Newsletter Spring2012

7/27/2019 Newsletter Spring2012

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Spring 2012

The KU EconomistVOL 4 / ISSUE 2 SPRING 2012

http://economics.ku.edu

In ThIs Issue

1 Colombian President WinsCLAS Award

2 Recent Grad Lands at Altria Student News Message rom the Chair3 Barnett Lecture, Book Signing

on April 194 KU Alum rom Class o 1939

Gets Degree Research on Racial/Ethnic Use

o Technology in SmallBusiness

5 Staihr Named Champion or

Accessible Learning Loving Named Ex.C.E.L. Award

Finalist Snapshot o A Thriving

Department Ongoing Doctoral Student

Research6 Faculty News7 Martha Hensley (1928-2012) KU Alum Named CEO o

Land OFrost8 Alumni Updates9 Fed Economist Addresses

Economics Club KU Alum Named Dean o

OKCU Business School10 Another Alum Named to

Initial Tan Tao Faculty

Chris Shannon Moves toCal Tech

11 Graduation Recognition

Ceremony Set or May 12 New Research: Government

Policy Led to Decline inPost-WWII Volatility

12 Note rom the Editor

ColombIan PresIdenT

sanTos WIns Clas alumnI

dIsTInguIshed aChIevemenT

aWardYet another KU Economics Depart-

ment alum, Colombian President JuanManuel Santos, has been named asa recipient o the highest honor be-stowed by the College o Liberal Artsand Sciences. President Santos will or-mally receive the CLAS DistinguishedAchievement Alumni Award at an up-

coming return visit to campus which isstill being scheduled.

He was elected in 2010 to a our-year term ater having served or thethree previous years as deense minister; and prior to that as oreign trade min-ister and treasury minister. During his tenure as deense minister, he helpedoversee a dramatic 2008 rescue mission that reed a ormer Colombian presi-dential candidate who had been held hostage by a Marxist rebel group. Santosis ollowing in the ootsteps o his great uncle, who also served as presidentrom 1938 to 1942. The Santos amily also ounded El Tiempo, Colombias mostinuential newspaper, where Juan Manuel worked as an editor prior to enteringthe public sector. He received his undergraduate degrees rom KU in economics

and business in 1973.Santos joins our other prominent Economics Department alumni as a re-

cipient o the award, which is presented annually by the Deans CLAS AdvisoryBoard. Nobel Laureate Vernon L. Smith and renowned lm-maker Mark Aminwere recipients o the honor in 2011; well-known author and baseball guru BillJames received the award in 2010; and departmental beneactor and ormerNational Computer Systems Chair and CEO Charles Oswald was a 2006 recipi-ent. The departments undergraduate program has been designated as theCharles W. Oswald Program in Economics in acknowledgment o his many yearso support and generosity.

The CLAS Alumni Distinguished Achievement Awards recognize the contri-butions o outstanding graduates to KU, their proessions, and their communi-ties. Dozens o nominations or the awards are submitted to the advisory boardeach year rom alumni and aculty.

KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little in 2011 traveled to Colombia and paidan ocial visit to President Santos. At that time, she said she was interested inexpanding the universitys relationship with Colombia, noting that KU wouldbenet rom hearing about his vision or Colombia.

Colombia is a vibrant country that has emerged rom challenging times tobecome a growing, democratic nation, she said.
http://economics.ku.edu/http://economics.ku.edu/


2/12

PAGE 2 THE KU ECONOMIST

messagefromThe ChaIr

We originally launched the KUEconomist several years ago to im-prove and expand on our alumni out-reach eforts and have subsequentlybeen delighted by the response wehave received rom all around theglobe. I am continually amazed athow successul our graduates havebeen in any number o elds and disciplines whetherit has been as the President o Colombia (page 1), theDean o a business school (page 9), a ounding membero the aculty at a historic new university (page 10), or asone o the oremost authorities on Central Asian agricul-ture (page 8). I am certain that all o our alumni, whetherthey are the CEO o a major corporation (page 7) or a re-cently named territorial sales manager (page 2), wouldattest to the value o their degree in economics rom KU.And we are especially proud o one o our most recentgraduates (page 4) straight rom the Class o 1939!

I hope as you read each newsletter, you will get aavor o the Economics Departments exciting and

ongoing arc o history. From the listing o a course inpolitical economy in the initial 1866 university cata-log; to the claim we have o producing KUs only NobelLaureate, Vernon Smith; to our healthy enrollment datathat point to an even brighter uture, I am honored tohave played a small part in the departments vibrantpast, present, and uture. For those who may not haveheard, I will be stepping down as Chair at the conclusiono the 2011-12 academic year ater many years in thatrole, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank ev-eryone who has been so helpul to me during that time.

Relative to the current happenings at the Econom-ics Department, we are very excited to continue to bringyou the latest news about the awards, accomplish-ments, publications, and growing national reputationso our aculty and students alike.

Please continue to let us hear rom you! We wouldlike to know what you are up to, would very much liketo stay in touch with everyone on an ongoing basis, andwould like to know what more you want to know aboutwhat is going on here in your ormer department at KU.

Rock Chalk!

Joe Sicilian

reCenT grad sharPens

analyTICal skIllsaT

alTrIa

One o KUs most recent eco-

nomics graduates, Lena Tsiovkh,

has launched a successul career

as a territory sales manager orAltria Group Distribution Com-

pany. That entity is a subsidiary

o the Altria parent company

and is specically charged with providing sales, distribu-

tion and consumer engagement services to Altrias tobacco

companies (which include Philip Morris USA). Lena, who is

based in Lincoln, Nebraska, noted that much o her job as

territory sales manager involves working with retailers in

assuring the successul implementation o marketing; and

in evaluating business growth strategies and opportunities.

She said that doing her current job would have been next to

impossible without the analytical skills she learned and de-veloped at KU in nancial economics and microeconomics

courses under Joe Sicilian and Ronald Caldwell, respectively.

