Department News

Around the Department

First Annual IU-Purdue Student Conference

Professor Volodymyr Lugovskyy (Indiana University) and Professor Farid Farrokhi (Purdue University) were the coordinators of the first IU-Purdue Student Conference held virtually on April 24, 2021. Six graduate students presented their research.

This conference aims at promoting research in the field of trade among graduate students at Indiana and Purdue Universities. The goal is to create a friendly environment where graduate students can present their trade-related papers and interact with each other as well as with faculty members at the two universities.

David Terner (Indiana University), "Off course? Knot anymore. Cost Efficiencies and the Panama Canal Expansion"

Carlos A Zurita (Purdue University), "Distance Elasticity of International Trade for Developing Economies"

Manuel I. Jimenez (Purdue University), "Trade Costs and Mark-Ups in Maritime Shipping"

Siying Ding (Indiana University), "The Importance of Small Banks for Exporting: Micro-Evidence from China"

Mason Reasner (Purdue University), "Identifying Agglomeration and Congestion Spillovers: Evidence from Base Realignment and Closure"

Linh Nguyen (Purdue University), "Are the trade agreements effective from the day they signed? Evidence from India"

Symposium on Natural Resource Governance for Young Scholars

Organized by Dean Lueck, Professor of Economics and Director of the Program on Natural Resource Governance, this invitation only hybrid symposium was held on May 20-21, 2021. Funding was provided by the Searle Freedom Trust and was co-sponsored by the Program on Natural Resource Governance at the IU Ostrom Workshop.

Some of the most vexing and controversial problems facing society concern natural and environmental resource use and management. This symposium brought together 10 young scholars and 5 senior mentors to consider the fundamental role that economic, political, and legal institutions have in shaping incentives and determining the outcomes. The symposium aimed to encourage and develop emerging scholars and their research programs that focus on the institutional underpinnings of these problems and their solutions. The intensive program included research presentations by young scholars and lectures by the senior mentors.

Virtual Workshop on Trade, Spatial Economics, & the Environment

The Workshop co-organized by Professor Farid Farrokhi (Purdue) and Ahmad Lashkaripour (Indiana University) on November 19, 2021, brought together researchers exploring the issues of migration and climate change in the context of global economy and trade. The workshop featured keynote speeches by Samuel Kortum (Yale) and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg (University of Chicago) and an impressive lineup of young scholars from leading economics research departments.

2021 MEG Mentoring Seminar for Junior Female Economists

The MEG mentoring seminar, held virtually on December 4, 2021, continues the annual tradition of such events held in conjunction with annual Midwest Econometrics Group's conference. It is organized by its coordinator, Professor Yoosoon Chang, joined this year by Professor Ruli Xiao. It brings together junior female econometricians with a panel of established scholars, serving as mentors. The goal of the interaction is building substantive and long-lasting intellectual relationships and potential collaborations, to promote successful careers of junior women in econometrics.

Advances in Econometrics Conference and Festschrift in Honor of Joon Y. Park will be held in September 23-24, 2022

The Department of Economics is excited the Advances in Econometrics (AiE) Conference and Festschrift in Honor of Joon Y. Park will be held at Indiana University Bloomington. The conference has been postponed several times due to the continuation of the pandemic and uncertainty about travel restrictions.

Professor Park has made important contributions to many areas in econometrics, including foundational work on nonstationary time series. Sponsors of the conference include Indiana University, the University of Missouri, and StataCorp. The conference will feature presentations of a variety of works from the econometrics research frontier, and a series of panel discussions by econometricians from across the profession on the topic of the past, present, and future of econometrics. The aim of the conference is to bring together a wide array of econometricians and produce a volume with panel discussions and papers contributed by the participants.

Please visit the department website at this link to read more about the AiE Conference and Festschrift. https://economics.indiana.edu/news-events/advances-in-econometrics-conference/index.html

Meet our New Staff

Elizabeth Bolyard started with the Department of Economics in September of 2021 as the Graduate Services Coordinator. She has been working in higher education for 22 years with most of that time in Career Services within SPEA and the Career Development Center. She is looking forward to evolving her higher education career as she learns to perfect her new role as the Graduate Services Coordinator. Elizabeth enjoys being around the energy that only students at IU can bring. As a life-long learner, she continues to take classes focusing on Human Services and one day hopes to be a Yoga Instructor, bringing mind and body together. She is the mother of 2 beautiful girls and one Yorkie. The Yorkie keeps her on her toes, and her girls are grown and independent. Elizabeth is eagerly expecting the birth of her first grandchild in February 2022. She enjoys the outdoors and fully believes in the magic of laughter.

Pete Giordano is a new Academic Advisor for Economics. He joins Tom Pappas who is the department's lead Academic Advisor. Pete also advises for several other departments in the social sciences and humanities. He holds an M.A. in Political Science and a J.D. from Indiana University. As a graduate student, he specialized in the politics of the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, he's passionate about helping students build a meaningful life, in their studies and beyond! Pete grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and later moved to Indiana to attend law school. Outside of work, he loves all things related to food and cooking.