| A Banner Year for the Honors Designation in Economics!
Until this year, only three students had earned the Honors Designation in Economics. This academic year three student achieved this honor: Jon Conn, Aaron Kipfmiller, and Brock Rowberry (pictured left with Dean Martin Hershock). Jon’s research paper focused on Bitcoin mining, supervised by Prof. Koumpias. Aaron’s project examined discount rates during the Free Banking era, supervised by Prof. Anderson. Finally, Brock’s paper “Wavelet Analysis of the Twin Deficit Hypothesis,” was jointly supervised by Profs. Miteza and Remski (Mathematics).
To earn this honor, students must achieve a B+ or higher in at least two economics capstone classes, complete an independent research project, maintain at least a 3.25 GPA overall and 3.5 in economics courses. For more information, see the Degree Requirement and Honors section of the economics web page.
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Each commencement, Chancellor's Medallion recipients are selected from each of the colleges based on academic records, quality of character, vitality, intellect and integrity. The Economics discipline is proud to have had two recipients this year: Sumer Ghazala received the Chancellor’s Medallion at the December 2017 commencement. She has recently been accepted into Yale Law School. Brock Rowberry received the Chancellor’s Medallion at the April 2018 commencement. Brock double majored in economics and mathematics, and completed the UM-Dearborn Honors Program. He will begin the Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Michigan in the Fall.
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Prof. Warren Anderson presented his paper "Portugal and the Colonial Resource Curse" at the Silvaplana Conference last summer. This paper argues that Portugal's colonies acted as a “resource curse” for the country. While the colonies made Portugal rich for a time, it suppressed institutional development and ultimately lowered economic growth in the long run. His paper on Jewish persecution, with Mark Koyama and Noel Johnson, won the award for the best paper in the Economic Journal. Finally, his daughter Cora was born! Read more about our faculty members' research projects, outreach activities, publications and presentations in this section.
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New to the Winter Schedule: Economics of Poverty & Discrimination (ECON325)
Prof. Smith will offer ECON325: The Economics of Poverty & Discrimination every other year in winter term beginning in 2019. This class explores how to measure poverty, the extent of poverty in the U.S., the causes and consequences of poverty, and what, if anything, government can or should do to reduce poverty. If you have a question about poverty, inequality, discrimination and anti-poverty policy, sign up for this class and we can tackle your question.
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Connect and network with UM-Dearborn alumni, students, and faculty.
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| Student Research
Jon Conn presented his independent study paper “Bitcoin Mining: Energy Usage” at an undergraduate conference at Bowling Green State University on April 14. His research finds that the imposition of a tax on energy consumption would significantly address the energy issue related to the bitcoin network. Not allowing industrial scale operations to take advantage of significantly reduced electricity pricing could save up to 60% of the energy used if taxed to the level of U.S residential prices.
Aaron Kipfmiller completed an independent research project on the discount rate during the Free Bank era. He found the more gold mining in a state led to lower discount rates on their bank notes.
Brady Malone is working with Prof. Pietrykowski on a project about new research in labor economics on “soft” skills and "people" skills, especially relevant in interactive social labor (e.g. retail sales, care work). This work utilizes data sets that allow for the inclusion of personality traits (the Big Five) and will investigate the contributions and limitations of these new research approaches.
Brock Rowberry completed three major research projects in economics; his interdisciplinary study in math and economics, Wavelet Analysis of the Twin Deficit Hypothesis, is the first study to use wavelets to examine current accounts and fiscal positions.
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| Just who is a typical Economics graduate? The simple answer is that there is no such person. Our alumni have a diverse range of skills, talents, experiences and goals. Click here ... and maybe you'll see a familiar name!
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