Economics Newsletter

A Note From Prof. Katz Co. Director, M.S. IDEC

 

Greetings from USF and IDEC! We are at the start of a new semester, and there are many new faces in our Department.

 

 We are very lucky to have three new full-time faculty members starting this year: Jesse Antilla-Hughes, Suparna Chokraborty, and Yaniv Stopnitzky. Prof. Antilla-Hughes comes to us from the Earth Institute at Columbia University; his research looks at the economic and human welfare impacts of natural disasters. Another recent New Yorker (she taught at Baruch College before joining USF), Prof. Chokraborty’s areas of expertise are International Macroeconomics, Financial Economics and Dynamic General Equilibrium models. Prof. Stopnitzky received his degree in Environmental Economics from Yale University; his work focuses on investments in health and sanitation among the rural poor.

 

We are also welcoming our newest cohort of IDEC students, who hail from places as diverse as Mozambique, Mongolia, Russia, Mexico, and South Sudan.

 

 

This year, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the IDEC program. I feel very proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, and look forward to continuing our tradition of combining rigorous theoretical and empirical training with “real world” international fieldwork experience. This past summer, teams of IDEC students traveled to:

 

 •Jordan, to study the impact of conventional and Islamic microfinance programs

 

•El Salvador, to examine the TOMS Shoes giving program, which donates shoes tochildren in developing countries

 

•Indonesia, to investigate an urban child sponsorship program

 

•China, to conduct experimental research on gender differences in competitive behavior

 

•Colombia, to test the replicability of a solidarity group anti-poverty program

 

•And even to exotic Washington, DC, to collect data on voting patterns in the mostrecent round of U.S. free trade agreements! 

 

Last but not least, a special thanks to the IDEC alumni who participate in our newsletter by updating us and are volunteer IDEC Alumni Mentors who offer advice to our current students.  Please continue to keep in touch with us—your MA IDEC community!

 

Warm Regards,

Elizabeth Katz

Volume 3, Issue I

Alumni News

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IDEC Alumni Mentors (IAMs)

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