Well into the fifth year of a three-year term, last June Professor Marjorie B. McElroy completed her stint as chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP). For her tireless work on behalf of the committee, McElroy was recognized during CSWEP’s Annual Business Meeting on Jan. 7 in Chicago, Ill. at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association/Allied Social Science Association (AEA/ASSA). A standing committee of the AEA since 1971, CSWEP is charged with… read more about Professor Marjorie B. McElroy Honored by CSWEP for Service »
Does more equipment lead to more injuries in football? Professor Michael Munger cites the Peltzman effect, after the economist Sam Peltzman, which suggests that the feeling of safety can lead to an increase in risky behavior. read more about Commentary: The Dangers of Safety Equipment »
Duke Department of Economics faculty and graduate students will be attending the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (AEA) on Jan. 6-8, and presenting or participating as chairs, co-authors, discussants, or panelists in more than 35 events. Additionally, Duke Economics Ph.D. job market candidates have interviews scheduled throughout the three-day conference in Chicago, Ill. The following is a list of work to be presented at the meeting that have been authored or co-authored by our faculty and students… read more about Faculty, Grad Students Share Research at 2017 AEA Conference »
How can we use data to answer questions and draw conclusions about the world around us, and in particular on the behavior of economic agents? What can we conclude for example about how individuals’ purchasing decisions will respond to changes in prices or tax rates? Who will be most affected and why? These questions are at the heart of Professor Adam Rosen’s research in the field of microeconometrics. “What makes this area interesting to me is that at its core, this is really about learning,” he said. As a… read more about Professor Adam Rosen Brings Microeconometrics Expertise to Duke Econ »
A new working paper from Professor Patrick Bayer and co-author Kerwin Kofi Charles (University of Chicago) could change the way economists study and understand racial earnings inequality. “Divergent Paths: Structural Change, Economic Rank, and the Evolution of Black-White Earnings Differences, 1940 – 2014” provides an historic overview of the evolution of black-white earnings differences among prime working-age men — 25-54 years old — from 1940 through post-recession 2014. Bayer and Charles apply new measures and methods… read more about New Research from Professor Patrick Bayer Examines Black-White Earnings Gap »
Professor Timur Kuran says many of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s supporters admire him for the strength he projects. “They infer that he will not accept unreasonable foreign demands or easily fall under the control of dark internal forces.” read more about In the Media: Why Erdogan Wears the 'Dictator' Label With Pride »
Two members of the Duke Economics community have been named Schwarzman Scholars, which provides for one year of study at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Senior Julian Keeley is an economics major pursuing a minor in philosophy with a focus on politics and economics; David Robertson graduated from Duke in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in public policy and a minor in economics. read more about Two Duke Students, One Alumnus, Among New Group of Schwarzman Scholars »
After years of progress, the median earnings gap between black and white men has returned to what it was in 1950, according to new research by Professor Patrick Bayer and University of Chicago co-author Kerwin Kofi Charles. While salaries for upper-income black men have continued to climb since the 1960s, a starkly different picture appears for lower-income black men. read more about Black-White Earnings Gap Returns to 1950 Levels »
Professor William Darity discusses the recent presidential election and whether or not President-elect Donald Trump's proposals for helping poor and middle-class Americans would extend to poor and middle-class black Americans. read more about In the Media: Black Wealth in the Age of Trump »
In the 25 years charter schools have been a part of the U.S. public education system, they have become "major players in the public school landscape in major cities." In a post for the Brookings Institution, Professor Helen Ladd and co-author Edward Fiske say policymakers need to consider how these and traditional public schools can coexist in order to provide the best education for students. read more about Commentary: The U.S. Charter School Movement Should Learn From England's Academy System »
State legislatures draw the boundaries for most Congressional districts, and the result is partisan gridlock, says Professor Connel Fullenkamp. Fullenkamp says it's time to take the politics out of redistricting by turning the job over to nonpartisan groups. read more about Commentary: What's in a Line? (Duke University's "Glad You Asked") »
Advances in artificial intelligence have raised concerns that most human labor will become obsolete, leading some to call for a universal basic income; however, Professor Vince Conitzer thinks otherwise. Read his piece on MIT Technology Review. read more about Commentary: Today's Artificial Intelligence Does Not Justify Basic Income »
With a group of colleagues, Professor William "Sandy" Darity has developed a framework for understanding the inequality problem, which he calls "stratification economics." read more about In the Media: Here's What Nobody Understands About Race in America (AlterNet) »
Doctoral candidate Kate Maxwell Koegel has been selected to receive the Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship, an academic recognition program established by the Kauffman Foundation to advance entrepreneurship research. She is one of 20 students to receive the $20,000 stipend to support the completion of her dissertation. "Although it is a very competitive fellowship, I was hopeful (to be selected) because I believed in my proposal," Koegel said. "My fundamental attraction to entrepreneurship is based in the belief that it can… read more about Ph.D. Candidate Kate Maxwell Koegel Named 2016 Kauffman Dissertation Fellow »
