University of Colorado at
Boulder
| Contents: |
A Report from the
Chair
Dear Alumni and Friends,
On behalf of the Department of Economics faculty, staff, and students, I offer greetings from the world’s most beautiful university campus—the University of Colorado at Boulder. I appreciate your taking the time to read through the newsletter. I view the newsletter as one way to keep you connected and hopefully interested in the department. To this end I am constantly on the lookout for good stories from the lives of our many friends and graduates. If you read through the alumni notes or our alumnus feature story by John Bartholomew and envision your own story there, contact me and I can help turn that vision into reality.
During the past year, I have been reaching out as chair to meet as many of our economics graduates as possible. I go out of my way to make this happen, inviting people to coffee, lunch, or dinner whenever I am on the road or in Boulder. As a “cold caller” I do pretty well. Most of our graduates are glad to meet. I have met with very recent graduates who are just starting their careers, midcareer professionals, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and very comfortable retirees. I have heard some amazing life stories. Our graduates form a very distinguished group, attending prestigious professional and graduate programs at places like Harvard Law, Stanford Economics, Duke Economics, Chicago Business School, Vanderbilt Law, and the list goes on and on. I hate to brag, but I would match our graduates’ per capita net worth against any department in the university. Why do our graduates do so well?
I have a standard question I ask our graduates: “How did economics influence your life and career?” A response that often emerges is that economics provides a different and powerful way to think about the world. I could not agree more with this assessment. I am a principal investigator at a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED). Through NCED I work with some very distinguished earth and natural scientists. Most had never worked around an economist and some were pretty skeptical toward this guy who was always talking about benefits, costs, and explicit consideration of tradeoffs in the context of challenging environmental problems. However after three years with NCED, most of my science colleagues are realizing that the economic approach has real merit if you really want to solve problems. A few of my colleagues are even getting close to falling into the true believer category. Our CU economics graduates all over the world are having similar experiences as they face and solve a wide array of problems. When I offer the congratulatory handshake as our graduates walk on graduation day, I never worry about them finding their place in the world. The many great CU economics graduates’ stories I have witnessed firsthand have turned me into a true believer in what we do as part of our core Department of Economics mission.
Student News
This past year, 236 undergraduate students earned a BA in economics. Additionally, six graduate students earned an MA in economics and nine earned their PhD. Spring graduates were treated to a convocation address, “Welcome to the Arena,” by B. Grady Durham (BA
1982). Grady has led a very interesting and successful life. I urge you to go online where we have posted Grady’s thoughtful convocation address and his short biographical sketch, www.colorado.edu/economics/news/index .html.
Despite the economic slowdown, our graduates continue to land good jobs out of the blocks. We had some very good academic placements; e.g., University of Wyoming, University of North Carolina Charlotte, University of Idaho, and University of Colorado Denver. This was especially encouraging given last year’s similarly strong placements. Thanks to an increase in graduate fellowship funding, the 2008 incoming PhD class is one of the strongest ever. Our PhD program is getting so strong that in our PhD microeconomics and econometrics courses, our economics students are outnumbered by their counterparts from Leeds Business School and the Political Science department.
One of our PhD students, Samuel Raisanen, was selected to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting in Germany. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings provide a globally recognized forum for the exchange of knowledge between Nobel laureates and young researchers. Samuel will get to meet Nobel laureates and exchange research ideas. We are very proud of Samuel for being selected.
Faculty and Staff News
We are pleased to announce that in fall 2008 Brian Cadena will join the faculty as an assistant professor. Brian earned his PhD in economics in spring 2008 from the University of Michigan. Brian is a labor economist whose work focuses on the degree to which Mexican immigrants ’ location decisions within the United States are influenced by labor market conditions. There is an ongoing debate in immigration policy literature whether immigrants go into areas and lower everyone else’s wages or whether immigrants locate in areas
where there is a relative under supply of low skilled labor, filling the need for labor. Brian uses a clever strategy for statistically measuring
sensitivity to labor market conditions and finds that immigrants are quite sensitive to labor market conditions when deciding where to locate. Brian will teach undergraduate and PhD labor economics and undergraduate econometrics.
In addition, associate professors Charles de Bartolomé and Wolfgang Keller were successfully promoted to full professors. Congratulations on this major career accomplishment. Professor Ann Carlos and Distinguished Professor James Markusen spent spring 2008 visiting University College Dublin and will do so again in spring 2009. In fall 2007 Jason Hopkins took another job on campus and Teresa de Candia became the curriculum, schedule, and seminar series coordinator. Anna Harry joined us in January 2008 as the main office administrative assistant.
Campus and System News
In response to several recent departures, Provost Distefano and Arts and Sciences Dean Gleeson approved hiring three new faculty members in the coming academic year. The department is extremely grateful for their strong support of CU economics. In the past year, Bruce Benson took over as the new president of the University of Colorado system. President Benson has proclaimed he will be the chief fundraiser for the CU system while leaving the day-to-day running of the campuses to the respective chancellors. President Benson’s strategy follows on the heels of Hank Brown’s leadership, which included moving the president’s office from the Boulder Campus to Denver. During my first two years as department chair, I feel our university, campus, and college leadership has been quite effective and I sense a positive force working for education and research at CU. I will keep you posted.
A Little Buff Spirit
In sports tidbits, I had the privilege of watching the Buffs beat Oklahoma in football at Folsom Field from the chancellor’s box. It was a wonderful sight to watch a sea of students clad in gold T-shirts flood the field at the close of the game. Our amazing CU student athletes had another great year in cross country as well as track and field. Thanks to the addition of some key sprinters, the Buffs men won the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship at Potts Field in May. Given the strong competition from track powerhouses such as Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Texas, this is a major accomplishment. On June 13, CU economics junior Jenny Barringer won the NCAA Outdoor National Title in the 3,000 meter steeplechase—for the second time in three years. She joins a long list of CU-Boulder economics NCAA cross country/track and field champions. In addition to her, several other economics students and alumni participated in the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Oregon. Jenny qualified for the 2008 Bejing Olympics by finishing third in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. Jorge Torres (BA ’03) made the U.S. Olympic team by finishing third in the 10,000 meter run and twin brother Edwardo (BA ’03) finished 11th. In the women’s 5,000 meter run, Sara (Gorton) Slattery (BA ’03) finished fourth while Renee Metivier Baillie (BA ’05) finished seventh in the semifinals and qualified for the finals. Congratulations to all!
If you find yourself in town for a sporting event, for business, or just to enjoy Boulder, please drop me a line so we can get together. Finally, please note that the Buffs face Texas in football for Homecoming on October 4. On the 3rd we are hosting a reception for our Advisory Board. All graduates are invited. Please email me nicholas.flores@colorado.edu or call me, 303-492-8145, for details if you are interested in joining us.
Nicholas Flores,
July 2008
On top of the page is Maroon Bells by CU alum Jocelyn Audette, BFA '77. See www.jocelynaudette.com
The bottom is Rainbow Over Dallas Divide, Colorado, Robert Castellino (BA Econ '85). See www.robertcastellinophotography.com, e-mail: rlcastellino@gmail.com