Professor Barnette will teach introductory microeconomics, introductory macroeconomics, a labor economics course along with a master’s level macroeconomic theory course at Indiana. Most of his research publications focus on understanding the effects of involuntary job loss and how those effects vary.

Christian Matthes has been promoted to full professor. Professor Matthes works at the intersection of macroeconomics and econometrics. His main research interests are the econometric analysis of dynamic equilibrium models, the development of linear and non-linear time series models for macroeconomic data, as well as the study of equilibrium models with imperfect information.

A native of Germany, he received his undergraduate degree at Goethe University in Frankfurt before coming to the U.S. for his doctoral studies at New York University, where he received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

Prior to coming to IU, Professor Matthes worked at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona from 2010-2013 and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s research department from 2013 until he joined IU in 2019.

Ahmad Lashkaripour has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. He received his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University in 2014. Professor Lashkaripour also holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Economics from Sharif University of Technology in Iran. His research interests lie at the intersection of International Trade, Economic Development, and Industrial Organization. His work seeks to explain why developing nations trade very differently from the developed. In his most recent work, he demonstrates the welfare improving effects of trade liberalization in the developing countries.

Emerson Melo has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. In 2013 Professor Melo received a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the California Institute of Technology and holds a bachelor and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Chile. His research interests include Microeconomic Theory, Game Theory, and Applied Microeconometric Methods. Prior to joining the Caltech graduate program, he spent three years at the Central Bank of Chile working as a junior researcher.

The Department of Economics congratulates Kosali Simon, Herman B Wells Endowed Professor at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Adjunct Professor of Economics on her promotion as Indiana University Distinguished Professor.

Rupal Kamdar, John Stone, and Stefan Weiergraeber each received a 2022 Trustees Teaching Award. This award honors outstanding teaching and the faculty who have had a positive impact on student learning, especially undergraduates.

Christian Matthes has been elected a fellow of the Society for Economic Measurement.

Yoosoon Chang and Joon Park are the principal investigators of the research project “The Corona-Crisis, Structural Change, and Macroeconomic Policy” for which The Norwegian Research Council granted funding for 2022-2025.

Volodymyr Lugovskyy, IU Informatics faculty member Patrick Shi, and IU Economics Ph.D. student Austin Knies have been awarded research funding from the IU Social Science Research Commons. This funding will support their research project “Social and Neighborhood Determinants of Healthcare: Medical Appointments No-Show Rates in Urban and Rural Indiana.”

Emerson Melo has been awarded funding from the IU Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) supporting his research relating to The Bloomington Symposia on Contagion. Professor Melo participated in the IAS virtual workshop, where according to their website “… interdisciplinary scholars from the IUB community engaged the epistemological, methodological, and conceptual challenges that attend research (theoretical or applied) on contagion.” He presented his research in the section of the workshop entitled Coordination, Networks, Information Processing, and Public Policy: The Case of COVID-19.

Professor Melo has also been awarded funding by the IU Institute for Advanced Study to participate in the 2022-2023 Recently Tenured Working Group. He is among twelve associate professors selected from a pool of strong candidates. The purpose of the program is to assist recently tenured faculty in assembling a successful multi-year research plan.

Daniela Puzzello has been awarded funding by the Faculty Research Support Program, a highly competitive program at the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. This funding will support her research project “Central Bank Digital Currency and Financial Inclusion.” In this project, Daniela and her collaborators will use survey methods to examine the main reasons why many individuals do not use or underutilize banking services in the U.S. The findings from this research will help guide the design of CBDC’s features and implementation choices, with special emphasis on designs that can best address the needs of the unbanked and underbanked.

Ruli Xiao and Michael Kaganovich are recipients of a learning analytics grant from the Center for Learning Analytics and Student Success (CLASS). As the Center’s website states, “CLASS advances the widespread use of big data and student learning analytics, empowering faculty to conduct actionable scholarly research through the systematic collection, exploration, and analysis of data describing students, their observable activities, and outcomes.” Previously named Learning Analytics Fellows include Gerhard Glomm, Paul Graf, Nastassia Krukava, John Stone, and IU Econ Ph.D. graduate Morgan Taylor.

Mostafa Beshkar co-authored with Ryan Lee (IU Econ Ph.D. 2018), “How Does Import Market Power Matter for Trade Agreements?” Journal of International Economics, 137 (July 2022).

