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The economic downturn is having a disproportionate effect on African Americans, according to this report on Newshour, which focuses on East St. Louis, Ill., where unemployment among black males exceeds 30 percent. Glenn Loury, professor of economics, says the lack of social capital among young black males inhibits their ability to get jobs.

The Economics Department soccer team, Random Walk, wins the 2009 Brown intramural soccer league championship.

Economics concentrator Eunice Png and fellow student Julie Sygiel were among the student track finalists in the 2009 Rhode Island Business Plan competition.

Economics concentrator Anish Mitra '10 comments on the University's decision to change the name of the Columbus Day holiday to Fall Weekend.

Twelve students, including economics concentrators Benjamin Mandel '09 and Gerard Bell ’09, are working together through an independent study to modify a weight machine so that the weight lifter’s motion will generate electrical energy.  The project grew out of the Brown Progress Initiative, an organization  Mandel founded last year to advance sustainable product design.

After commencement, more Brown economics concentrators and graduate students will be heading to graduate school or taking on professorships than pursuing jobs on Wall Street this year, according to Andrew Foster, professor of economics and chair of the department.

Economics concentrator Nick Hagerty '10 suggests two ways to improve undergraduate academics at Brown in a recent column in the Brown Daily Herald.

Boris Ryvkin '09, an economics concentrator, speaks out on the recent rally at the State House on the housing crisis and the federal stimulus package.

Economics concentrators Sam Byker '10 and Kirsten Howard '09 are among the founding members of the Brown Socially Responsible Investment Fund.  Professor of Economics Louis Putterman, chair of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies, said Byker and Howard came to him for advice on how to get the committee more involved.

Economics concentrator Akshay Rathod '10 is one of 15 undergraduates who were named Royce Fellows for 2009.  Rathod will use his $4,000 fellowship to explore how the emergence of an urban youth culture in India has affected Bollywood films since the mid-1990s. Examining this youth culture, he will identify the reasons for its influence and the mechanisms through which it has shaped Bollywood industry, aesthetic, and film.

Glenn Loury presents the lead essay "A Nation of Jailers" for  the Cato Institute's on-line debate on mass incarceration. Reactions to Loury's essay include comments by the eminent scholars James Q. Wilson, John R. Lott, Jr., and Bruce Western.  

Professor Glenn Loury gave a public lecture in Torino, Italy on “Obama’s Election and the Future of Racial Classification in the US.” Watch a video of his talk.

Nathaniel Baum-Snow discusses why increasing the cost of driving cars, rather than simply expanding mass transit, is the best way to reduce the economic and environmental impact of fossil-fuel consumption with Today at Brown.

Glenn Loury's phrase “an nation of jailers” is resonating in the halls of Congress, where Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) is taking on the controversial issue of prison reform. Loury says the U.S. prison system “has grown into a leviathan unmatched in human history. ”

Economics concentrator Boris Ryvkin '09 tells Brown students that they should worry about the Obama budget in an article in the Brown Daily Herald.

Marian Wright Edelman discusses Glenn Loury's book, Race, Incarceration, and American Values, in her article A Look at Race, Incarceration, and American Values in The Huffington Post.

Andrew Foster, Ross Levine and David Weil discuss enrollment in undergraduate economics courses in Brown Daily Herald article.

Brown University's Annual Report profiles Ross Levine. Ranked among the ten most cited researchers in the field of world finance, Ross Levine is now turning his research lens on banking deregulation – and its surprising implications for poverty and human wellbeing.

Economics concentrator, Kirsten Howard '09, writes to the Brown Daily Herald sharing her views on the University's investment in energy efficiency.

Kfir Eliaz conducts an economics research survey in which students in varaious economics classes fill out a questionnaire and pick a chip out of a bag, paying out as much as $90 to participating students.

Will It Work? Professors Ross Levine, David Weil, and Peter Howitt discussed their views on the stimulus package and shared their overall outlooks for the economy on February 24, 2009, before a large audience in Salomon 001. All three took part in a similar panel discussion in October following the passage of a $700 billion government bailout of the financial sector. 
The discussion was sponsored by the Janus Fellows and the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services. Watch a video of the discussion and read an article in the Brown Daily Herald.