Lena received her undergraduate degree in 2011 beore

taking the job with Altria. As a ormer president o the KU

Economics Club, she was an integral part in that groups re-

naissance as a key extra-curricular resource available to stu-

dents and others with an interest in economics. She also was

recipient o a Charles W. Oswald Scholarship or the 2010-

11 school year; and a recipient o the prestigious John Ise

Award, the Economics Departments award that recognizes

the most outstanding achievement, upon graduation.

Kay Nti-Addae, in the PhD program, made recent presen-

tations at the Missouri Valley Economic Association Con-

erence (October) and the American Economic Association

Annual Meeting (January). His paper, Access to Finance by

Minority-Owned Businesses: How Relevant is Race/Ethnic

ity/Gender? will soon be published as part o the ocia

proceedings o the latter conerence.

Melody Yin, in the PhD program, also presented at the Mis

souri Valley Economic Association Conerence on Modeling

the Impact o Oil Prices on Stock Returns: Empirical Study o

13 Emerging Countries.

Isaac Kanyama, in the PhD program, authored Civil War

Sexual Violence and HIV Inections: Evidence rom the Dem

ocratic Republic o the Congo in the Journal o Arican De-

velopment and also made presentations at conerences in

Kansas City, Chicago and Boston. He is an author on three

current working papers with members o the aculty (Wil-liam Barnett, Elizabeth Asiedu, and John Keating).

Brian Danley, in the MA program, is working as a research

assistant at the Kaufman Foundation or Dr. Yasuyuki Mo

toyama on a project analyzing a database involving the 500

astest growing companies in the US or every year since

1982.

Mark Withrow, in the MA program, is working as a research

and development technician at Triumph Foods, LLC.

sTudenT neWs


3/12

THE KU ECONOMIST PAGE 3

barneTT booksIgnIng

forGettinGitWronG

aPrIl 19 aT edWards

CamPus

On Thursday, April 19, the

public will have a unique op-

portunity to hear a lecture andget autographed copies o a tre-

mendously important new book

by Dr. William A. Barnett, the

Oswald Distinguished Proessor

o Macroeconomics at KU. The

special book signing ceremony

will be at 7pm on the KU Edwards Campus in Regnier Hall,

located at 12600 Quivira Road in Overland Park. Dr. Barnett

will be outlining his latest work, Getting it Wrong: How Faulty

Monetary Statistics Undermine the Fed, the Financial System,

and the Economy (MIT Press, 2012). He will be available or

book signings immediately ater the presentation.As politicians, pundits, and historians continue to at-

tempt to assign blame or the recent nancial crisis and sub-

sequent recession, Dr. Barnett weighs in with a somewhat

diferent and ar-better-inormed perspective. Whereas Wall

Street greed and the ailure o mainstream economics are

two o the standard scapegoats, Getting it Wrong argues that

there was too little use o relevant economic analysis, espe-

cially relating to economic measurement ormulas used by

the U.S. Federal Reserve. The growing complexity o nancial

instruments made traditional simple-sum monetary aggre-

gation ormulas obsolete, and the lack o public availability

o best-practice data preventedhouseholds, rms, and the pub-

lic sector rom correctly assess-

ing the accelerating systemic

risk. Increased regulation then

could have helped minimize the

adverse consequences o poor

economic decisions made as a

result o inadequate access to

the best-practice data. But de-

regulation instead helped pro-

duce a perect storm, triggering

the global nancial crisis.

One reviewer, Proessor

Steve Hanke rom Johns Hop-

kins University (and a Forbes

columnist), hailed the book as

a magisterial treatment on

the measurement o monetary

aggregates by the worlds ore-

most authority. Barnett inorms

us about how to get the mea-

surements right. He also shows

us how the Federal Reserve gets

them wrong. Indeed, i Paul Volckers dashboard would have

displayed Barnetts monetary metrics, the severe 1981--82

recession might never have occurred. Alas, the Feds money

supply gauges remain in need o an overhaul by Barnett, a

monetary master cratsman.

In act, Dr. Barnett is now even more uniquely situated

to provide that relevant cratsmanship and analysis rom his

recent appointment as Director at the Center or Financia

Stability (CFS) in New York City. The program he directs athe CFS is designed to oversee and develop national and

international databases rigorously ounded in economic ag-

gregation and index-number theory, with the ultimate goa

being the delivery o multi-disciplined research on nance

law, and economics to policymakers and the public.

The book was sparking much discussion, including

in the mainstream nancial press, even as it was being re-

leased. Bloomberg News in February noted that the U.S

government has no excuse or not compiling and distribut-

ing better data, and Barnett is right to press the issue. With

in a week o appearing as a Kindle Edition, the book had be-

come a best seller in two Kindle categories.Beore bringing his expertise on the econometrics o

nancial aggregation and monetary policy to KU, he previ

ously served on the staf o the Board o Governors o the

Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC or eight years

was the Stuart Centennial Proessor o Economics at the

University o Texas; a ull proessor o economics at Wash

ington University in St. Louis; and a research associate at the

University o Chicago. Beore becoming an economist, he

was one o the engineers who developed the rocket engines

or the Apollo project at Boeings Rocketdyne Division in Los

Angeles.

Other endorsements or Getting it Wrong:

Leading up to the nancial crisis, investors displayed an incorrect assessment o sys-temic risk and signicantly increased their leverage and risk-taking activities. Barnettdocuments that better Federal Reserve data could have signaled the error in thatview. This error led to the credit-driven, asset-price bubble in the US housing market.He also has shown that as a result o measurement errors, monetary policy was dam-aged, with tragic consequences. He is the worlds oremost authority in the study omonetary and nancial aggregation using index number and aggregation theory.

James J. Heckman, University o Chicago and University College Dublin, No-bel Laureate in Economics

I would never y in an airplane designed by an economist. Unortunately, I have tolive in an economy where policy makers listen to economists. Proessor Barnett, aormer rocket scientist, shows clearly how important it is that economists pay atten-tion to details and teaches economists how to do ar better. Until economists absorbthese lessons, the policy makers they advise will be ying blind.

Kenneth L. Judd, Hoover Institution, Stanord University

Getting It Wrong is a gripping combination o colorul mini-biographies, memoirrom a close witness to our nancial troubles, and well-argued case or better mon-etary statistics. This book rst makes you care about monetary aggregation and thenmasterully shows you how it should be done.

