Newsletter - October 2024

Economics Department

Welcome to our Fall issue of the newsletter!
The new academic year has started and we want to share our most recent achievements.


You can follow us on X @UofA_Econ and LinkedIn.

Faculty

• Alberta Centre for Labour Market Research (ACLMR) Official Launch Event

  On September 3rd, 2024, the day after Labour Day, the Alberta Centre for Labour Market Research (ACLMR) was officially launched into existence. The Centre's activities started with an in-person event at the UofA University Club and with the launch of the centre website aclmr.ca.
  
  The audience at that launch event got the opportunity to see our faculty members present their research, in the form of ten-minute rapid-fire presentations. As an additional treat, our graduate student members presented their research in the form of posters.
  
  The ACLMR is a team of twenty-five researchers conducting research on labour market, across five Alberta postsecondary institutions, including the UofA, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, Athabasca University, and Mount Royal University. Please see more information at aclmr.ca and possibly ask our team a question.
  
  

  
  

  

• Corinne Langinier Becomes Co-Editor for The Journal "Environmental and Resource Economics".

  In August 2024, Corinne Langinier joined Environmental and Resource Economics (ERE) as a co-editor. As the official journal of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, ERE is an internationally recognized journal whose primary focus is the application of economic theory and methodologies to environmental issues.
  
  The journal aims to advance our understanding of complex environmental issues by providing rigorous, policy-oriented analyses that guide effective management strategies. ERE's content spans critical areas such as developing environmental policy tools, cost-benefit analyses, sectoral impact assessments, and environmental quality metrics. With a strong readership among academics, ERE remains a key resource for advancing both theoretical insights and practical applications in environmental and resource economics.
  

  Corinne Langinier

• Andrew Leach's testimony on the Senate

  Each year, Andrew Leach's influence on the media landscape is undeniable. A Canadian Newsstream search reveals a staggering 144 mentions of him and the University of Alberta in news articles and wire service stories since last winter alone.
  
  But Andrew Leach is more than just a familiar face in the media. He was also invited to testify before the Senate on proposed legislation that would use Section 92(10)(c) of the Constitution to bring the dykeworks under federal control. While Leach acknowledged the power's historical significance in creating institutions like the Wheat Board and regulating railways, he argued it wasn't necessary here since the dykes already span a provincial border, falling under federal jurisdiction.
  
  The real issue is maintaining the dyke system amid climate change, which could be addressed through other means rather than invoking the declaratory power. This debate coincidentally followed Leach's class lecture on the economic history of the power and its application in federal-provincial disputes.
  

  Andrew Leach

• Chetan Dave in Media Outlets

  Chetan Dave has been featured in various media outlets. This is part of the University's community engagement commitment and the department's interest in showcasing economists' views on a range of topics. His expertise has been sought after to discuss key issues such as inflation, provincial budgets, immigration, and tax law changes in the context of a rapidly changing global economy. Some notable appearances include an interview with CTV News and his appearance on CBC.
  

  Chetan Dave

• Stanford University's Podcast Features Economics Department Members

  Dave Brown, Andrew Eckert, and Douglas Silveira (formerly a postdoctoral fellow with our Department) spoke on a podcast hosted by the Stanford University Codex Center, Computational Antitrust project. The title of the podcast was "Episode 21: Using Machine Learning to Detect Tacit Collusion" is now available for public consumption.
  

• Jiatong Zhong Analyzing the Impact of Tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles

  In recent months, the United States, European Union, and Canada have imposed significant tariff increases on electric vehicles manufactured in China. Assistant Professor of Economics Jiatong Zhong whose expertise has been featured nationally, shared his insights on this development in a recent interview with CBC's Lisa Xing. The discussion focused on the potential effects of these tariffs on Canadian consumers, domestic manufacturers, and the broader Canada-China trade relationship.
  

  Jiatong Zhong

• Successful Bid to host Global Energy Conference in Alberta

  Our colleague Prof. David Brown submitted a successful bid to host in Alberta the 2029 annual conference of the International Association for Energy Economics, in collaboration with Prof. Lucija Muehlenbachs at the University of Calgary. This event will confirm Alberta as a global centre of excellence for global energy research and policy. This has important strategic implications for Canada, as it increases the weight of the Canadian perspective on global trends in energy policy.