Women earn 17 percent less per week than men, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a new podcast, Professor Elizabeth Ananat and fellow faculty members 'zero in' on key statistics driving the election debate. read more about What's Driving the Gender Pay Gap? »
Professor Michael Munger discusses the emergence of internet middlemen who get people much more efficiently to goods and services on NPR's economics podcast, "Planet Money." read more about In the Media: Cat Scam (NPR’s “Planet Money”) »
In the last three decades, technological innovations, like the adoption of algorithmic trading, have paved the way for many changes in the U.S. financial system, from the structure of markets to the speed and volume at which assets are traded. New professor Brian Weller’s research helps investors, regulators, and managers to evaluate and manage risks as well as to understand the tradeoffs involved in the technological innovations in financial markets. “I develop new tools to measure hard-to-measure quantities. By that I… read more about Faculty Spotlight: New Professor Brian Weller Brings Finance Expertise to Duke, DFE »
Professor David McAdams and a colleague use game theory to chart the three most plausible potential Supreme Court confirmation outcomes. read more about Commentary: Applying Game Theory to the Supreme Court Confirmation Fight »
Alumna Andrea Coravos (B.S. '10), currently a student in Harvard's MBA program, dispels the myth that "business leaders don't need to be technical." read more about Commentary: Coding is the New Business Literacy »
"Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) rose to power in 2002 on the promise that it would give pious Muslims religious freedom. Fourteen years later, 'freedom' is the last thing the AKP has delivered," writes Professor Timur Kuran in an op-ed for Project Syndicate. read more about Commentary: Turkey's Changing Freedom Deficit »
19 September 2016 3:17PM Abstract As the workforce has become more educated, educational decisions are about what type of education to pursue as well as how much to pursue. In college, individuals somewhat specialize through their choice of college major. Further specialization occurs in graduate school. This chapter investigates how majors and graduate school affect labor market outcomes, as well as how individuals make these potentially important decisions. To do so, we develop a dynamic model of… read more about The Analysis of Field Choice in College and Graduate School: Determinants and Wage Effects »
15 September 2016 9:23AM read more about In the Media: How Can Today’s College Students Future-Proof Their Careers? »
12 September 2016 2:25PM The Departments of Economics and Computer Science have jointly funded a new postdoctoral position to support the growing economics and computation community at Duke University. Alumnus Michael Albert (Fuqua Ph.D. ’13) will be working primarily with Professors Charles Becker in the Department of Economics and Vincent Conitzer, who has appointments in the Departments of Computer Science and Economics. “Much of economics is fundamentally concerned with the question of what influences… read more about Postdoc Michael Albert Joins CS-Econ Community at Duke »
08 September 2016 10:43AM It is well acknowledged that the most recent housing bubble (and subsequent global housing crash) was facilitated by subprime mortgages, but to what extent did buyers’ expectations about market fundamentals play into this and previous episodes? In his paper “Understanding Housing Booms and Busts,” recently published in the Journal of Political Economy, macroeconomist Craig Burnside — along with co-authors Martin Eichenbaum (Northwestern University, Department of Economics) and Sergio Rebelo (… read more about 'Understanding Housing Booms and Busts': Q&A With Craig Burnside »
02 September 2016 12:58PM Abstract We develop a theory of charitable giving in which donors feel social pressure from a direct solicitation. We show that equilibrium donations are concentrated around a social norm. Despite a higher level of the public good, relatively poor and/or low altruism givers fare worse under social pressure and would avoid the solicitor at a cost. Aggregate donor welfare improves to the extent that the added social motive alleviates the underprovision of the public good;… read more about "Giving" in to Social Pressure »
01 September 2016 11:46AM Abstract This paper estimates the incidence of state corporate taxes on the welfare of workers, landowners, and firm owners using variation in state corporate tax rates and apportionment rules. We develop a spatial equilibrium model with imperfectly mobile firms and workers. Firm owners may earn profits and be inframarginal in their location choices due to differences in location-specific productivities. We use the reduced-form effects of tax changes to identify and estimate… read more about Who Benefits From State Corporate Tax Cuts? A Local Labor Markets Approach With Heterogeneous Firms »
24 August 2016 9:05AM read more about Commentary: William Darity for Hillary Clinton's Economic Dream Team »
23 August 2016 11:43AM Orientation Week began Monday for incoming Duke Economics master’s students, with the department’s welcome session marking the first of several events organized specifically with the new students in mind. Other department events include a two-day math review, Q&A session with second-year students, group advising sessions, and a welcome diner. “There’s a lot our students will need to do during Orientation Week in order to mentally and physically prepare themselves for the start of the school year… read more about New Class of First-Year Master’s Students Arrive »
19 August 2016 2:47PM read more about In the Media: German-Turkish Ties Hit by 'Islamization' Leak »
18 August 2016 9:54AM Abstract Some booms in housing prices are followed by busts. Others are not. It is generally difficult to find observable fundamentals that are useful for predicting whether a boom will turn into a bust or not. We develop a model consistent with these observations. Agents have heterogeneous expectations about long-run fundamentals but change their views because of “social dynamics.” Agents with tighter priors are more likely to convert others to their beliefs. Boom-bust episodes… read more about Understanding Booms and Busts in Housing Markets »