First National(ized) Bank -- Bank nationalization used to be a term associated with socialist countries, not free-market democracies. But that's exactly what former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and others are suggesting may be necessary to save the U.S. banking system, at least in the short term. A panel of experts, including Ross Levine, joins KQED Radio Forum with Michael Krasny to explain what nationalization would mean for banks and their customers.

The Treasury Department is looking at several alternatives to reinvigorate the ailing banking system, including investing in the common stock of banks. Ross Levine, professor of economics, says if Treasury takes that step, it will demonstrate that the government is serious about taking control of troubled institutions and protecting the taxpayer.

Glenn Loury has a conversation with John McWhorter of the Manhattan Institute about whether Barrack Obama's race really matters on bloggingheads.tv.  You can also hear an excerpt of their conversation  on The New York Times website.

Glenn Loury is interviewed on   ...Open Source with Chris Lydon about President Obama and the "black prophetic tradition." 

Ross Levine, professor of economics, says Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s plan to attract private investment into the faltering banking system needs to work, and quickly. “If they don’t get it right in the next couple of months, they are locked into a failed policy,” according to Levine.

Professor George Borts comments on the possible appointment of Steven Rattner, a Brown alum and Corporation member, as President Barack Obama's "car czar", a new position that would be created to oversee a bailout of the American auto industry, according to multiple media reports.

Andrew Foster and Ivo Welch respond to Anish Mitra's '10 BDH article on the financial curriculum in the economics department ("A financial curriculum at Brown," Jan. 22). Part of the motivation for our finance curriculum is to prepare our students for a career in finance.

More than 30 students from the University helped spruce up Mt. Pleasant High School as part of a service project to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Chijioge Nwogu, an economics concentrator, was wielding a paint brush when he told the newspaper that “we have to do our own part. Hope alone can’t make change; it takes action.”

Professors of Economics Louis Putterman and David Weil have shown a correlation between current income inequalities among and within countries and the migration patterns of their populations hundreds of years ago.

Economics concentrator Anish Mitra ’10 discusses Brown’s finance courses in Brown Daily Herald article.

Ken Chay is mentioned in a blog on urban renewal and universities.

Pedro Dal Bo and his brother, Ernesto Dal Bo, report that although the Kennedy, Bush, and Clinton names inspire talk of political dynasties, the early U.S. Congress was truly a family business. Forty-five percent of the members of the first U.S. Congress had relatives enter Congress after them, compared with a still-high follow rate of about 10 percent now.

In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Louis Putterman and David Weil introduce a "World Migration Matrix" showing that inequality among countries can be largely explained by where the ancestors of each country's people lived some 500 years ago.

Shares in almost every bank that received federal money in a government bailoutare below the prices the government negotiated, according to an Associated Press analysis. Ross Levine, professor of economics, says that devaluation represents the stock market’s lack of confidence in the plan. This AP story was carried in dozens of publications, including The Kansas City Star, The Charleston Gazette and The Arizona Republic.

Three economics concentrators -- Steven Daniels '10, Lisa Gomi '10, and Scott Lowenstein '10 -- are among the 14 students chosen to receive grants for overseas research next summer as participants in Brown’s new international study program.

Economics concentrator Eunice Png and fellow senior Julie Sygiel, won top honors at this year's statewide "elevator pitch" contest sponsored by the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition.

Professor Rachel Friedberg and economics concentrator Neil Vangala'08.5 speak with Brown Daily Herald about the recession and job opportunities for the class of '08.5.

Research by Quamrul Ashraf, Ashley Lester, and David Weil using estimates of how various health improvements affected different economic variables, such as schooling, and how schooling in turn affected adult wages, in a model of the economy to work out the broader impact of an increase in life expectancy is discussed in The Economist.

Economics concentrator, Tara Marie Gonsalves '08, receives a Fulbright award this year. Tara was one of 21 recipients who were selected from among 71 applications from Brown.

New research by Ross Levine, Alexey Levkov and Yona Rubinstein shows that when American states liberalised their uncompetitive banking markets between the mid-1970s and 1994, one of the little-noticed side effects was a reduced wage gap between blacks and whites.

Economics concentrator, Darren Howerton, pitches the winning business idea in this fall's Elevator Pitch Competition held last Saturday, 11/8/08. Darren's winning proposal was a GPS system with laser detection and radar. Abhishek Pruisken, an economics concentrator who already sells homemade Dutch waffle cookies around campus, was second runner-up.

