BookMooch: Books I want to Read

1) Innovation to the Core – Rowan Gibson

2) The Politics of Culture: Bin Ladens in the 21st Century
3) Where have all of the emails gone? http://emailsgone.com/
4) Freakonomics by Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago and Steven Dubner.
5) Hagel, who will retire from the Senate next year at the end of his second term, discussed his new book,
America: Our Next Chapter, and the tough choices that America will have to make in the coming years
as it defines and redefines its place in the world.
6) "Palace Revolt" by Daniel Klaidman, Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas. Newsweek, February 6, 2006,
Pg. 34)
7)

WELCOME

Economics is concerned with the interactions of individuals, firms and governments in markets, interactions
which are reflected in consumption, investment, cooperative and production outcomes in both the private and
public sectors. What is less widely understood is that economic analysis can be applied to the study of a wide
range of topics such as health, crime, abortion, happiness, marriage, neurology, discrimination on the basis of
race, gender and sexual orientation, and fertility, as exemplified in the recent bestseller Freakonomics by Steven
Levitt of the University of Chicago and Steven Dubner.

USC economists look at issues of health in developing countries, the provision of health insurance in the US,
what causes some countries to grow faster than others, what leads to exchange rate movements, the economics
of financial markets, behavioral economics, the determinants of subjective well-being over an individual’s life,
optimal design of contracts, the factors behind economic innovation, the economies of Indonesia, Thailand,
Japan and China, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Sahara Africa, Islamic Economics, statistical theory,
the determinants and effects of economic reforms, neuro-economics, experimental economics, and the
experimental and non-experimental evaluation of economic policies. Two important journals, The Journal of
Econometrics and Economic Development and Cultural Change are edited at USC, and USC faculty serve on
many journal boards. USC Economics faculty publish in all the top journals in Economics as well as writing

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important books. They also advise many governments and scientific agencies, and several faculty members are
fellows of the Econometric Society. University Professor Richard Easterlin was just made a fellow of the
American Economics Association, an honor that is given to only two or three economists every year.

1. The Department’s areas of strength are development economics,

2. macroeconomics (particularly international macroeconomics),
3. economic theory (particularly industrial organization and finance),
4. econometrics, and applied microeconomics (particularly program evaluation),
5. and it has weekly workshops in each of these fields.
6. The department contains two very active research institutes;
7. the Institute for Economic Policy Research, headed by Professor John Strauss,
8. and the USC Institute for Economic Research on Civilizations headed by Professor Timur Kuran.
9. The department also participates in the USC Center in Law,
10. Economics and Organization run by the Law School.
11. These Institutes and Centers sponsor additional lectures and seminars.

• The department teaches a large number of undergraduate students and graduate students. In particular, at
any one time it has approximately 400 undergraduate majors,
• 45 Masters’ students (Including approximately 20 students in the Math-Finance Master’s program run
jointly with Mathematics),
• and 70 Ph.D. students.
• The department takes its undergraduate teaching role very seriously, as exemplified by the fact that the
departmental undergraduate committee currently consists of
• a University Professor,
• a chaired professor,
• and the department chair.
• The department is fortunate to have excellent undergraduate and graduate advisors.
• The department has two undergraduate associations: ODE and the Economics Association.
1. The department has substantial ties with many other units on campus.
2. The USC Population Research Center is shared between the Economics and Sociology
departments.
3. The department shares undergraduate and graduate programs with the Mathematics department.
4. The department runs a workshop and joint graduate degree with the Law School.
5. The department shares faculty and workshops with the Marshall School of Business,
6. and many Marshall faculty members serve on Economics Ph.D. dissertation committees.
7. The department runs a joint Ph.D. program with the School of Pharmacy in Pharmaceutical
Economics,
8. and Economics department faculty are currently work on research projects with faculty in the
Marshall School of Business,
9. the Law School,
10. the Medical School,
11. and the Psychology department.

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 http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/econ/home/candidates.html

JOB MARKET CANDIDATES 2007-2008!

Christine Cooper
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~ccooper
CV
Economic Development, Institutional Economics, International Macroeconomics,
Fields of Studies
General Equilibrium Modeling, Economics of Sustainability
Institutional Innovations in Community-Led Natural Resource Management:
Thesis Title Seeking a Win-Win-Win
Solution
References Jeffrey Nugent, Samar Datta, Jennifer Wolch
Contact ccooper@usc.edu

Jihad Dagher
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~dagher/
CV
International Economics and Finance, Macroeconomics
Fields of Studies
Development Economics, Applied Econometrics
Thesis Title Essays in International Economics
Vincenzo Quadrini, Caroline Betts,
References
Pablo Andres Neumeyer, Robert Dekle
Contact dagher@usc.edu

Rahul Giri
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~rgiri/
CV
Fields of Studies International Economics, Macroeconomics
Thesis Title Explaining the Cross-section Distribution of Law of One Price Deviation
Caroline Betts, Vincenzo Quadrini, Doug Joines, Guillaume Vandenbroucke,
References
Richard Easterlin
Contact rgiri@usc.edu

Subha Mani
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~smani/
CV

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Fields of Studies Development Economics, Applied Microeconomics
Thesis Title Essays in Human Capital Accumulation-Health and Education
References John Strauss, Jeffrey Nugent, John Hoddinott
Contact smani@usc.edu