Julio J. Rotemberg, William Ziegler Proessor o Business Administration,Harvard Business School


4/12

PAGE 4 THE KU ECONOMISTku alum geTs eCon degree afTer

72-yearWaIT

Margaret Shirk made state and regional news in 2011

when she received her KU economics degree rom 1939.

At that time, Margaret, whose maiden name was Lewis, was

engaged to be married to David Shirk, a team captain on the

1938 ootball team. She had completed all the requirements

or her degree and even walked down the Hill with her class-

mates in the Spring o 1939. But the busy newlywed-to-be

never took the time to apply or her own graduation and get

her degree certied.

She would tell the Lawrence Journal World years later

that since she had already landed a very good job as a stock-

broker, she did not think that getting the diploma was all

that important.

Flash orward to October o 2010, and her son-in-law,

ormer state legislator Jim Yonally introduced Margaret, still

a rabid KU sports an, to a member o the College o Liberal

Arts and Sciences Advisory Board at a tent outside a ootball

game. Yonally later asked his contact, who also happenedto be an Economics Department alum, i anything could be

done to track down her records and veriy how close she had

come to graduating; and whether she would in act have

received her degree in 1939 had she applied. Margaret, or

her part, had always assumed that i she ever had any hope

o receiving her degree, she would need to take additional

classes and somehow get ormally readmitted.

From the Advisory Board, the story and request went

directly to Christie Appelhanz, then the CLAS Director o Ex-

ternal Relations. Christie worked with graduation advisors

who managed to unearth the paper transcripts rom the

1930s and conrm that Margaret was qualied to have re-ceived her 1939 economics degree.

KU subsequently decided to award Margaret Eloise

Lewis her Bachelor o Arts degree and took the unusual

step o amending its records to reect that she is in act a

member o the Class o 1939. But they worked with Yonally

and her amily to help surprise the 93-year-old graduate at a

special ceremony at a downtown Lawrence restaurant.

The newest alum and her amily told the press that she

was delighted to get her diploma, and the surprise award

was a tting tribute to her years o service to KU and the

Douglas County community. Shirk had spent many decades

as a volunteer or the KU Athletics Department; the KUAlumni Association; and the KU Endowment Association.

Margaret and her husband, David, both had ascinating

ties with many deep roots to KUs history. David took class-es while at KU rom both James Naismith and Phog Allen.Margaret when younger had been a ower girl in her aunts

wedding, a ceremony perormed by Naismith, who was aPresbyterian minister in addition to his more recognizable

status as the inventor o basketball and as the Jayhawks rstcoach. The Shirks also attended KU basketball and ootballgames regularly rom 1940 up until Davids death in late

2009.

researCh foCuses

on raCIal/eThnIC

dIfferenCesIn

TeChnology usage

by small busInesses

A leading scholar rom

the University o Texas-PanAmerican (UTPA) unveiledresearch at KU in Novembethat explored the extent towhich minority small business owners used digitatechnologies in both the late1990s and mid 2000s rela-

tive to similar non-minority owned businesses; and the ex-tent to which increased utilization o various new technolo-gies may have improved the likelihood o success as denedby several small-business outcome benchmarks.

Marie Mora, a proessor at UTPA, spoke at Snow Hall aspart o the KU Economics Departments Guest Speaker Se-ries and presented her latest ndings, Racial/Ethnic Diferences in Technology Usage Among Small Business Owners,co-authored with Alberto Davila, also rom UTPA.

Using data rom the 1998 and 2003 Surveys o SmalBusiness Finances (SSBF), the researchers noted that in thelate 1990s, small businesses owned by Blacks, Hispanics, andAsians were signicantly less likely to have been technologically engaged, indicating the presence o a digital dividerelative to non-minority-owned small businesses. The analysis showed that not only had the digital divide vanishedby 2003, but also that being technologically engaged had a

signicantly stronger relationship or Hispanic-owned rmsthan all other small businesses with respect to certain salesand prot benchmarks designed to dene success. Morasaid that an empirical extension suggested that the relativeimprovement made by the technologically connected His-panic rms rom 1998 to 2003 could not be explained byshits in, or returns to, their observable characteristics in theSSBF, but rather a set o unobserved characteristics.

She also expressed disappointment that the SSBF, whichhad been conducted by the Federal Reserve Systems Boardo Governors, has been discontinued due to budget cutsseriously conounding eforts to ollow up on what changesmay have been occurring since 2003.

The study concluded that because o the growing presence o minority populations in the US, understanding actors that afect the success o minority-owned enterpriseshas become a topic o national interest, particularly during atime o weak labor markets. As technological advancementscontinue to surge, the results suggest that the rate at whichminority entrepreneurs integrate such technology into routine business operations has real implications or their suc-cess. Programs designed to help small business owners utilize new technology thereore should increase not only theicomputer literacy, but also enhance potential perormancewith respect to a variety o measurable business outcomes

Marie Mora rom UTPA reviews

her latest research on the usage

o technology in minority-owned

small businesses.


5/12


sTaIhrnamed

ChamPIonfor

aCCessIble

learnIng

The KU Economics De-

partments own Dr. Brian

Staihr in the Fall o 2011was named recipient o

the Champion or Acces-

sible Learning Award. He

said that the special award,

which was provided by KU Disability Resources, came in the

orm o a nice plaque presented to him unexpectedly one

day in class.

The mission o Disability Resources is to work with all

units at KU to insure all students have an equal opportunity

to succeed, notwithstanding any and all physical, medical,

sensory, psychological, attention-based or learning-based

disabilities.Dr. Staihr teaches economics at KU, Park University, and

Avila University and is an acknowledged expert in telecom-

munications issues.

lovIng named

ex.C.e.l. aWard

fInalIsT

KU senior James (Greg

Loving added to his im

pressive list o awards dur

ing the Fall semester whenhe was named as one o

10 nalists or the Ex.C.E.L

Award, which is given out

annually to students in ac

knowledgment o excellence in community, education, and

leadership.

