This summer, Professor Simon Board became Coeditor of Theoretical Economics and Professor Andres Santos became Coeditor of Quantitative Economics. These are leading journals in theoretical and empirical economics, and operate under the umbrella of the Econometric Society. They are also open access.
Professor Moritz Meyer-ter-Vehn has also become the Associate Editor at the Journal of Economic Theory, a leading journal in economic theory.
Professor Michela Giorcelli was awarded the NBER Small Grant in Innovation Policy with Professor Nicola Lacetera for their project on “Public Disclosure and the Evolution of Science and Technology: A text Analysis Approach”. This project seeks to understand the relationship between the quality and success of scientific discoveries, and the public perception, understanding and ultimate acceptance. To evaluate the public’s view of innovations, Professor Giorcelli uses text analysis to study a large amount of historic data over the past century.
If you would like to assist Professor Giorcelli in her work, you can donate here.
In a recent article in the business section of the Los Angeles Times titled “The Fed took bold steps to books the economy. Will undoing one of them rattle markets?”, UCLA’s Lee Ohanian was asked what he thought about the moved the Fed had made.
The article discusses how the Federal Reserve bought up trillions of dollars in bonds following the 2007-08 financial collapse, but is now preparing to scale back its massive investment of about $4.5 trillion in assets. When Lee Ohanian was asked what he thinks of the Fed’s initial bailout, he points out that most studies have indicated that the Fed’s bond purchases lowered long-term rates between 0.25 and 0.75 percentage points, and that the effect was modest.
Marek Pycia
Until recently, if someone wanted to donate a kidney to a family member or a friend, the recipient would receive the kidney at the time of the donation, or very close to this time. This timing restriction created a problem for Howard Broadman, a retired California judge. Judge Broadman wanted to donate a kidney to his grandson, who, however, did not need the kidney yet, but was likely to need one in 10 to 15 years, at a time when Broadman might be too old to donate. Judge Broadman approached UCLA and proposed to donate the kidney for a promise (a voucher) that his grandson will have priority to receive a kidney when he needs one.
A system of kidney vouchers that builds on Judge Broadman’s case was subsequently developed by Professor Marek Pycia and other members of an interdisciplinary team including Jeffrey Veal from UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, other UCLA, USC, and Cornell medical practitioners, and Alexander Capron from USC Law. This system— described in their recent paper “Vouchers for Future Kidney Transplants to Overcome ‘Chronological Incompatibility’ Between Living Donors and Recipients”—is already being used to organize promises of priority for future kidney transplants.
Kidney vouchers need to be legal: for instance, in the US it is illegal to trade a kidney for money or other valuable consideration, and for this reason each kidney voucher is issued in the name of a particular recipient and cannot be used by anyone else. The system also needs to be sustainable: it needs to ensure that the hospitals in the system are able to offer kidneys to voucher holders, when they need transplants and come to redeem their vouchers.
Sustainability is where economics enters the picture. The voucher system resembles a retirement system such as US Social Security. Each time a kidney voucher is issued, one more kidney can be transplanted to someone waiting for it. Later, however, when the voucher is redeemed, a kidney is needed for the voucher holder. The system is sustainable provided the number of donations into the voucher system stays constant or is growing.
Each new voucher allows the participating hospitals to initiate a chain of transplantations, in which a first patient receives the kidney donated for a voucher, a second patient receives the first patient’s donor’s kidney, etc. This chain provides an opportunity to honor a previously issued voucher by transplanting the last kidney in the chain to a patient redeeming the voucher. At the same time, the chain enables several patients with incompatible donors to receive a kidney, and thus not only patients with vouchers benefit but also an average patient without a voucher faces a shorter wait time.
The system, started recently at UCLA, is quickly gaining popularity. By now, over twenty leading US transplant centers joined it, and, in addition to Judge Broadman, over ten donors donated kidneys to give vouchers to their close ones and protect them against the consequences of anticipated kidney failure.
The paper, ahead of print at Transplantation, is available electronically, and kidney vouchers were featured in the Boston Globe, CBS, Fox News, Reuters, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and many other outlets.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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’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.
