tunila, a law firm in Manchester. During that time she also worked as a sales associate at L.L. Bean and Pier 1 Imports, and previously she worked as a visitor assistant at Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. Kasey received her paralegal certificate from UConn in 2005 and her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2004. Please stop by and welcome her next week.