Recent News

2012 Recruiting

The Department of Economics invites applications for two tenure-stream professorial positions to start in July 2012. Please see our website for further information and for instructions on how to apply.

Department Newsletter now available

The inaugural, Summer 2011 issue of our newsletter, Economics Update, is available here. We'd love to hear from you, so please send us your alumni updates and comments to econ.alumni@ubc.ca!

Community Service and Learning - Economics 317 Poverty and Inequality

On April 7th over 65 Economics students, community partners, Faculty of Arts and development staff gathered in the downtown east side to discuss and present on issues of local and international poverty and inequality. As part of Professor Catherine Douglas' ECON 317 class - Poverty and Inequality - 56 students presented the results of their Community Service Learning projects at W2 in downtown Vancouver. Linking academic learning about poverty and inequality to community priorities, students collaborated with the following 4 organizations:

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternitives (CCPA)
Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House
Lotus Outreach Society
Trans-Himalayan Aids Society (TRAS)

These partnerships led to the development of a diverse set of projects related to the Poverty Reduction Strategy, the Living Wage Policy, country specific case studies, website design, event support and logistics, video production, school presentations, funding research as well as the creation of a dissemination level profile of the economic, social and demographic characteristics of the Hastings Sunrise neighbourhood from the 2006 Census.

The event at W2 celebrated these student achievements and provided an opportunity for community partners, students and faculty to explore the ways that academia and community can work together to address complex social issues.

Hugh Neary awarded the Margaret Fulton Award

Congratulations to Hugh Neary who has been awarded the 2010/11 Margaret Fulton Award. This award is given annually to an individual who has "had a positive impact on student life and student development at UBC." Hugh's tireless efforts as the chair of undergraduate studies in the economics department have benefited many students. The letters written by students in support of Hugh's nomination for this award were inspiring in their description of what his dedication has meant to them. This award is a public acknowledgment of what Hugh does for the department in general and our students in particular. Congratulations, Hugh.

Kevin Milligan awarded a UBC Killam Research Prize

Congratulations to Kevin Milligan who has just been awarded a UBC Killam Research Prize for his body of work in the area of public finance. His work is focused on Canadian policy issues and touches key areas such as childcare, retirement, welfare and taxation. Kevin received his doctorate from the University of Toronto in 2001, joining the economics department at UBC directly thereafter. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA. He has won two of the top research prizes in Canadian economics: the Harry Johnson Prize for the best article in the Canadian Journal of Economics in 2008, and the Douglas Purvis Prize for the best work related to Canadian public policy in 2008. His nomination letter called Kevin "one of the most promising and interesting researchers in economics in Canada." Well done, Kevin.

Hiroyuki Kasahara wins 2010 Zellner Award

Hiro Kasahara, along with his co-author Katsumi Shimotsu, have won the 2010 Zellner Award for their paper "Pseudo-Likelihood Estimation and Bootstrap Inferences for Stuctural Discrete Markov Decision Models." The award is given biennially for the most significant theoretical paper published in the Journal of Econometrics in the past two years, and is named in honour of the Journal's founding editor, Arnold Zellner.

Congratulations to Erwin Diewert

A special issue of the journal Review of Income and Wealth honours Erwin Diewert's tremendous contributions in the area of index numbers in general, and inflation and exchange rate measurement in particular. The special issue is a follow-up to The 2008 World Congress on National Accounts and Economic Performance Measures for Nations where Erwin and fellow giant, Dale Jorgensen, were honoured.

In case you are unfamiliar with Erwin or his research, he has provided immeasurable contributions to governments, statistical agencies and to the field of economics through his work on index number theory, duality theory, flexible functional forms, and applied economics in general. As a result, he has received a long list of accolades. He is a long standing Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Science, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association and a UBC Distinguished Professor. In recent years he has won many prestigious awards including, the Canada Council for the Arts-Killiam Prize 2003, Canadian Economics Association Doug Purvis Memorial Prize 2005, and recipient of the 2005 Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics.

Thomas Lemieux elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Thomas Lemieux has been appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the highest academic accolade for scientists and scholars in Canada. The RSC is Canada’s national academy, whose primary objective is the promotion of learning and research in the arts and sciences. Thomas joins UBC economists Paul Beaudry, Erwin Diewert, and John Helliwell as Fellows of the RSC.