Loving, who is a senior rom McPherson majoring in

economics and chemical engineering, also has been named

a Hall Center Scholar or the 2011-12 academic year and re

ceived a Charles W. Oswald Scholarship awarded by the Eco

nomics Department.

The Ex.C.E.L. Award is one o several honors announced

during Homecoming in the Fall. Ater turbulent anti-wa

demonstrations had rocked the campus, a special adviso-

ry committee in 1969 recommended that the naming o a

Homecoming Queen be replaced with a variety o awards

more appropriately recognizing those who embody the

academic spirit.

Nominees generally are selected based on their efec-

tive communication skills and ability to work with a variety

o students and organizations in addition to community

involvement, academic success, and leadership.

snaPshoTofa ThrIvIng deParTmenT

Amid declining support rom the state in recent years

and discussions about the costs o maintaining certain pro-

grams, the Economics Department has continued to thrive

rom an enrollment and graduation standpoint. Data pro-vided by KUs Oce o Institutional Research and Planning

(OIRP) show that 108 undergraduate economics degrees

were granted in the 2010-2011 academic year; 26 masters

degrees; and 4 doctoral degrees. The OIRP data also indicat-

ed that as o Fall 2011, 363 undergraduates were pursuing

economics majors (and another 28 pursuing minors); 21 stu-

dents were in the masters program; and 58 students were

seeking doctoral degrees.

Economics Degrees (2010-11)

Baccalaureate: 108Masters: 26Doctoral: 4

Economics Majors (Fall 2011)

Freshmen/Sophomore: 96Junior/Senior: 267

Masters: 21Doctoral: 58

Source: KU Oce o Institutional Research and Planning

doCToral sTudenT researCh foCusedonvarIeTyof ImPorTanT ToPICs

A number o doctoral student research papers are sched-

uled or presentation in the Fall o 2012 rom a variety o

diferent elds, including macroeconomics, monetary eco-

nomics, development, labor, game theory, monetary policy

and nancial economics.

Kablan Alkahtani The Efect o Oil Price Shocks on Saudi GDPRyadh Alkharei Divisia Monetary Indices or the Gul StatesSalah Alsayaary On the Determinants o Growth in Middle

East and North Arican Countries: HowRelevant Are Institutions?

Jing Fu Chinese Immigrants Fertility : One orMore?

N. Gaekwad-Babulal Liquidity Efect: Comparing the SimpleSum and Divisia Monetary Aggregates

Eric Hofmann Incomplete Inormation in Games oStrategic Complements

Lee Smith Are Monetary Aggregates Useul orMonetary Policy? Evidence rom theWelare Evolution o a DSGE Model witha Financial Sector

Toshiyuki Wakana No Economic Recovery rom Crises? PanelState-Space Approach

Melody Yin Modeling the Impact o Oil Prices onStock Returns: Empirical Study or 13Emerging Countries


6/12


William A. Barnett has already seen his most recent book,Getting It Wrong: How Faulty Monetary Statistics Underminethe Fed, the Financial System, and the Economy, be laudedas a groundbreaking new look at the real causes and cul-prits behind the global nancial crisis (see page 3). Hismost recent journal articles include Biurcation Analysis o

Zellners Marshallian Macro Model (with Sanjibani Baner-jee, Evgeniya Duzhak, and Ramu Gopalan) in the Journal oEconomic Dynamics and Control; and Rethinking the Liquid-ity Puzzle: Applications o a New Measure o the EconomicMoney Stock (with John Keating and Logan Kelly) in theJournal o Banking and Finance. As Director at the Center orFinancial Stability, Dr. Barnett has been busy overseeing therecent (March 2012) public launch o the rapidly growingprogram on Advances in Monetary and Financial Measure-ment, which will soon be providing monthly press releas-es. Special issues o two economic journals, the Journal oEconometrics and Econometric Reviews, are currently beingprepared in his honor.

Ronald Caldwell, an acknowledged expert in health careeconomics, made a 2011 presentation at Washburn Uni-versity entitled, University Armative Action Policies andHuman Capital Development o Minority Children: Do Ex-pectations Matter or the Black-White Test Score Gap? Hemade a second presentation last Spring at the PopulationAssociation o America Annual Meeting in Washington, DC,on Do Sheepskin Efects Vary by Gender and Race? An Eval-uation o the Return to College Degrees 1993 2003. Hismost recently presented his paper, The Impact o CigaretteExcise Tax Increases on Long-Term Health Care Outcomes,

at the Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting, alsoin Washington, DC, in November.

Dietrich Earnhart, a recognized authority in environmen-tal economics, authored a book (with Robert Glicksman) in2011, Pollution Limits and Polluters Eorts to Comply: The Roleo Government Monitoring and Enorcement (Stanord Uni-versity Press). Dr. Earnhart also wrote a chapter (with DanielPhaneu) on Combining Contingent Behavior, ContingentPricing, and Revealed Preerence Data to Improve the Valua-tion o Time in a Recreation Context, in another 2011 book,Preerence Data or Environmental Valuation: Combining Re-

vealed and Stated Approaches. His most recent journal ar-ticles include The Efect o Environmental Regulation onFirm Financial Perormance: Short-Run versus Long-RunImplications (with Dylan Rassier) in Contemporary EconomicPolicy; Pollution Control in a Transition Economy: Do FirmsFace Economies and/or Diseconomies o Scale? (with Lu-bomir Lizal) in Transormations in Business & Economics; andEfect o Corporate Economic Perormance on Firm-LevelEnvironmental Perormance in a Transition Economy (alsowith Lubomir Lizal) in Environmental and Resource Econom-ics. He also presented a paper on Corporate EnvironmentalStrategies in Developing and Transition Economies at theUniversity o Illinois in late October.