Ladan Masoudie
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~masoudie/
CV
Fields of Studies Finance, Contract Theory, Labor Economics, Industrial Organization
Empirical Analysis of Gender Differences in Risk Behavior of Top-Level
Thesis Title
Executives in Compensation and Decision Making
References Fernando Zapatero, Jeffrey Nugent
Contact masoudie@usc.edu

Alexey Ravichev
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~ravichev/
CV
Fields of Studies Applied microeconomics, Industrial organization, Finance
Thesis Title Online Auctions: timing and information
References Guofu Tan, Svetlana Pevnitskaya, Rakesh Niraj
Contact ravichev@usc.edu

Guillaume Roger
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~roger/
CV
Fields of Studies Industrial Organisation, Mechanism Design
Thesis Title Two-sided markets with imperfections
References Guofu Tan, Juan Carrillo, Simon Wilkie
Contact roger@usc.edu

Francesco Sobbrio
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~sobbrio/
CV
Applied Microeconomic Theory, Political Economy, Public Economics, Industrial
Fields of Studies
Organization
Thesis Title Essays in Political Economy
References Juan Carrillo, Guofu Tan, Andrea Mattozzi, Simon Wilkie
Contact sobbrio@usc.edu

Pawel Szerszen
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~szerszen/
CV
Fields of Studies Financial Econometrics, Empirical Asset Pricing, Bayesian Analysis, Value at Risk

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 Analysis, Derivative Pricing
Thesis Title Bayesian Analysis of Stochastic Volatility Models with Levy Jumps
References Michael Magill, Christopher Jones, Jaksa Cvitanic
Contact szerszen@usc.edu

Rubina Verma
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~rubinave/
CV
Macroeconomics; International Economics; Economic Growth and Technological
Fields of Studies
Change
Growth, Trade and Structural Transformation in Low Income Industrializing
Thesis Title
Economies
References Caroline Betts, Robert Dekle, Guillaume Vandenbroucke
Contact rubinave@usc.edu

Engin Volkan
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~volkan/
CV
Fields of Studies International Finance, Financial Economics, Macroeconomics
Thesis Title Topics on Emerging Markets
References Vincenzo Quadrini, Robert Dekle, Fernando Zapatero
Contact volkan@usc.edu

PEPP
Ximena V. Del Carpio
Name
CV
Fields of Studies Development Economics and Poverty
Job Market Paper Does Child Labor Always Decrease with Income?
References Jeffrey Nugent,Francisco Ferreira, Karen Macours
Contact dc_trans@yahoo.com

http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/econ/home/MAstudents.html

MA CANDIDATES FOR 2007

Annanders II, David
Name Degree Date : August 2007
CV
annander@usc.edu
Contact

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 Cowart, Christie L.
Name Degree Date : August 2007
CV
Contact christie.cowart@gmail.com

Lambrechts, Veronica
Name Degree Date : August 2007
CV
Contact veronica_lambrechts@yahoo.com

Nahas, Bahaa M
Name Degree Date : June 2007
CV
Contact bnahas@usc.edu

Srivastava, Parul
Name Degree Date : December 2007
CV
Contact parulsri@usc.edu

Tan, Rachel
Name Degree Date : May 2007
CV
Contact rtan@usc.edu

http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/econ/graduate/RecentPlacements.html

PH.D. RECENT PLACEMENTS

Admissions | Requirements | Courses |Students

Student Workshops | Awards | Recent Placements

Placement 2008:

Maria-Eleni Athanasopoulou:
Economist, International Monetary Fund

Jihad Dagher:
International Monetary Fund

Ximena Delcarpio (PEPP):

Independent Evaluation Group
The World Bank

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Rahul Giri:
Assistant Professor
ITAM-Centro de Investigacion Economica

Subha Mani:
Assistant Professor
Fordham University

Voraprapa Nakavachara:
Senior Associate
KPMG

Guillaume Roger:
Lecturer
University of New South Wales

Matthew Shapiro (PEPP):

Assistant Professor
Illinois Institute of Technology

Shivendu Shivendu:
Assistant Professor
UC Irvine

Francesco Sobbrio:
Assistant Professor
IMT Lucca, Italy

Pawel Szerszen:
Board of Governors
Federal Reserve System

Rubina Verma:
Assistant Professor
ITAM-School of Business

Engin Volkan:
Manager, Transfer Pricing
Deloitte

====================================================
Placement 2007:

Burcu Aydin:
Economist
International Monetary Fund

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Kawon Cho:
Associate Research Fellow
Science and Technology Policy Institute, Seoul, Korea

Kannika Damrongplasit:
Post-Doc., RAND/UCLA

Minki Hong:
Research Fellow
Korea Labor Institute

Dmitri Kantsyrev
Quantitative Equity
Putnam Investments

Pouyan Mashayekh-Ahangarani:
Quantitative Analyst
Countrywide Mortgage Bank

I. Serkan Ozbeklik:
(Graduate Visitor)
Assistant Professor
Claremont McKenna College

Olga Shemyakina:
Assistant Professor
Georgia Institute of Tech.

Shin-Huei Wang:
Research Fellow
CORE, Universite Catholique de Louvain

Anke Zimmermann:
Post-Doc., Cambridge University