Mick Devereux awarded John Rae Prize

Mick Devereux is the recipient of the 2010 John Rae Prize, the top award given by the Canadian Economics Association. The prize is awarded biennially to the Canadian economist with the best recent research record. Of the 11 John Rae Prize winners, 5 are on faculty at UBC: Thomas Lemieux won the prize in 1998, Mike Peters in 2002, Li Hao in 2006, and Paul Beaudry in 2008.

UBC Economics welcomes two new members

We are pleased to welcome Florian Hoffmann and Yaniv Yedid-Levi as Assistant Professors to our department beginning July 2010. Florian's primary research interests are in labour economics, macroeconomics, and applied econometrics. Yaniv's research is in the fields of macroeconomics and international economics. Both will be receiving their PhDs this summer, from the University of Toronto and Stanford University, respectively.

Paul Beaudry awarded Bank of Canada Research Fellowship

Paul Beaudry has been awarded a Bank of Canada Research Fellowship in recognition of his important work in the fields of macroeconomics and labour economics. This is Paul's second term as a Bank of Canada Fellow, having received the same distinction in 2005. Of the six Bank of Canada Fellows nationwide, two are with the Economics Department at UBC. Mick Devereux was also renewed for a second term as a research fellow in 2008. More information is available at the Bank of Canada's website.

PhD Student wins 2009 FEEM Award

Laura Turner, one of our PhD students and currently an assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto, has been awarded one of three FEEM Awards for her paper "Household Responses to Individual Shocks: Disability and Labor Supply," co-authored with Giovanni Gallipoli. The award is given to the authors of the best papers presented by young economists at the annual congress of the European Economics Association. The 2009 winners were selected from a pool of over 400 eligible papers.

UBC Economics honoured at the 2009 CEA Annual Conference

Two of our colleagues were honoured for their research at the 2009 Canadian Economics Association meeting. Mukesh Eswaran won the Vanderkamp Award for his paper "Differential Grading Standards and Student Incentives," co-authored with Curtis Eaton. The award is given each year for the best paper published in Canadian Public Policy. Kevin Milligan won both the Purvis Prize and the Harry Johnson Prize. The Purvis Prize is awarded for a work of excellence relating to Canadian economic policy. Kevin shared the prize with co-authors Michael Baker and Jonathan Gruber for their paper, "Universal Childcare, Maternal Labor Supply, and Family Well-being" published in the Journal of Political Economy. The Harry Johnson Prize is for the best paper in the Canadian Journal of Economics published in the preceding year. Kevin shared this prize with Marie Rekkas for their paper "Campaign Spending Limits, Incumbent Spending, and Election Outcomes."

Erwin Diewert named Distinguished Fellow of the AEA

Erwin Diewert has been elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. He joins an elite group of economists honored for their lasting contributions to the field. The AEA bestows distinguished fellowships on no more than three economists of high distinction in the United States and Canada each year.

Michael Devereux awarded Bank of Canada Research Fellowship

Mick Devereux has been awarded a Bank of Canada Research Fellowship in recognition of his innovative work in the field of open-economy macroeconomics. This is Mick's second term as a Bank of Canada Fellow, having received the same distinction in 2003, in the fellowship's inaugural year. Of the six Bank of Canada Fellows nationwide, two are with the Economics Department at UBC. Paul Beaudry was awarded the fellowship in 2005.

Henry Siu wins Bank of Canada Governor's Award

Henry Siu is the first recipient of the Bank of Canada Governor's Award for macroeconomic research. This award was established by the Bank of Canada to recognize outstanding academics at a relatively early stage in their careers (less that 10 years since PhD) working in Canada.

Ashok Kotwal wins 2008 UBC Killam Teaching Prize

Ashok Kotwal has been awarded a UBC Faculty of Arts Killam Teaching Prize in recognition of his long record of outstanding teaching at the University. In recent years, Ashok designed our course "Understanding Globalization" (ECON 255) which has been a very popular course, and his exemplary teaching has been noted in Maclean's Guide to Canadian Universities.

Michael Peters elected Fellow of the Econometrics Society

Mike Peters has been elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in recognition of his outstanding contributions to economic theory. The Econometric Society is the most prestigious international learned society in the field of economics. UBC Economics is home to two fellows of the society, with Erwin Diewert being the other.