faCulTy neWs Donna Ginther made national news in August as the leadresearcher behind stunning ndings regarding the likelihood o black applicants to receive National Institute oHealth grants (see Fall 2011 edition o KU Economist). Thestudy (Race, Ethnicity, and NIH Research Awards) oundthat even ater controlling or applicants educationabackground, country o origin, training, previous researchawards, publication record, and employer characteristics

blacks were 10 percentage points less likely than whites tobe awarded certain NIH research unding. Dr. Ginther wasquoted extensively by the New York Times and USA Todayand gave interviews to PBS and National Public Radio. Shemade three other major presentations in 2011, MultiplePartner Fertility and Childrens Educational and EarningsOutcomes in Sweden (Society o Labor Economists Conerence, Vancouver); Dimensions o Diversity in BiomedicaCareers: An Evaluation o Career Progression and NIH Funding (NIH, Bethesda); and Work Activities as Firm-SpecicHuman Capital: Estimates o the Efects on Wages (Econometric Society North American Meetings, St. Louis). Shecontinues to work on additional research unded by grants

rom the Alred P. Sloan Foundation, the National ScienceFoundation, and the Ewing Marion Kaufman FoundationShe organized the October Immigration and the KansasEconomy Conerence that made regional news; continuesto co-chair a Modeling Subcommittee o an NIH WorkingGroup on the Future o the Biomedical Research Workorceand is part o the organizing committee or the KU StrategicSummit on Building Communities, Expanding Opportuni-ties.

John W. Keating, a specialist in macroeconomics, time series econometrics, and monetary theory and policy, made

three recent presentations o his paper, Whats so Greatabout the Great Moderation? A Multi-Country Investigationo Time-Varying Volatilities o Output Growth and Ination at a prestigious (EC) 2 Conerence in Florence, Italy in December on Econometrics or Policy Analysis: ater the Crisisand Beyond; at the Midwest Econometrics Group Meetingat the University o Chicago; and at the Western EconomicAssociation Meeting in San Diego. He has also recently presented The Time Varying Efects o Permanent and Transitory Shocks to Real Output. Both research works (with VictoValcarel) are closely associated with the important GreateModerations working paper (page 11), the latest version owhich has also been accepted or publication. Dr. Keating

also has another orthcoming paper that has accepted bythe Journal o Money, Credit and Banking on InterpretingPermanent Shocks to Output When Aggregate Demandmay not be Neutral in the Long Run.Pym Manopimoke in 2011 presented her research at anumber o conerences, including the Society or Nonlin-ear Dynamics and Econometrics Annual Symposium, theAsian Meeting o the Econometric Society, Meetings o theMidwest Econometrics Group, and at the Thailand Develop-

(continued on page 7)


7/12


faCulTy neWsConTInued . . .Martha hensley (1928 2012)

We were quite sad to learn in early January o the

death o a longtime colleague and dear riend, MarthaHensley. Marthas association with the Economics De-partment began in 1978, when she arrived as a (non-traditional) undergraduate student, and it continuedin various capacities until her death on January 3. She

earned both her undergraduate and M.A. degrees ineconomics; served as a GTA and lecturer; and taughtan Econ 104 correspondence course or nearly 30 years.She also developed an early generation online Econ104 course a decade or so ago and continued improv-ing it to the present day. She also designed and createdthe ormat or this newsletter and served as its rst edi-tor. Everything Martha did, she did with great integrityand quality.

Beore coming to KU, Martha raised a amily o ourchildren to adulthood in Dodge City. Her children andgrandchildren, many o whom I know, are wonderul

and successul people, and served as a great source ohappiness or Martha. Every year, the amily Thanksgiv-ing was at Martha's house in Lawrence, including thispast November when 36 amily members made it backto town.

In addition to Martha's work in economics and herdevotion to her amily, she remarkably pursued anotherlie in the arts. She was a talented painter rom a youngage. At KU, she also earned an advanced degree in theFine Arts, turned to abstract painting, and created andsold many paintings. In addition, she received a degreein Theater and Film and worked on a number o lmscreated by KU aculty members.

As an adult, Martha lost the use o her legs to po-lio. Not long ater that, she tragically lost her belovedhusband in 1972. Despite the diculties involved withreliance on a wheelchair, Martha lived independentlyuntil her death. For most o her years in Lawrence shealso traveled independently, carrying her wheelchair inthe back seat o her sedan, pulling it in and out with herown strengthen. In the last several years, even as someo her mobility and strength was urther reduced, Mar-tha spent most o her time at her home, a great deal oit designing and working on our webpage, our newslet-ter, and on Econ 104, and a great deal o it in service toher amily members.

While everyone who knew her realized that she wasa brilliant and accomplished woman, it is also worthnoting that a 1989 Lawrence Journal Worldeature storyabout her budding abstract art career appropriatelydescribed her as an animated, orthright, and cheerulwoman.

Martha was a person o exceptional strength. Itwas a great ortune and a privilege to have known andworked with her.- Joe Sicilian

ment Institute. She also organized and chaired the sessionMonetary Policy and Ination Dynamics, at the SouthernEconomic Association Annual Conerence in WashingtonD.C.. During the Summer o 2011, she was a visiting ellowat the Federal Reserve Bank o Dallas and is now workingon a joint paper with economists at the Fed on how globa

slack conditions may impact domestic ination rates. Mostrecently during Winter break, she carried out additional re-search at the Bank o Thailand as a visiting scholar in theMacroeconomic and Monetary Policy Department.

Joshua L. Rosenbloom in January completed a six-monthstint as Dean o Graduate Studies. He recently received athree-year grant rom the National Science Foundation oa project, Economic and Scientic Efects o Federal Investment in Chemical Sciences Research (co-principal inves-tigators include Donna Ginther and Ted Juhl, as well asJoseph Heppert), that will examine the impact o ederaresearch and development unding in chemistry and chem-

ical engineering on selected measures o scientic output(students trained and publications); and on local economicactivity. The researchers will analyze data rom a sample o150 universities rom 1990-2009. He also has revised his article, Technology Evolution, which was published originallyin 2011 and will appear in 2013 in the Wiley Online Encyclopedia o Management.