Yoosoon Chang is the President-Elect of KAEA (The Korea-America Economic Association) in 2022 and will be the president in 2023. Since January 2022 she was appointed to the Board of Editors for the Journal of Economic Literature and Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Econometrics and the Journal of Econometrics. Professor Chang co-authored with Fabio Gómez-Rodríguez (IU Econ Ph.D. 2021) and Gee Hee Hong (IMF), “The Effects of Economic Shocks on Heterogeneous Inflation Expectations,” IMF Working Paper Series, July 2022. Since 2015 she has been serving as the Coordinator of the Midwest Econometrics Group (MEG) and since 2019 as the Organizer of Symposium of Econometric Theory and Applications (SETA).

Rupal Kamdar co-authored with Joshua Bernstein, “Rationally Inattentive Monetary Policy,” which has been accepted for publication in the Review of Economic Dynamics. Professor Kamdar also co-authored “Expected and Realized Inflation in Historical Perspective,” which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Laura Liu co-authored “Full-Information Estimation of Heterogeneous Agent Models Using Macro and Micro Data” and “Forecasting with a Panel Tobit Model” which were accepted for publication in Quantitative Economics. She authored “Density Forecasts in Panel Data Models: A Semiparametric Bayesian Perspective” which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business & Economic Statistics.

Dean Lueck co-authored “Federal Funding and State Wildlife Conservation,” Land Economics, 98(3), (August 2022), 461-477. He also organized and hosted an Alumni Symposium on Natural Resource Governance for Young Scholars at Wylie Hall in May 2022.

Christian Matthes co-authored “Learning about Regime Change,” International Economic Review, forthcoming. He also co-authored “Economic Theories and Macroeconomic Reality,” Journal of Monetary Economics, 126, (March 2022), 105-117.

James Walker co-authored “Competition Among Public Good Providers for Donor Rewards,” Experimental Economics (2022). This project was funded by the research grant Providing Ecosystem Services When Outsiders Support Insiders, 2019-2023.

Stefan Weiergraeber co-authored “Alert the Inert? Switching Costs and Limited Awareness in Retail Electricity Markets,” in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, forthcoming.

We hope you will enjoy reading the biographical sketch and interview with Lee where you will learn about his many accomplishments.

Lee Alston, Indiana University: A Biographical Sketch

By department colleague Dean Lueck

Lee Alston began his career as an economist after graduating from Indiana University with Honors in Economics with Distinction in 1973. After receiving his doctorate in economics and a distinguished career at Williams College, the University of Illinois, and the University of Colorado, he returned to IU in 2014 as Professor of Economics, Director of the Ostrom Workshop, and Affiliate Professor of Law. This July he retired from IU where he is now Emeritus Professor of Economics.

Lee was born in Port Washington, Wisconsin because his small town of Cedarburg did not have a hospital. Lee jokes that he is the best economist from Cedarburg, though he is the only economist from Cedarburg. In Wisconsin Lee developed his lifelong love of the outdoors, particularly skiing. At IU Lee, perhaps surprisingly, began his studies in theater before being seduced by the dismal science. While at IU, Lee studied under some of IU’s most famous scholars including H. Scott Gordon, “whispering” Fred Witney, and Nick Spulber. Lee recalls that Spulber “taught me Marxian econ, though he was anything but a Marxist.”

After passing on the chance to attend law school Lee took a position as a Junior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisors, where he met his wife Mary, mother to their sons Greg and Eric. From the Council he went the University of Washington for his Ph.D. where he worked with future Nobel Laureate Douglass North. It was at Washington that Lee developed his interests in the intersection of economic history, economic development, and economic and political institutions.

Prior to his return to IU, Lee was assistant and associate professor of economics at Williams College before joining the University of Illinois as professor of economics. At Illinois Lee also became professor of political science, a testament to his longtime interest and expertise in political economy. During this period Lee also became a Research Associate of the NBER. Lee left Illinois in 2002 to join the University of Colorado economics department and the Institute of Behavioral Science, and the proximity to western skiing. Lee has been the president of the Economic History Association and the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (named the International Society for the New Institutional Economics at the time). He held numerous visiting positions and fellowships over his career including stints at the University of Chicago, the Australian National University, the Stockholm School of Economics, and Princeton University. He is the author of eight books and over 80 scholarly articles, on topics ranging from the determinants of share tenancy in the post-bellum south to the political economy of violence and land in Brazil.