• David Brown's Talk at the US National Academies of Sciences

  Prof. David Brown gave an invited speech at the US National Academies of Sciences titled "Electricity System Operability and Reliability Under Increasing Complexity". He presented his research in designing incentive regulation policies in the electricity sector. There were over 500 attendees from government, industry, and academia.

Awards

• David Brown received the 2024 Martha Cook Piper Research Prize

  The award recognizes two early-career faculty members in the university for their reputation in original research and for showing outstanding promise as researchers. The Martha Cook Piper Research Prize was established to commemorate the significant contribution Martha Piper made to the research community while vice-president research between 1993 and 1996.
  

  Dave Brown

• Max Sties Receives Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award

  Associate lecturer Max Sties has been awarded the Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award – Early Achievement. The award highlights his ongoing role in preparing, coaching, and mentoring groups of undergraduate students for the yearly Bank of Canada Governor's Challenge. Under his and Dr. Malik Shukayev's leadership, students from the University of Alberta's Department of Economics have qualified for the national round of the competition for the 6th time in a row, celebrated in Ottawa. They have also won this prestigious trophy in the academic years 2020/2021 and 2022/2023.
  
  

  Max Sties receiving the award

Publications

The past year was highly productive in terms of research output, with significant contributions across a broad spectrum of topics. The following is a selected sample of our publications.

• Areez Gangji, Maggie Jones, Laurel Wheeler (2024). Outlook on the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous Communities and Peoples in Canada. McGill-Queens University Press
• Balduzzi, Pierluigi, Emanuele Brancati, Marco Brianti, and Fabio Schiantarelli. "Credit constraints and firms' decisions: Lessons from the COVID-19 outbreak." Journal of Monetary Economics 142 (2024): 103519.
• Brad Humphreys, Jane Ruseski, and Li Zhou (2023). "Why is Maternal Smoking in Appalachia Pervasive?" Eastern Economic Journal.
• Brencic, Vera, McGee, Andrew (2024). "Demand for Personality Traits, Tasks, and Sorting." Research in Labor Economics, Big Data Applications in Labor Economics Part A, 52A: 161-211.
• Brencic, Vera. "Terms of use and network size: Evidence from online job boards and CV banks in the US." Information Economics and Policy 67 (2024): 101091.
• Brianti, Marco, and Laura Gati. "Information and communication technologies and medium-run fluctuations." Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 156 (2023): 104740.
• Brianti, Marco, and Vito Cormun. "Expectation-driven boom-bust cycles." Journal of Monetary Economics (2024): 103575.
• Brown, David, Cajueiro, D., Eckert, A., and Silveira, D. (2023). "Information and Transparency: Using Machine Learning to Detect Communication." Stanford Computational Antitrust Journal, 3 (2023): 199-231.
• Brown, David, Andrew Eckert, and Douglas Silveira. "Screening for collusion in wholesale electricity markets: A literature review." Utilities Policy 85 (2023): 101671.
• Brown, David, Andrew Eckert, and Douglas Silveira. "Strategic interaction between wholesale and ancillary service markets." Competition and Regulation in Network Industries 24, no. 4 (2023): 174-198.
• Brown, David, and Sappington, David (2024). "Designing Incentive Regulation in the Electricity Sector." Handbook on Electricity Regulation, edited by Michael Pollitt Jean-Michel Glachant Paul Joskow. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing Inc., pp. 1 - 38.
• Brown, David, and Sappington, David (2024). "The Impact of Wholesale Price Caps on Forward Contracting." The Energy Journal, pp. 1-34.
• Bryukhanov, Maksym, and Dmytro Hryshko. "Inequality in Russia over time and over the life cycle." The Scandinavian Journal of Economics 126, no. 2 (2024): 289-319.
• Chiparawasha, Francis, and Dmytro Hryshko. "A guide to estimating the canonical income process in quasidifferences." Macroeconomic Dynamics (2022): 1-22.
• Dave, Chetan, and Marco M. Sorge. "Fat-tailed DSGE models: A survey and new results." Journal of Economic Surveys (2024).
• Dimitrova-Grajz, Valentina, Peter Grajzl, Michou Kokodoko, Laurel Wheeler (2024). Fostering Financial Inclusion by Ensuring Cultural Fit: The Case of the NCDFI Industry. American Indian Culture and Research Journal
• Dimitrova-Grajzl, Valentina, Peter Grajzl, A. Joseph Guse, Michou Kokodoko, and Laurel Wheeler. "When the Lender Extends a Helping Hand: Native CDFI Client Counseling and Loan Performance in Indian Country." Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy 6, no. 4 (2023): 258-267.
• Dimitrova‐Grajzl, Valentina, Peter Grajzl, Joseph Guse, Michou Kokodoko, and Laurel Wheeler. "Beyond conventional models: Lending by Native Community Development Financial Institutions." Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics 95, no. 3 (2024): 675-701.
• Droessler, Mark, and Andrew Leach. "Green with Envy? Hydrogen production in a carbon-constrained world." Energy Policy 186 (2024): 113982.
• Durán-Castillo, Gloria E., Timothy Weis, Andrew Leach, and Brian A. Fleck. "Revenue-optimized photovoltaic orientation in a northern competitive electricity market with carbon offsets." Energy Reports 10 (2023): 3133-3145.
• Fossati, Sebastian, and Joseph Marchand. "First to $15: Alberta's Minimum Wage Policy on Employment by Wages, Ages, and Places." ILR Review 77, no. 1 (2024): 119-142. Link.
• Galvani, Valentina. "Frog in the Pan and the market-state effect on momentum." Finance Research Letters 63 (2024): 105374.
• John F. Helliwell, Haifang Huang, Hugh Shiplett, and Shun Wang (2024). "Happiness of the younger, the older, and those in between." World Happiness Report 2024, edited by John F. Helliwell Richard Layard Jeffrey D. Sachs Jan-Emmanuel De Neve Lara B. Aknin Shun Wang. United Kingdom: Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, UK, pp. 8-60.
• Leach, Andrew (2024). "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter: Supply Management and the Constitutionality of Carbon Budget Legislation in Canada." UBC Law Review, 56, no. 2: 493-544. Link.
• Leach, Andrew (2023). Between Doom and Denial. Toronto, ON: Sutherland House.
• Malik Shukayev, and Robert Amano. "Price-Level Targeting and Inflation Expectations: Experimental Evidence." International Journal of Central Banking, Forthcoming in 2025.
• Norets, Andriy, and Kenichi Shimizu. "Semiparametric Bayesian estimation of dynamic discrete choice models." Journal of Econometrics 238, no. 2 (2024): 105642.
• Ranasinghe, Ashantha. "Gender specific distortions, entrepreneurship and misallocation." Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 162 (2024): 104858.
• Razek, Noha, Valentina Galvani, Surya Rajan, and Brian McQuinn. "Can US strategic petroleum reserves calm a tight market exacerbated by the Russia–Ukraine conflict?." Resources Policy 86 (2023): 104062.
• Tim Weis, Andrew Leach, and Ben Thibault (2023). "Alberta's quiet but resilient electricity transition." Mark Winfield, Stephen Hill, and James Gaede (eds.), Sustainable Energy Transitions in Canada: Challenges and Opportunities. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, pages 256-283.
• Trajtenberg, N., S. Fossati, C. Diaz, A. E. Nivette, R. Aguilar, A. Ahven, L. Andrade et al. "The heterogeneous effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on crime across the world." Crime Science 13, no. 1 (2024): 22.