In a Brown Daily Herald article, Glenn Loury, professor of economics, along with other Brown professors who study racial inequality, policy and politics, say Obama's victory was not just historic but also steeped in significance.

Glenn Loury, professor of economics, was invited by the British Broadcasting Corporation's World News Service to give Post-Election Commentary.

Glenn Loury, discusses the moral significance of Barack Obama’s presidency with Father William Franklin of the American Academy in Rome in a Bloggingheads.tv video.

Glenn Loury, professor of economics, debates whether the change Obama promises will go beyond the symbolic with John McWhorter of the Manhattan Institute on Bloggingheads.tv.

Glenn Loury, professor of economics, discusses Barack Obama's win with Joshua Cohen, editor Boston Review and professor at Stanford University.

Bill Moyers moderates an in-depth discussion on the complex role of race in the presidential election, with Glenn Loury, professor of economics, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Glenn Loury, professor of economics, weighs in on the notion that a small but influential group of voters who fear an Obama administration would address racial issues over economic ones. The collision between economic concerns and fear about electing a black president occurs mostly in a group of middle- and lower-class swing voters, according to the article.

A Pawtucket, R.I., family has been posting a tally of the national debt outside its home for the last 11 years in an attempt to draw attention to the growing figure. Recently they tacked up the daunting new total of $10 trillion. Peter Howitt, professor of economics, estimates that if the United States had to pay off the national debt immediately, every man, woman and child in the United States would have to pay more than $30,000.

Ross Levine introduces Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, and a Brown parent, at a Family Weekend forum on October, 25, 2008. Mr. Barber discusses his publication’s view of the global financial crisis.

In an election when university employees are making record donations, Brown University professors are donating to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign by a factor of almost 10 to one over Sen. John McCain’s campaign. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, an assistant professor of economics who donated to Obama this year, said that Obama's style was more appealing to academics.

Brian Knight, associate professor of economics and graduate student Chun Fang Chiang have demonstrated, through a working paper, that depending on the credibility of a publication, voters are more likely to support the recommended candidate that the publication endorses. Knight and Chiang feature a data table that shows the estimated influence of the top 20 newspapers during the 2000 election campaign. The finding is particularly interesting considering the 2008 election endorsements.

The instability of the global financial market is leading some to call for the creation an international system for oversight of the world’s banks. Ross Levine, professor of economics, says several countries, including the United States and China, may resist such a system, claiming it would impinge on national sovereignty.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that he would increase the powers of the Fed to include regulating “asset bubbles,” such as the boom-and-bust housing market which precipitated the current financial crisis. Ross Levine, professor of economics, says Bernanke’s remarks signal a significant change in Fed policy.

The Treasury Department will undertake a major task in determining which banks should qualify for government funds in its recent plan to rescue ailing financial institutions. Ross Levine, professor of economics, says oversight is also needed to ensure recipients of the funds use them responsibly.

Fellows economists praise Paul Krugman, professor of economics at Princeton and this year’s recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics, for clearly enunciating complex economic ideas. Vernon Henderson, professor of economics, points specifically to Krugman’s insightful theory of how the economy of a city or town functions from the center to the periphery.

Professor Vernon Henderson's work cited in scientific background for 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Ross Levine says numerous cross-country studies show that countries with deeper financial systems tend to grow faster, particularly if they have liquid stock markets and large, privately owned banks. Growth is boosted not because savings rise but because capital is allocated more efficiently, improving productivity. Read an article in October 9, 2008 edition of Economist.com.

Declining energy prices may be the only solace in an avalanche of bad economic news. Ross Levine points out that reduced energy demand in a slowing economy will also be a key factor in determining energy prices.Read an article in Projo.com.

David Weil and Ross Levine discuss the recent legislation to rescue ailing financial institutions. Both economists say the plan won’t immediately benefit banks in the current credit crisis, but neither predicts economic conditions will parallel the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

In an effort to help members of the University community understand the current financial crisis, the Economics Department held an open discussion on Friday, 10/3/08.  Professors Peter Howitt, Ross Levine, David Weil, and Ivo Welch and visiting lecturer Matthew Rothman briefly gave their views of the current financial crisis and answered questions from the audience. Watch a video of the Roundtable and read an article in the Brown Daily Herald.