I first met Lee around 1990 when he gave some lectures at BYU, where I was a visiting assistant professor. I learned about his research and skied with him at nearby Snowbird Resort. Since then, our paths crossed many times and, in many locations, before we became colleagues at IU in 2016 when I joined the economics faculty and the Ostrom Workshop. Lee always had seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm, both for his scholarship and teaching, as well as his avocations, seemingly dominated by skiing and other outdoor sports as well as strong affinity for, and an expansive collection, of wine. One cannot help but admire not only his career but also his ability to return to his intellectual roots at Indiana University for the last years of his career.

Interview with Lee Alston, who recently retired, July 31, 2022

Upon his retirement, department colleagues Dean Lueck and James Walker asked Lee to reflect on these questions.

What have been your greatest professional joys and successes?

Lee Alston: Becoming President of the Economic History Association (EHA) and the International Society for New Institutional Economics was very rewarding along being named a Fellow of EHA and the Cliometrics Society. I also take great pleasure in being able to travel a lot of the world to give seminars and presentations along with some teaching and research stints, e.g., the Australian National University, Princeton, the Sorbonne, and the Stockholm School of Economics.

One of my joys was the pleasure that I received from teaching undergraduate and graduate students. I am also very proud of my Ph.D. students who are now Professors around the globe.

I always found teaching easy (my theater background?) especially when I could be lee unplugged.

What was it like coming back to your undergraduate alma mater to take on the leadership of the Ostrom Workshop and joining the Economics Department after all of these years?

Lee Alston: It was strange coming back after being away for over 40 years. I had been back several times to give seminars since I graduated, but I did not go to my old haunts. It was as if it was another me a long time ago. I recall visiting my old dorm which is now co-ed. In my day women could only visit on the weekends, and they had to sign in and out.

Taking on the leadership of the Ostrom Workshop was daunting but I threw myself into it.

The econ department was great in receiving me both before and especially after I was the Director of the Ostrom workshop. It is an incredibly welcoming department.

What were the biggest challenges and successes you experienced as Director of the Ostrom Workshop?

Lee Alston: Biggest challenge was obviously taking over from Lin. Impossible shoes to fill. After extensive interviews across campus, it was clear that the OW needed to become more open. When Lin was Director, many active affiliates were her co-authors. We decided to move to Program Directors in Governance of certain research areas, e.g., natural resources, political economy, data and information management…. This has been a success and the OW continues to add more programs. The challenge then was recruiting Directors for the Programs. I lucked out in hiring Dean Lueck but struck out with outside hires for the other programs, so we moved to extant IU faculty. Hiring was frustrating, very time consuming and turned my hair grey.

We overhauled the colloquium series to make it more beneficial for presenters and attendees with little formal presentation and more critical (but helpful) comments and questions. I was also proud that we added significantly to our workshop affiliates.

In reflecting on your outstanding career in academics, what experiences do you think were most important in shaping your career and the successes you had as a teacher, scholar, and administrator?

Lee Alston: Robert Higgs and Douglass North were incredible mentors during and following graduate school. I was rough around the edges and both Higgs and North had high standards to meet. My wife has been incredibly supportive of my work since we met at the Council of Economic Advisers. She has put up with 4 academic moves. My initial experience at Williams College was extremely beneficial. Their weekly seminar series was another graduate education. During my time at Illinois, I mentored many Ph.D. students, some of whom became research assistants, co-authors, and friends. At Illinois I launched an interdisciplinary seminar across economics, law, and political science. I continued this at Colorado and Indiana. Engaging students and faculty across disciplines has been rewarding and helped shape my research.

Do you have any special plans or projects after you retire from IU?

Lee Alston: I seem busier than ever. We moved to Taos, NM which has rekindled an old interest that I had in Spanish missions and their impact on Native Americans in the Southwest and California. I have also signed a contract to produce an edited volume on “Institutions and Complexity.” It is co-edited with my son, Eric, and long-term co-author Bernardo Mueller. No doubt other projects will come along. I may hang up my research cleats once I am no longer invited to give seminars or presentations. I really do enjoy teaching but there does not seem to be much of an opportunity in Taos unless I want to stand in the plaza with a placard that says: Ask the Economist?