Olivia DrakeBill Craighead, assistant professor of economics, is the co-author of a paper titled, "As the Current Account Turns: Disaggregating the Effects of Current Account Reversals in Industrial Countries," published in the December issue of The World Economy. An abstract is available online here. In the paper, Craighead examines "current account reversals" which occur when a country significantly reduces its international borrowing and its trade deficit. "While there has been quite a bit of study of these episodes in economics, most of it has looked at the impact on the overall economy. What we did was look at how these episodes…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, spoke about the poor thinking behind nine of the worst economic policy mistakes of the past 200 years at Boston Public Library Dec. 4. Grossman is the author of the newly-published book, Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them. He also spoke about economic policy mistakes at the Seminary Coop Bookstore in Chicago on Nov. 14 and the Museum of American Finance in New York on Nov. 21. At Wesleyan, he teaches classes in American and European economic history, macroeconomics, and money and banking. Grossman also is a visiting scholar at the…
Masami Imai, professor of economics, participated in the first annual Stanford Summer Juku on the Japanese Political Economy. He discussed a paper titled, "Banks restructuring sonata: How capital injection triggered labor force rejuvenation in Japanese banks" by David Vera. Learn more here.
Lauren RubensteinProfessor of Economics Richard Grossman recently had three op-eds published in major newspapers. All related in different ways to the U.S. Congress' negotiations over the budget and debt ceiling, and the resulting shut down. Grossman is the author of a new book, Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them, published this month by Oxford University Press. Read more about it in this Wesleyan Connection story. The Hartford Courant on Oct. 4 published an op-ed by Grossman arguing that the Republicans were on an "ideological crusade" in their refusal to pass a continuing budget resolution unless substantial changes were made to the…
David LowRichard Grossman, professor of economics, is the author of Wrong: Nine Economics Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them, published by Oxford University Press in October 2013. In recent years, the world has been rocked by major economic crises, most notably the devastating collapse of Lehman Brothers, the largest bankruptcy in American history, which triggered the breathtakingly destructive sub-prime disaster. What sparks these vast economic calamities? Why do our economic policy makers fail to protect us from such upheavals? In Wrong, Grossman addresses such questions, shining a light on the poor thinking behind nine of the worst economic policy mistakes…
Masami Imai, professor of economics, professor of East Asian studies, is the author of a newly-published paper and a paper that just won an award. "Local Economic Effects of a Government-Owned Depository Institution: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Japan," was given the best paper award in the Journal of Financial Intermediation. The paper, originally published in that journal in January 2012, can be read here. Imai is also the co-author–with Peter Hull of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–of a paper,"Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence from Foreign Interest Rate Movements," published in the Journal of Development Economics in July. It…
On Sept. 10, Professor of Economics Richard Grossman participated in a Book Manuscript Workshop at Queen's University Centre for Economic History in Belfast, Ireland. He gave a talk on his forthcoming book, WRONG: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn From Them. It will be published by Oxford University Press in October.
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman's op-ed, "The Best Way to Reform Libor: Scrap It," was published in The Wall Street Journal on July 25. "The British have learned nothing from the recent Libor scandal" involving the manipulation by banks of a vitally important interest-rate benchmark, writes Grossman. This is clear from a recent decision by a British government-appointed committee to hand over control of Libor to NYSE Euronext, a company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, and a number of other stock, bond, and derivatives exchanges. “In other words, the company that will be responsible for…
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman presented a paper during the Workshop on Monetary and Financial History, held June 26 at the at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The paper he presented, titled, "Bloody Foreigners! Overseas Equity on the London Stock Exchange, 1870-1913," considers data on capital gains, dividend, and total returns for domestic and overseas equities listed on the London Stock Exchange during 1870-1913. The paper is available to read here.
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman has been named a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow. He will work on a project about the evolution of banking regulation across the industrialized world. Awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the fellowship assists research and artistic creation “for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.” This year, 175 scholars, artists and scientists were selected to receive fellowships from a group of almost 3,000 applicants from the U.S. and Canada. “The Guggenheim Foundation has been giving awards to distinguished scholars and artists for…
Rosa Hayes '13 presented her paper on yield spread during The Carroll Round, an annual international economics conference at Georgetown University, in April. The Carroll Round provides a unique forum for research and discussion among the world’s top undergraduates. The goal of the Carroll Round is to foster the exchange of ideas among the leading undergraduate international economics and political economy students by encouraging and supporting the pursuit of scholarly innovation in the field. Hayes' advisor is Masami Imai, chair and associate professor of East Asian studies, associate professor of economics and director of the Freeman Center for East Asian…
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman was an invited discussant at a conference on “Understanding the Capital Structures of Non-Financial and Financial Corporations,” sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The conference took place in Cambridge, Mass. on April 5-6. Grossman discussed a paper titled “Short-Term Debt and Financial Crises: What can we Learn from Treasury Supply,” by Arvind Krishnamurthy and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, both of Northwestern University. For more information see the conference's website.