Gary Ghazarian

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Gary Ghazarian

The allure of the investment industry has long attracted numerous successful UCLA alumni. For Gary Ghazarian, it was no exception. With over 25 years’ experience in the field, he currently serves as the Director of Operations for Marketable Securities at leading alternative investment firm Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors. Having pursued a degree in Economics at UCLA, he fondly recalls his memories here; sitting at the front row of almost every basketball game, scoring the first goal in IM soccer for the Armenian Student Association, and most of all, meeting his wife while working part-time on campus in his senior year.

Gary’s foray into the field of investment management began when he found a stockbroker internship from the job postings listed at the campus career center. Ironically, the day he called inquiring about the internship was Black Monday in 1987 when the market was down over 20%. It is his firm belief that with disruption comes opportunity and that we should use these opportunities to add value where we can.

Recalling the limited number of job openings in competitive firms, he stresses the importance of networking. Networking allowed him to hone his interpersonal skills, and, combined with his specialized skill set, has enabled him to win the trust of clients while opening new doors. His advice to young Bruins is to reach out to UCLA alumni, including himself and his colleagues, who are more than happy to let students do informational interviews and ask questions they may have about the field.

After furthering his education with an MBA degree in corporate finance, Gary went on to work at the investment consulting firm Wilshire Associates. After several years at Wilshire an opportunity arose at a client firm – Kayne Anderson Rudnick, which is a traditional and conservative equity management firm. After a few years there, he went on to work for Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, which was formerly affiliated with Kayne Anderson Rudnick. He described the move by saying, “They told me they were growing rapidly and that they needed help on how to go about it. So they basically asked me to come over, figure out what needed to be done, and do it”. He states that the variety of issues that arise is what makes his day interesting and fascinating. Moreover, he shares that in fast moving markets it is crucial to be able to multitask and prioritize – a skill that comes with years spent on the time-pressured UCLA quarter system.

Above all, Gary shows the spirit of a True Bruin as he proudly speaks of his role in supporting UCLA Operation Mend – which provides intensive reconstructive surgery and physiological and psychological medical treatment to post-9/11 veterans free of charge – both financially and personally as a volunteer in their “Buddy Program”. He and Kayne Anderson’s charitable foundation were recognized in Congress by Representative Julia Brownley for their support of veterans.

 

-By Natsharee Pulkes, UCLA Undergraduate

UCLA Welcomes Three New Faculty Members

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The UCLA Economics Department is very happy to be joined by three new faculty this year.

 

Volker Nocke

Volker Nocke joins us from Mannheim as a Full Professor. Professor Nocke is an expert in Industrial Economics and International Trade. Much of his recent work has been concerned with mergers and competition policy. He has published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Review of Economic Studies. He previously held positions at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Oxford.

 

Jonathan Vogel

Jonathan Vogel joins us from Columbia University as a Full Professor. Professor Vogel is an expert in International Trade. His recent work studies the skill premium and immigration in the context of trade. He has published in the Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Review of Economic Studies. After obtaining his Ph.D. from Princeton, Professor Vogel joined UCLA as an Assistant Professor. We welcome him back!

 

 

Katherine Meckel

Katherine Meckel joins us from Texas A&M as an Assistant Professor. Professor Meckel’s research studies the design of public policies, including Medicaid and nutrition assistance. She recently graduated from Columbia University and spent 2015-16 as a post-doc at the University of Chicago.

 

 

On a less fortunate note, Leah Boustan left the Department for Princeton after more than a decade at UCLA. We wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors.

Kathleen McGarry on U.S. Labor Force Participation

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For the long term health of Social Security, it it important to make projections about future participation in the U.S. labor force. To understand this further, the Social Security Advisory Board appointed a Technical Panel of prominent labor economists that includes UCLA Professor, Kathleen McGarry.

The final report shows that the secular decrease in participation rates for men, and a similarly-sized increase for women. It also shows the reduction in participation that occurred during the great recession, accounting for changes in the age structure of the population.

Below is the official announcement.

 

Board Releases Final Report of the Technical Panel on Labor Force Projections

 

 To coincide with the publication of the 2017 Social Security Trustees Report, the Social Security Advisory Board is pleased to announce the availability of the Final Report of the Technical Panel on Labor Force Projections.