Shu Wu has recently been invited to be a co-editor o amonograph entitled State-Space Models and Applicationsin Economics and Finance as part o a new book series, Statistics and Econometrics or Finance, to be published in 2013

by Springer Press. Dr. Wu made presentations in 2011 at theAsian Econometric Society in Seoul, South Korea; and at Ji-nan University in Guangzhou, China.

van eekeren noW Ceo of land ofrosT

Another KU Economics Department alum achieved an

impressive milestone in 2011 when he was named CEO oa major corporation, Land OFrost. David Van Eekeren, whoreceived his undergraduate economics degree rom KU in1991 and later an MBA in nance rom Loyola, began work-

ing or the company as an Arkansas plant supervisor in theearly 1990s. He subsequently was promoted to executivevice president in 2005; to president in 2008; and then to CEOin 2011.

Land OFrost manuactures sliced packaged luncheonmeats (bee, chicken, turkey and ham), and is now the largest amily-owned brand o packaged deli meat in the UnitedStates.

Under Davids leadership, Land OFrost in late 2011 an-nounced a multi-year partnership with the Juvenile Diabe-tes Research Foundation to help raise unds to build awareness o type 1 diabetes and boost eforts to cure, treat andprevent the disease.


8/12


http://economics.ku.edu

Hisaya Kitaoka

Hisaya Kitaoka, who received

both his masters and doctoral

degrees in economics rom KU (in

2005 and 2008), is currently an As-

sistant Proessor o Economics at

Franklin College in Franklin, IN. In2010, Dr. Kitaoka was named re-

cipient o the prestigious Teach-

ing Innovations Program Certi-

cate o Achievement Award by

the American Education Associa-

tions Committee on Economic Education.

His latest paper, The Efect o US Import Tarif Reduc-

tions on Expanded Wage Inequality, was recently accepted

or publication by the Journal o Indiana Academy o the So-

cial Sciences.

In that paper, Dr. Kitaoka wades into the disagreement

among researchers as to whether trade liberalization can ex-plain rising wage inequality. He examines the contribution

o the reductions o US import tarifs rom NAFTA countries

Canada and Mexico to the expanding wage inequality that

occurred in US manuacturing industries rom 1980 to 2000.

Based on a newly developed industrial classication code

not available to prior researchers, he concludes that US tar-

if reductions on imports rom both neighboring countries

in act did expand wage inequality between skilled workers

and unskilled workers in US manuacturing industries. Each

one percent reduction o US tarifs on Canadian imports re-

sulted in an increase in the wage gap o 0.69 percent; and

each one percent reduction o tarifs on Mexican importsresulted in a wage gap increase o 0.57 percent.

Dr. Kitaoka was born and raised in Tokyo, received his

undergraduate degree rom Keio University, and worked or

20 years as an oil and gas specialist or Mitsubishi. While with

Mitsubishi, he traveled to a number o oil-producing areas,

including the Middle East and North America, and was sta-

tioned in Jakarta, Indonesia or our years. He subsequently

chose to come to KU or graduate economics, where he de-

veloped his research interests in microeconomics, interna-

tional trade, applied macroeconomics, and economics edu-

cation. He was hired by Franklin College in 2008.

Abdullah Al-Hassan

Since leaving KU over three years ago, Abdullah has

worked in three diferent challenging assignments or the

International Monetary Fund (IMF). Starting initially in the

Monetary and Capital Markets Division (MCM), he had the

chance to travel and provide technical and nancial advice

to many countries, including Romania, Libya, Iraq, Egypt,

Lebanon, and Bermuda. He subsequently moved to the A-

rican Department, where he worked as a desk economist

specializing on Angola and Cape Verde. Since August 2011,

alumnI uPdaTes he has been with the Sovereign Asset and Liability Divisionwithin MCM, where his analysis helps policymakers grapple

with complicated debt restructuring, reserve management

and xed income market issues. He says that while at al

three jobs at IMF, he has gained tremendous experience

by interacting with high level policymakers (ministers o -

nance and governors), as well as seasoned economists al

over the world.

Stan Diel

Stan has recently been appointed business colum-

nist or the Birmingham News, the largest newspaper in

Alabama, where he also has worked as national editor and

news editor. Previously he was business editor at the Demo

crat & Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y. His writing has appeared in

numerous magazines and newspapers, including USA Today

and the New York Times.

ku grad maInTaIns exPerTIseon CenTralasIan agrICulTure

Ater graduating rom KU in 1968 with his undergradu-

ate degree in economics and Slavic Area Studies, Ken Gray

subsequently put both disciplines to work throughout his

long and varied career. He went on to become an assis-

tant proessor in both the US and Moscow, beore leaving

academia or a time to work or the USDAs Economic Re-

search Service as their lead expert on agriculture in centrally

planned economies. He also served as a special USDA con-

sultant to the Kazakh Ministry o Agriculture. Ken returnedto teaching in the late 1990s and directed an MA economics

program in Kiev. He continues to research and is an ac-

knowledged expert on the development and transition

o agriculture in the ormer Soviet Union; and serves as an

international consultant on any number o issues related to

Central Asia. He maintains a US residence in Minnesota in

addition to spending a good deal o time in Kazakhstan.

Ken said that he has very much enjoyed receiving the

last several issues o the KU Economistand was intrigued to

learn that John Lintner (who likely would have received a

Nobel Prize had he not died in a 1983 automobile accident)

was born in Lone Elm, Kansas, the same birthplace as hisather. Ken had visited Lone Elm to explore his amily con-

nection about 15 years ago but discovered the town does

not exist anymore.

While at KU studying economics, Ken was recipient o

a John Ise Award and still has his (now rare and valuable)

copy o Ises amous book, Sod and Stubble, which the Eco-

nomics Department still gives to Ise Award winners. He had

the great oresight to have Dr. Ise, who would die less than a

year later in 1969, autograph his copy.
http://economics.ku.edu/http://economics.ku.edu/


9/12


Additional information on faculty, their areas of research

interest, and recent activities and publications may be found at

http://www.economics.ku.edu/people/faculty.shtml.

Additional information on current working papers also is

available at http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/kanwpaper/.

fed eConomIsT revIeWs Careers,

oPPorTunITIesforeConomICs Club

One o the leading

economists or the Federal

Reserve Bank o Kansas

City, Dr. Richard Sullivan,

told the KU EconomicsClub in late November that

since economics jobs at the

Kansas City Fed requently

serve as a springboard to

doctoral programs, there is

oten a good deal o turn-

over with the institutions

research economists.