In Loving Memory: J. Scott Beesley

• Scott Beesley, a dedicated educator and economist, passed away recently. He leaves behind an enduring legacy in the Department, where he served as a Full Teaching Professor for 16 years. Reddit is full of threads of students remembering Scott's way in the classroom. It is a grassroots outpouring of memories from former students who will not forget him. One comment for all: "Oh man, one of the funniest, most caring, and greatest professors I ever had in Econ. Loved his rants on politics and him wanting grandkids. I remember him trying to set me up with one of the students in class. One of my favorite profs. A legend. RIP to his family and his soul. God bless."
  
  Scott gained a BSc in Physics and an M.A. in Economics from the University of British Columbia. Scott joined the UofA in Spring 2008, when he taught Money and Banking (Econ 341) for five years during a tumultuous period in global finance. His passion for teaching Microeconomics and Macroeconomics was evident, particularly in his beloved course ECON 281, which he taught with enthusiasm and rigour. Scott also developed and led the department's Development Economics course (ECON 213), becoming its primary instructor from 2009 to 2024.
  
  We remember Scott Beesley as a dedicated educator, a passionate advocate for economic literacy, and a great colleague who will be deeply missed by the entire Department of Economics and Arts community. His memory will continue to inspire us as we strive to uphold his legacy of excellence in teaching and research.