 

The Panel, comprised of five prominent labor economists commissioned by the Board in mid-2016, evaluated the assumptions and methods used by the Office of the Chief Actuary to project labor force participation rates–a key factor in the determination of revenues and expenditures of the Social Security programs. The Panel’s report includes several recommendations for how those projections could be improved.

 

The Trustees’ annual estimates are indispensable to understanding the financial well-being of the nation’s most important social insurance program. They serve as the basis for evaluating the financial effects of policy reforms. The Board believes that careful scrutiny by an independent panel of experts helps assure the public that the projections are based on the best insight and information available and on the unbiased work of dedicated professionals. This is the sixth panel sponsored by the Board.

 

Read the Final Report of the Panel and explore data and other material submitted to the Panel as well as a response to the Panel’s recommendation from the Office of the Chief Actuary.

 

Read the 2017 Trustees Report

 

The Technical Panel on Labor Force Participation was chaired by Robert A. Moffitt, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, and included Gary Burtless, John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; Chinhui Juhn, Henry Graham Professor of Economics at the University of Houston; Kevin M. Murphy, George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago; and Kathleen McGarry, Professor of Economics at UCLA.

Roger Farmer departs UCLA for UK position

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Roger Farmer

After nearly thirty years in the Economics Department, we are sad to lose former Chair,  Roger Farmer, who will be taking up a new position in the U.K.. Professor Farmer grew up in England, obtained his Ph.D. at Western Ontario and joined UCLA in 1988. Since then he has risen to become a Distinguished Professor, serving as Chair of the Department from 2009-2012. He is best known for his work on multiple equilibria in Macroeconomics, and how government policy might influence which path the economy takes.

Professor Farmer will become a Professor at Warwick University and the Research Director at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, an independent research institute based in Westminster.

He writes: “My role as Research Director at NIESR will allow me to translate my economic ideas from the realm of theory to the realm of policy. I plan to retain my connection with UCLA as an Emeritus Distinguished Professor and I expect to be back frequently to visit my friends and colleagues in the Department and to work with my graduate students.”

During Professor Farmer’s tenure as Chair, the Department created a new degree program: the Masters of Applied Economics. That program had a very successful start last year and we look forward to seeing Professor Farmer continue to teach in the program on a part time basis.

We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

 

2017 Department of Economics Commencement

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We wish to congratulate the Department of Economics Class of 2017.  We wish our graduates the best of luck in their future endeavors.

On Saturday, June 17, 2017, approximately 800 students graduated from our Department, with Bachelors degrees in Economics, Business Economics, and Mathematics/Economics. These students are going in to consulting, tech, and banking jobs, while others will be starting graduate programs in Economics, Law, Business, and Medicine. The keynote speaker for the ceremony, Judy Bruner (‘80), illustrates the wide variety of career paths pursued by our students. Judy started at Hewlett Packard and then went onto have executive positions at Palm and SandDisk.

Martin Hackmann Featured in the NBER Bulletin

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Martin Hackmann’s article titled “The Return to Nursing: Evidence from a Parental Leave Program” was featured in the latest edition of the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health. The NBER article discusses the difficulties of quantifying nurses’ contributions to patient health.  The article then cites Professor Hackmann’s article as a much needed study to fill this gap.  Hackmann’s study discusses a Danish federal parental leave program in 1994 that gave parents the opportunity to take up to a year of paid leave if they had a child under age eight. This policy was designed to lower stress on families following the birth of a child and to give unemployed people an opportunity to fill opening positions, thereby gaining valuable experience. The policy had an unintended negative effect on the market for nursing professionals, which is female-dominated and has strict licensing requirements. The researchers are able to identify the effect of nurses on patient health and care by examining what happened after this policy went into effect. The NBER article then draws upon Professor Hackmann’s findings to conclude that there might be a misallocation of nurses between the hospital and long-term care sectors.