Sullivan, who has

worked at the Kansas City

Fed since 1994, provided

the club with an outline ohis career, which included a brie stint at KU in the mid 1980s

as a visiting aculty member. He received his Ph. D. rom the

University in Illinois in 1983 as a specialist in economic his-

tory. Since joining the Fed, he has tracked the history o pay-

ment services and the evolution o Internet banking dating

back to the 1990s; and is currently conducting research on

the amount o raud loss per value o transactions or do-

mestically issued debit and credit cards.

He said that there is some evidence that raud losses are

lower in other countries which have employed chip and pin

technology prior to the issuance o cards than in the United

States, where nancial institutions have largely continued to

resist utilizing the newer technologies prior to issuing the

cards.

The Kansas City Fed is responsible or the activities o

the nations central bank in a seven-state region.

For the Spring 2012 semester, the KU Economics Club

named Mary Anderson and Dexter Smizer as Co-Presidents,

Dr. Richard Sullivan o the Kansas

City Fed explains his current research

on credit card raud loss to the

KU Economics Club in a meeting

at the Kansas Memorial Union on

November 29.

KU Economics Club Co-Presidents or the Fall and Spring semesters pose

or the traditional Transition o Power photograph. From let to right are

Mary Anderson, Jenny Van Wormer, Maureen Primdahl, and Dexter Smizer.

Anderson and Smizer are the Spring 2012 Co-Presidents.

replacing Maureen Primdahl and Jenny Van Wormer who

served in those roles or the Fall 2011 semester. Mary and

Dexter both said that they hoped to build on the clubs re-

cent successes and momentum and boost its visibility on

campus as a valuable extra-curricular outlet or those inter-

ested in economics.

ku alum named deanof oklahoma CITy

unIversITy busIness

sChool

Oklahoma City University

in late December announced

that Dr. Steven C. Agee, an-

other prominent KU Economics

Department alum, had been

named permanent dean o its

Meinders School o Business.Dr. Agee, who served as interim

dean since 2010, assumed the

permanent deans position in January, 2012, ater leaving

his post as Chair o the Kansas City Federal Reserve Banks

Oklahoma City Branch.

Steven received an undergraduate degree in business

administration rom the University o Oklahoma in 1975 be-

ore receiving both his masters (1979) and doctoral (1982

degrees rom KU in economics. He later taught economics

courses briey at both KU and Washburn beore returning to

Oklahoma to head up an oil and gas exploration company.

Soon ater resuming teaching as a visiting proessor oeconomics at Oklahoma City Universitys Meinders Business

School in 2008, he ounded its Economic Research and Poli-

cy Institute.

In addition to his recent six year stint with the Fed, Dr

Agee has served on the boards o the Oklahoma Indepen-

dent Petroleum Association, the Economic Club o Oklaho

ma, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, and Oklahoma

City Economic Roundtable.

Steven said that it was an honor and privilege to be se-

lected as the permanent dean, adding that he was looking

orward to using my thirty years o energy and banking ex

perience to the benet our students, not only with regardto their education, but also with uture contacts and place-

ment or post-graduate employment.

Dean Steven C. Agee o Okla

homa City Universitys Meinders

School o Business.
http://www.economics.ku.edu/people/faculty.shtmlhttp://econpapers.repec.org/paper/kanwpaper/http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/kanwpaper/http://www.economics.ku.edu/people/faculty.shtml


10/12

PAGE 10 THE KU ECONOMISTku alumon InITIal

faCulTyaT hIsTorIC

Tan Tao unIversITy

Another prominent KU

alum, Dr. Leo Chan, is enjoy-

ing his unique and ascinating

opportunity or the 2011-12academic year to be on the

initial aculty or a rst-o-its-

kind American style liberal

arts university in Vietnam, Tan

Tao University.

Tan Tao was ounded with

an educational philosophy,

standards and practices based on the American liberal arts

model o higher education and, according to its vision state-

ment, aspires to become a globally distinguished educa-

tional institution. Unlike most other private universities in

Vietnam, Tan Tao is a not-or-prot institution that aims toprovide a higher education designed to meet international

standards to well-qualied students, regardless o their -

nancial or amily background. The university in act has a

special charitable oundation to support those qualied

students who do not otherwise have the nancial resources

to attend the university.

Dr. Chan is teaching in the Tan Tao School o Business

and Economics, which ofers advanced programs in ac-

counting, nance, management, and international business.

His main tasks are to help establish the curriculum or the

Finance and Banking major; and to establish and enhance

the research reputation o the institution in both nance

and economics.

Leo received both his undergraduate and doctoral de-

grees in economics at KU. An acknowledged expert in in-

vestment, risk management, nancial markets, derivatives,

and nancial education, he was last teaching in the US at the

Utah Valley Universitys Woodbury School o Business in the

2010-11 academic year. He will resume that position in the

2012-2013 academic year.

Among his latest research is a recently published paper

by the Journal o the Utah Academy, The Risk that Wasnt

There: Understanding the Role o Derivatives on Reducing and

Creating Risk. Dr. Chan argues that while traditional nance

teaching on derivatives suggests that they can be utilized to

reduce portolio and market risk, such an outcome is based

on assumptions o an ecient market with many true users

and relatively ew speculators. But when speculators in act

ood markets that are easy to manipulate, what happens in

the actual marketplace is at times ar diferent rom these

traditional academic and theoretical assumptions about the

utilization o derivatives and additional risk ultimately may

be created as a result o a large number o speculators. He

concludes that perhaps we should rethink how derivatives

contracts are being presented in nance textbooks, while

urther studying those derivatives markets where specula-

tors have relatively large inuences on risk. He is currently

conducting studies on the impact o speculators in the oi

utures market during the nancial crisis and also recently

published an article in the Journal o Socio-Economics out-

lining a theoretical model or valuing euthanasia.

leadIng TheoreTICIannamed merkIn

ProfessoraT Cal TeCh

Another well-known KU alum

and renowned economic theo-

retician has recently made a

career move. Dr. Christina Shan

non in January joined the ac-

ulty at the Caliornia Institute

o Technology as the Richard

N. Merkin Proessor o Economics and Mathematics. Chrislet her long-time positions at the University o Caliornia

Berkeley, where she had been an economics proessor since

1992 and also a proessor o mathematics since 2002. She

originally received her undergraduate degrees in both sub

jects rom KU in 1988 beore obtaining her masters and doc

toral degrees rom Stanord in the early 1990s.

