Lauren RubensteinRichard Adelstein, the Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, is the author of The Rise of Planning in Industrial America, 1865-1914, published by Routledge in March 2012. In the book, Adelstein explores the remarkable transformation undergone by business in the U.S. over the half-century following the Civil War—from small sole proprietorships and proprietorships to massive corporations possessing many of the same constitutional rights as living men and women. Approaching this story through historical, philosophical, legal and economic lenses, Adelstein presents an original, three-pronged theory of the rise of business firms. He traces the big business boom to three historic developments: a major managerial…
The influence and power wielded by large corporations in our country has never been more pronounced than it is today. But how did we get here? In a new book published this month (March 27), Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics Richard Adelstein explores the remarkable transformation undergone by business in the U.S. over the half-century following the Civil War—from small sole proprietorships and partnerships to massive corporations possessing many of the same constitutional rights as living men and women. Approaching this story through historical, philosophical, legal and economic lenses, Adelstein presents an original, three-pronged theory of the rise of business firms.…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, was a discussant at the Research Group on Political Institutions and Economic Policy at Harvard University on Dec. 3. Grossman commented on a paper, “Trade shocks, mass movements and decolonization: Evidence from India’s independence struggle,” written by Assistant Professor of Political Economy Saumitra Jha of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. David Stasavage, professor of politics at New York University, served as co-discussant on the paper along with Professor Grossman.
Olivia DrakeA paper titled "Corporate Capital Budgeting Decisions and Information Sharing" by Abigail Hornstein, assistant professor of economics, was published in the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy on Oct. 24. In the paper, Hornstein explains how firms must overcome agency and information asymmetry problems to make efficient corporate capital budgeting decisions; this is particularly true for firms with multiple units dispersed across geographic locations. Internal communication and coordination may therefore be crucial in reducing information asymmetry and achieving efficient resource allocation. We examine the relationship between corporate capital budgeting decisions and the degree of internal information sharing using a data set…
Articles by Masami Imai, director of the Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, chair and associate professor of east asian studies, associate professor of economics, were published in two economic publications: "Elections and Political Risk: New Evidence from Political Prediction Markets in Taiwan," with Cameron Shelton, appeared in the Journal of Public Economics, 95 (7-8), August 2011. "Transmission of Liquidity Shock to Bank Credit: Evidence from Deposit Insurance Reform in Japan," with Seitaro Takarabe, appeared in the Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, June 2011.
Eric GershonThis issue we ask "5 Questions" of Dick Miller, the Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, Emeritus, who retired from active teaching in 2006. Next fall, he’ll be back in the classroom with a liberal arts spin on the uses and abuses of financial accounting. Q: In the fall, you'll emerge from retirement to teach ECON 127, "Introduction to Financial Accounting," a type of course that's rarely been offered at Wesleyan. Why this course, why now and why you? A: The Economics Department has recognized that we need an accounting course in our curricular offerings, but we have difficulty in getting a visitor to…
An article by Masami Imai, director and chair of the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, associate professor of economics, was published in Journal of International Business Studies, Issue 42, pages 406-426, in 2011. The article is titled "Related Lending and Banking Development," and is co-authored by Robert Cull and Stephen Haber.
Abigail Hornstein, assistant professor of economics, is the author of “Where A Contract Is Signed Determines Its Value: Chinese Provincial Variation in Utilized vs. Contracted FDI Flows,” published in the March 2011 edition of the Journal of Comparative Economics, 39(1). In the article, Hornstein explains how there are major differences between ex ante corporate investment plans and ex post investments. The case of China is useful for understanding this problem because there is substantial time series and cross sectional variation in the ratio of utilized to contracted FDI (UC ratio), which is less than one in most province-year observations. Provinces…
Richard Grossman, professor of economics, presented a paper titled "Contingent Capital and Bank Risk-Taking: Evidence from British Equity Markets before World War I” at the Yale Economic History Workshop on Feb. 21. Masami Imai, chair and associate professor of East Asian studies, associate professor of economics and director of the Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, co-authored the paper. The workshop was sponsored by Yale University's Department of Economics.
Masami Imai, associate professor of economics, chair and associate professor of East Asian studies, director of the Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, is the co-author of an article titled, “Bank Integration and Transmission of Financial Shocks: Evidence from Japan,” published in the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Vol. 3, No. 1, pages 155-183 in January 2011. This paper investigates whether banking integration plays an important role in transmitting financial shocks across geographical boundaries by using a dataset on the branch network of nationwide city banks and prefecture-level dataset on the formation and collapse of the real estate bubble in Japan.…
Christiaan Hogendorn, associate professor of economics, has been named a co-editor of Information Economics and Policy, an international academic journal focused on mass media and communications technology industries. He assumes his duties as one of the quarterly journal’s three co-editors in January. Hogendorn’s current research focuses on the economics of the Internet, including the infrastructure and regulation needed to keep it innovative. IEP is published by Elsevier of Amsterdam. The journal publishes peer-reviewed, policy-oriented research about the production, distribution and use of information. Separately, Hogendorn, who joined the Wesleyan faculty in 2001, expects to publish a chapter in a book forthcoming…
David PesciGary Yohe, Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, co-authored a paper titled: “Characterizing changes in drought risk for the United States from climate change,” published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The piece can be found at IOP Science.