Talking with Today at Brown, Ross Levine explains why he disagrees with the particulars of the Bush administration's economic bailout strategy.

Ross Levine discusses the role of the Federal Reserve and its monetary policy decisions in a week which saw both failures and bailouts of large financial institutions on Bloomberg Television.

Andres Idarraga, an economics concentrator who graduated this past May, was interviewed recently by the Today Show. Andres was a former inmate at the Rhode Island Training School and is now on his way to Yale Law School. Glenn Loury, who served as Andres' advisor, was also interviewed. The Today Show interview was aired on Friday, September 12, 2008.

Glenn Loury gave Brown University's opening convocation address this year, Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 12:00 noon on the Main Green. The title of his talk was "But, Is He One of Us? Reflections on Identity and Authenticity".

Following the Federal Reserve’s rescue of faltering financial institutions, academics and politicians are rethinking the role of the Federal Reserve. Ross Levine weighs in on this issue.

With the Democratic National Convention drawing closer, scholars are wondering how Obama’s bid for the presidency will affect discussions of race in America. Glenn Loury has discussed the impact of African American in the White House. Click here for the report in Real Clear Politics.

Yona Rubenstein's ground breaking new findings which he co-researched with Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago, have been published in the August issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics. This study on the gender wage gap, dispels the illusion of decades old beliefs and literature on the equality of men and women in the workforce.

Glenn Loury was a guest on Bill Moyer's Journal on June 20, 2008 discussing racial inequality in America through the prisms of the legacy of slavery and the current socio-economic landscape.

Glenn Loury, professor of economics, debates John McWhorter of the Manhattan institute about the trajectory of presidential nominee Barack Obama, and whether he can live up to expectations if he lands in the Oval Office in January.

Glenn Loury discusses the recent debate performance of presidential candidates with John McWhorter of the Manhattan Institute in a "blogging heads" video. Among other issues, they address why Senators McCain and Obama were unable to make eye contact with one another.

Glenn Loury debates Stanford political theorist Joshua Cohen in a video blog about how Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s relative inexperience will play out politically.

Glenn Loury holds an online video debate with John McWhorter of the Manhattan Institute, on whether presidential candidate Barack Obama has earned comparisons to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Oded Galor was named Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics by the Brown University Corporation at its May 2008 meeting. Galor completed his B.A. and M.A. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He served as Chilewich Professor of Economics at the Hebrew University, and at Brown he is a core faculty in the Population Studies and Training Center and a faculty associate of the Watson Institute for International Studies. Galor has been the editor of the principal journal in his field – the Journal of Economic Growth – since 1995, and he is editor of the newly established quarterly, Foundations and Trends in Economic Growth. In addition he has been a member of the editorial board of Economics and Human Biology since 2003 and the Journal of Economic Inequality since 2003); an associate editor of the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking since 2004, the Journal of Population Economics since 2007, and Macroeconomic Dynamics since 2000; and a member of the advisory board of the Journal of Economic Research since 1997.

Ross Levine's research on banks taking undue risk is mentioned in an article on Banking Bailout in the May 15, 2008 edition of Economist.com and the May 17th print edition of The Economist.

Economics Concentrator, Johny Lin featured in the spring issue of Newsweek magazine Current. 

Economics Concentrator, Zindziswa Mc Cormick, has been named Udall Scholar by the Office of the Dean of the College.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s firebrand former pastor Jeremiah Wright re-entered the public domain with a speech at the National Press Club. Glenn Loury says Wright’s views are forcing African Americans to carefully examine Obama’s stance on racial issues.

Rachel Friedberg has been selected by the Dean of the Faculty to receive the William G. McLoughlin Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in Social Sciences for 2008-09. This is one of four University awards (humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, and life sciences) recognizing Brown faculty members for sustained and continued excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Anna Aizer has been chosen as a winner of the Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowship for 2008-09. The Wriston competition is one way the University recognizes the important contributions of our faculty to the mission of undergraduate education at Brown.

Glenn Loury is featured on the cover of the March/April 2008 Brown Alumni Magazine and in an article "A Nation of Jailers".