Dr. Shannon returned to Lawrence in December at KUs

Conerence on Theoretical Economics to present a paper

she co-authored with Suzanne Scotchmer on Verifability

and Group Formation in Markets. In that paper, the authors

develop a model mixing key aspects o contract theory

mechanism design and game theory with general equilib-rium theory. That model subsequently allows or the study

o the interplay between market orces, private inormation

the provision o incentives, and the structure o institutions

as well as the assessment o the role o markets in limiting

ineciencies that stem rom asymmetric inormation. The

research concludes that a suciently rich set o group types

can ensure the existence o an ecient equilibrium.

TheoreTICal eConomICs ConferenCe

unveIls neW researCh

The Economics Department, with support rom the Col

lege o Liberal Arts and Sciences, played host to a variety o

relevant new research in early December at Snow Hall at the

Conerence on Theoretical Economics.

One paper, Monotone Comparative Statics or Games

with Both Strategic Complements and Strategic Substi-

tutes, presented by KU doctoral candidate Andrew Monaco

provided an important new extension o work addressing

a class o generalized lattice games which are not covered

in the previously existing literature on games with strategic

complements and games with strategic substitutes.


11/12


aluMni news

Alums and riends o Economics at KU,we want to hear rom you! Please keep usupdated on what is happening in your lives.We look orward to including your news andevents in the next KU Economist.

Email Your News

[email protected]

Subject Line: Alumni News

Send News Online

http://economics.ku.edu/newsletter/online_news_orm.shtml

MailAlumni NewsDepartment o EconomicsUniversity o KansasLawrence, Kansas 66045

graduaTIon reCognITIon Ceremony

may 12, 2012

The Economics Department Graduation Recognition

Ceremony is a ormal event that honors graduating seniors,

masters, and doctoral students. (The departmental ceremo-

ny is a nice complement to the less ormal University o Kan-

sas Commencement held outdoors in Memorial Stadiumeach May where students take the traditional walk down

the hill with oten heavily decorated caps and gowns.)

This years ceremony is scheduled or Saturday, May

12 at 1 pm at Woodruf Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

Students planning to attend the ceremony should com-

plete the registration orm available on the website by April

15. Additional inormation about seating or guests, appro-

priate attire, and photos is also available at: (http://econom-

ics.ku.edu/graduation_ceremony/index.shtml)

The program is scheduled to last approximately 30

minutes.

Program Schedule

Processional

Welcome and Introductions

Guest Speaker

Student Speakers

Presentation of Senior Students

Presentation of Master Students

Alma Mater and Rock Chalk Chant

Recessional

hIsTorICal analysIs

suggesTs governmenT

PolICy ledTo deClIne

In PosT-WWII

volaTIlITy

A new analysis o US rea

output data has ound periodso substantial reduction in vola

tilities in both output growth

and ination rom the end o

World War II to the mid 1960s, a period labeled by KU Eco-

nomics Proessor John Keating (with Victor Valcarel) as the

Postwar Moderation in the upcoming article, Greater Mod

erations (Economics Letters, May 2012).

Ater decomposing a 219-year sample o output data

into permanent and transitory shocks, the study conrms

the period o Great Moderation noted by others that be

gan in the mid 1980s. But the more signicant new nding

is o output growth and ination volatilities' having allenby 60 percent and 76 percent, respectively, rom the end o

World War II through the mid 1960s. The authors empiri

cal model suggests that aggregate supply shocks account

or most o the changes in output growth volatility; whereas

aggregate demand shocks account or most o the changes

in ination volatility.

The research notes that in contrast to the period beore

the Great Depression, stabilization had become a major com

ponent o policy discussions and procedures implemented

throughout the post-World War II period. For example, pas

sage o the Employment Act o 1946 occurs just beore the

volatilities o output growth and ination began their rapiddescents. That timing suggests the ederal governments

intent to promote maximum employment, production and

purchasing power (15 USC, 1021) led it to adopt policies

that played a major role in the Postwar Moderation.

The latest version o the working paper is available online

at: http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/kanwpaper/201202

htm.
mailto:[email protected]://economics.ku.edu/newsletter/online_news_form.shtmlhttp://economics.ku.edu/graduation_ceremony/index.shtmlhttp://economics.ku.edu/graduation_ceremony/index.shtmlhttp://econpapers.repec.org/paper/kanwpaper/201202.htmhttp://econpapers.repec.org/paper/kanwpaper/201202.htmhttp://econpapers.repec.org/paper/kanwpaper/201202.htmhttp://econpapers.repec.org/paper/kanwpaper/201202.htmhttp://economics.ku.edu/graduation_ceremony/index.shtmlhttp://economics.ku.edu/graduation_ceremony/index.shtmlhttp://economics.ku.edu/newsletter/online_news_form.shtmlmailto:[email protected]


12/12

PAGE 12 THE KU ECONOMISTDepartment o Economics

The University o Kansas

415 Snow Hall

1460 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence, KS 66045

Telephone: (785) 864-3501

Fax: (785) 864-5270

Email: [email protected]

THE KU ECONOMIST SPRING 2012

note rom the editor

A special thanks to everyone who contributed to andhelped with this issue of the KU Economist, including PamLeRow at CLAS Digital Media Services; and the KansasUniversity Alumni Association. The previous four editionsalso are available on the departmental website athttp://www.economics.ku.edu/about/newsletters.shtml.

Dr. William A. Barnett, author o Gettingit Wrong: How Faulty Monetary Statistics

Undermine the Fed, the Financial System, and

the Economy (MIT Press), will be holding a

lecture and book signing on Thursday, April

19 at the KU Edwards Campus in Overland

Park. See page 3 or additional details.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

Newsletter Spring2012

Documents

Transcript of Newsletter Spring2012