RICE ECON
Fall 2018
News and Views from the Economics Department at Rice
Welcome Back!
We hope that you had a marvelous
fall break, and returned rejuvenated
and ready to close out a successful
semester.
In this issue of the Economics
Department newsletter, we continue
our focus on some of the new courses
that we have added in recent years,
as we feature one of our capstone
courses for the MTEC major, ECON
497, Research in Econometrics,
which will be taught next semester
by Professor Xun Tang. Our faculty
spotlight shines on our award-winning
instructor Professor James Brown,
while our “And What Did You Do
Last Summer?” feature describes
the experience of Lovett College
senior Meghana Gaur, who spent the
summer as an intern at the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York. We
are also delighted to report that our
undergraduate economics program
was ranked 12th in the nation in the
latest rankings of undergraduate degree
programs released last month by
College Factual.
For those of you thinking about
attending graduate school in
economics (or any of the other
social sciences), be sure to attend the
information session on applying to
grad school sponsored by the School of
Social Sciences, which will be held on
Wednesday, November 14 (location to
be announced soon).
And check out the story below on the
seventh lecture in our RISE Nobel
Laureate Lecture Series, which
features Professor Edward C. Prescott
of Arizona State University who, along
with Professor Finn Kydland of UC
Santa Barbara, was awarded the 2004
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic
Sciences for contributions to dynamic
macroeconomics, including analyses
of the time inconsistency of economic
policy and the driving forces behind
business cycles. You may also be
interested in the upcoming conference
on the prospects for economic growth
hosted by the Baker Institute’s Center
for Public Finance in December.
This conference is just one of the
outstanding events celebrating the 25th
anniversary of the Institute.
We hope the rest of your fall semester
goes well!
George Zodrow
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Advising Corner
Fall 2018
Office Hours
Monday
9:45–11:00 a.m.
Maria Bejan, BKH 251
Tuesday
1:00–2:15 p.m.
George Zodrow, BKH 260
Wednesday
4:00–5:00 p.m.
James Brown, BKH 250
Thursday
1:00–2:30 p.m.
Peter Hartley, BKH 262
Friday
10:15–11:45 a.m.
Mahmoud El-Gamal, BKH 240
Economics Undergraduate Program Ranked
12th in Nation by College Factual
Our undergraduate economics program was ranked 12th in the nation in the latest
rankings of undergraduate degree programs released last month by the college
matching/rating service College Factual. “Our rapid rise in the College Factual
rankings – we were ranked 50th only four years ago – has been extremely gratifying,”
said George Zodrow, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Economics. “It reflects
the commitment of the
department, the school of
social sciences, and the
university to achieving
excellence in both teaching
and research in economics at Rice, especially as exemplified by the RISE (Rice
Initiative for the Study of Economics) program, coupled with high caliber of
our hard-working and creative students, who make the most of their educational
opportunities here.” For more information, visit the College Factual website at https://
www.collegefactual.com/majors/social-sciences/economics/rankings/top-ranked/
p2.html#abs12.
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