The U.S. Treasury has proposed an overhaul of the federal financial regulatory system in part to avoid financial crises like the one major lending institutions now face. Ross Levine discussed how many banks got into trouble in the first place.

Glenn Loury engaged in a blogging debate with John McWhorter of the Manhattan Institute about presidential candidate Barack Obama’s recent speech about race and religion.

Incarceration rates are significantly higher for African Americans and Hispanics than they are for whites, both in Rhode Island and nationally. Professor of economics Glenn Loury, among others, addressed this issue in a panel sponsored by Rhode Island Young Professionals, a branch of the Urban League of Rhode Island.

Africana studies professors Tricia Rose and Corey D.B. Walker moderated a panel on the role of race and gender in the 2008 presidential campaign. Speakers included political science professors Katrina Gamble, Jennifer Lawless, Darrell West and economics professor Glenn Loury.

Glenn Loury speaks to the Brown club of Boston on March 13, 2008 on Mass Incarceration and American Ideals.

Pedro Dal Bo, co-author of a study on congressional dynasties, was cited by Washington Post writer, William Booth, in his article titled “Relative Power”.

An academic study on presidential primaries by Brian Knight, an associate professor and Nathan Schiff, a graduate student was cited in the New York Times Editorial Board’s blog , 12/17/07.

Economics concentrator Scott Norton and his roommate Chris Ordonez talk with Providence Journal reporter about their new web company, havadot.

Students gather to pitch ideas for startup businesses.  Learn more about these Startup Dinners organized by Scott Norton, an economics concentrator and his roommate, Chris Ordonez.

An article by Roberto Serrano was cited in the public information release on the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Glenn Loury testifies before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee's hearing on "Mass Incarceration in the United States: At What Cost?". For an audio playback of Glenn Loury's testimony please click here and then click on Listen to the Hearing at the bottom of the page. You must have Real Player on your computer to listen to this audiocast. You can fast forward to Glenn's testimony which starts at 30:10.

Ivo Welch's work with Sushil Bikhchandani and David Hirshleifer on "informational cascades" is mentioned in the October 9, 2007 New York Times article "Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus."

Three Economics Department faculty were recently appointed to endowed and named positions: Ross Levine, James and Merryl Tisch Professor of Economics; Robert Serrano, Harrison S. Kravis University Professor of Economics; and Nathaniel Baum-Snow, Stephen Robert Assistant Professor of Economics.

Ross Levine gives intervew on the subprime mortgage market to Bloomberg TV (August 7, 2007).

Andrew Foster and colleagues research economics and fertility in India.

Bank Systems and Technology discusses Ross Levine's research on banking supervision.

Pedro Dal Bo's political dynasties paper was featured in the Primary Sources section of the Atlantic Monthly (June 2007).

Rachel Friedberg testifies before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration. For a video webcast of Rachel Friedberg's testimony please click here and then click on Video Webcast. You must have Real Player on your computer to see and listen to this videocast. You can fast forward to Rachel's testimony which starts at 1:16:27.

Glenn Loury, Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics, will chair the Committee on Slavery/Justice Research and Teaching Initiative. For the charge to the committee and its membership, please click here.

Ross Levine is interviewed by US Banker on "International-Rule Adoption May Harm Emerging Economies".

Glenn Loury gives lecture at SSDP regional conference titled "Racial Stigma, Mass Incarceration nd American Values."

Brown Daily Herald article on Glenn Loury being chosen to chair Slavery/Justice Research and Teaching Initiative Committee.

Calculating Attraction - An article written by the Providence Journal about Benjamin Safran's and Gabriel Lepine's honors theses.

Beachonomics - A Washington Post interview with Rachel Friedberg in the Turks and Caicos.

Conference in honor of Tony Lancaster

Econ 11 enrollment reaches record numbers

"Perspectives on research ---an undergraduate senior thesis project."

2007 Economics Honor Student Thesis Presentations

2006 Economics Honor Student Thesis Presentations

Herschel Grossman's Memorial Conference

In Memory of Herschel Grossman

Department of Economics Newsletter 2008

Department of Economics Newsletter 2007

Department of Economics Newsletter 2006

Department of Economics Newsletter 2005

Department of Economics Newsletter 2004

Department of Economics Newsletter 2003