Masuma Tewari

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2005 Professor Harry Simons Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship for the Study of Accounting Recipient

Biography: Masuma is an international student from New Delhi, India. Hailing from a middle class family it was always her desire to pursue her higher education in the United States. Being the only child it was tough for her parents to send me so far away from home. It was her dream come true when she was able to secure admission at UCLA. She came here with the high goals and ambitions. Although she has not been able to achieve all that she had sought, nonetheless she is happy with her achievements. It was her desire to pursue an honors program in economics but her already rigorous coursework has left her with no time to pursue this dream. Currently she is a senior doing a double majoring in Business Economics and Mathematics/Applied Sciences with a minor in Accounting. Had she concentrated only on academics she would have been perhaps successful in attaining a GPA of 3.9 which was her initial target but she is a firm believer in the all round development. She has enjoyed participating in numerous extra curricular activities that UCLA offers. Interning at Aids Project Los Angeles, working at protein expression lab under Dr. Jeanne Perry, performing duties of an internal vice president of Saxon suites and being a dance team member of the Indian Students Union are some of most the enriching experiences she has had at UCLA.

Future Plans: After interning with Merrill Lynch in Global Markets and Investment Banking this past summer at Palo Alto she is extremely interested to pursue a career in investment banking. Having interned at a private equity firm and Merrill in healthcare industry group has further enhanced her interest in biotechnology. She is also keen towards the fields of strategic consulting and auditing. She plans to work for two to three years and procure a valuable skill set that will help her for masters. She plans to do Masters of Business Administration after this essential work experience. Eventually, she plans to go back to India and work there in the finance industry.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: To put it truly and simply this scholarship means the world to me. Not only it is an honor for me to be chosen for the Professor Harry Simons Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship for the Study of Accounting, but it is also recognition of the hard work that I have put in the past three years. This award is a motivation for me in order to strive for more and achieve further academic excellence. The scholarship has come at a time when financially I really needed the support. As everyone is aware that tuition fee for international students has increased beyond normal expectations and my parents are under tremendous pressure financially. In fact it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to cope up. Thus, any amount of financial help is a major relief. Thanks to everyone for making this opportunity possible!

Tara Syed

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2005 Business Economics Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Tara Syed is a 4th year Business Economics major and will be graduating in June of 2006. She is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and would like to return there upon graduation. She is very interested in community service, and is an active member of the Bruin Belles Service Association at UCLA, where she is serving as Public Relations Director. Her other volunteer work includes fundraising and participating as staff for the California YMCA Youth & Government program. Tara enjoys politics, watching sports, spending time with her friends and family, and much more. She is also a very avid jazz fan.

Future Plans: After graduation from UCLA, Tara hopes to be able to obtain valuable work experience in either the Consulting or Accounting industry. She feels that her skills would be best employed in these fields and is currently in pursuit of a position. Eventually she would like to obtain a graduate degree and become an executive.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am extremely honored to be the recipient of such a wonderful scholarship. The grant that I have been given will surely help me reach my educational as well as my career goals, and I know that it will motivate me to do great things. It has already inspired me to work as hard as I can in my last year at UCLA and to put forth as much effort as possible into making a difference on campus and in the world in general. I am grateful to be given this opportunity and cannot express how much it means to me.

Qingling Sniderhan

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2005 Jeffrey W. Baus ’59 Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Qingling came from China to the U.S. four years ago. After attending two years of junior college- Cerro-Coso Community College and Antelope Valley College, she transferred to UCLA in the fall 2004. She is currently a fourth year Business Economics major with a minor in Accounting and expecting to graduate in June, 2006.

Future Plans: Being a CPA and pursuing a career in accounting business is one of Qingling’s ideal goals. To fulfill this goal, she plans to pass the CPA exam upon graduation. At the same time, she is planning to start her accounting career at a public accounting firm.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: To prepare for a career in accounting, I am currently taking a minor in accounting and soaking in accounting knowledge like a sponge. However, in the past quarters, while taking a full load of school work, I also had to take part-time jobs to help pay for school, which imposed a negative effect on my study. Now, with the scholarship money, I am able to quit my part time jobs and focus more on study. I also intend to use part of the scholarship money in the CPA exam preparations, such as study materials and the CPA review courses expenses. For me, the scholarship means I can focus more on acquiring accounting knowledge and better prepare myself for a career in the accounting business.

Jennifer Sihn

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2005 The Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship Recipient

Biography: Jennifer Sihn is currently a fourth-year student at UCLA majoring in Business Economics and minoring in Accounting.

Future Plans: After graduating from UCLA, Jennifer plans to work as a Senior Auditor at Ernst & Young. In the long run, she hopes to go to law school and eventually work as a district attorney.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: The Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Scholarship is helping pay my tuition during my final year at UCLA, allowing me to focus on my studies without having to work during the academic year for monetary support.