UMass Econ in the News

Charalampos Konstantinidis

Charalampos Konstantinidis, UMass Amherst graduate student, has received a William Waters Grant from the Association for Social Economics. Konstantinidis was awarded the $5,000 grant for his research proposal, “How Resilient Is ‘Green’? Organic Farmers in the Crisis of European Capitalism.”

The William R. Waters Research Grant was established in 1999 in honor of William R. Waters, editor of the Review of Social Economy for many years and President of ASE in 1987.  The grant was first awarded for Summer, 2000.

The purpose of the William R. Waters Research Grant Program is to inspire economists to organize their research in social economics and social economy along the lines suggested by William Waters in his 1988 presidential address to the Association for Social Economics.

The major concern of social economics is explaining the economy in its broadest aspects; that is, showing how human beings deal with the ordinary business of using human and physical resources to achieve a level of material comfort. Explanation includes cultural, political, and ethical details as they are needed for a full understanding. As in any economics, there are three parts to social economics. First is the philosophical base of the social economist, which may or may not be a reflection of the philosophical base or ethos of the society he/she is studying. Social economics (or any economics) builds upon it. It is the hard core as in the recent popular literature of the philosophy of science. The second part of the discipline is a description of the significant characteristics of the economy. The economist must observe the multiplicity of economic reality and abstract those characteristics that are substantive. The two together, the philosophical premises and the empirical observations, will determine the third part of the discipline, social economic policy. Policy formulation is thus a mix of the first two. [William R. Waters, presidential address, “Social Economics: A Solidarist Perspective,” Review of Social Economy, 1988, p. 113 ff.].

Avanti Mukherjee

Avanti Mukherjee, UMass Amherst Economics graduate student, was awarded the Sanjay Thakur Young Labour Economist award for the best paper at the 53rd annual conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE) held at Udaipur, Dec 17-19. This award is given to an economist under the age of 40, who writes and presents a paper at the annual meeting. This year around 350 papers were eligible, and Avanti was given the award for her paper ”Exploring Inter-State Variations of Rural Women’s Paid and Unpaid Work in India.” 

The ISLE was founded in 1957 by distinguished Indian academics, in the field of labour and industrial relations, especially Shri V.V. Giri, who later became the president of India.

Seung-Yun Oh

UMass Amherst economics graduate student, Seung-Yun Oh, has been awarded a Five College Fellowship for the 2011-2012 academic year. The residential fellowship is designed to provide support to doctoral students finishing their dissertation and includes a $30,000 stipend and a research grant as well as office space, housing or housing assistance and health benefits. Seung-Yun’s dissertation is titled, “Evolutionary and Institutional Model of Family Economy.” She will be hosted by Smith College.

The Eastern Economic Association is a not-for-profit corporation whose object is to promote educational and scholarly exchange on economic affairs.  Towards that end, the Association encourages the freedom of research and discussion.  In pursuit of these goals it publishes the Eastern Economic Journal and holds an annual conference and meeting of members.

The 37th annual conference is set for for February 25-27, 2011 in New York City.  The following UMass Amherst economics graduate students will be attending and presenting papers:

Amit Basole, “Relations of Production and Modes of Knowledge Appropriation:  A Case-Study of Weaving in India”

Thomas Bernardin, “Understanding Credit Bubbles:  The Role of Positive Feedback Processes in Driving Credit Expansion”

Gerald Epstein & Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth, “Financial Economists, Financial Interests and Dark Corners of the Meltdown: It’s Time to Set Ethical Standards for the Economics Profession”

Nina Eichacker, “Placing Iceland’s Financial Crisis in Historical Context”

Gonzalo Hernandez Jimenez, “Terms of Trade and Output Fluctuations in Colombia”

Josh Mason, “How Much of the Fall in Investment Since 2007 Was Due to Tighter Credit Constraints?”

Hyun Woong Park, “Endogeneity of Money and the State in Marx’s Theory of Non-Commodity”

Costa Lapavitsas & Iren Levina, “Financial Profit:  Profit from Production and Profit upon Alienation”

Martin Rapetti, “Policy Coordination in a Competitive Real Exchange Rate Strategy for Development”

Tomas Nielsen Rotta, “A Marxian Theory of Financialization”

Mark Silverman, “The Ideological Effects of the Nomothetic Construction of Economics”

Mihnea Tudoreanu, “Causes of the Soviet Collapse:  The Marxist Views”

Zhun Xu & Hyun Woong Park, “Turnover and its Influence on the Rate of Profit”

Robin Kemkes

Robin Kemkes, an economics Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has received a prestigious Advanced Research Fellowship from the American Councils Title VIII Combined Research and Language Training Program, which supports research in the independent states of the former Soviet Union.  The award is funded by the U.S. Department of State, Title VIII Program for Research and Training on Eastern Europe and Eurasia (Independent States of the Former Soviet Union).  Former Soviet Republics Georgia and Russia went to war in summer 2008 over a breakaway region.

Robin’s doctoral research focuses on equitable and sustainable rural development in the Upper Svaneti region in the former Soviet state of Georgia. The Advanced Research Fellowship will fund fieldwork and advanced study of the Georgian language over a six month period in summer and fall of 2011.  

“Georgia, and Upper Svaneti in particular, are fascinating places. I look forward to working with my research partners there to identify rural development paths that will sustain its rich cultural heritage and diverse natural landscape,” noted Robin. “The United States is invested in Georgia’s future, and it is important that development paths support ethnic stability in its rural regions.”

Kemkes participates in the Environmental Working Group based at the Political Economy Research Institute and led by UMass Amherst Professors James K. Boyce and Michael Ash. Ash said, “Robin has developed a fascinating project, and her selection demonstrates increased attention to questions of environmental and cultural sustainability in economic development.”

Robin already holds a master’s degree in ecological economics (University of Vermont 2008).  She has also received a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship for the Summer Workshop in Slavic and East European Languages (SWSEEL) at Indiana University where she studied the Georgian language intensively for eight weeks in summer 2010.

More than 6,000 students, scholars, and researchers have participated in American Councils programs overseas since 1976.  Its activity includes partnership affiliations with many Eurasian institutes and support for U.S. scholars in the former Soviet Union. Research funded by American Councils must “contribute to a body of knowledge enabling the U.S. to better understand the region and formulate effective policies within it.”