Intent vs. Impact: Evaluating Individual- and Community-Based Programs Conference

On November 16-17, 2015, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, in partnership with the Department of Economics at SMU, hosted a research conference entitled "Intent vs. Impact: Evaluating Individual- and Community-Based Programs."  The conference brought together researchers and community practitioners from across the US.  Keynote speakers include Stephen Ross (left), Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut, and Derek Douglas (right), Vice President for Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago and former Special Assistant to President Barack Obama.  Research topics spanned such issues as the subprime mortgage crisis, housing affordability, neighborhood revitalization, enterprise zones, food stamps, student loans, among others.  Select research papers from the conference are to appear in a special issue of Empirical Economics, edited by Daniel Millimet (SMU) and Wenhua Di (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas).

Stata Conference

Speaker Susan Dynaski

On October 30-31, 2015, the fifth annual Stata Texas Empirical Microeconomics Conference was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  The conference brings together economists from SMU, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, U Texas, Texas A&M, and U Houston, among others, to discuss the latest empirical research on microeconomic issues.  Susan Dynarski (U Michigan) was the keynote speaker, discussing the benefits and challenges in using administrative test to analyze education policy in the US.  Two economists from SMU presented their research.  Elira Kuka presented “The Long-Run Effects of Disruptive Peers” and Daniel Millimet presented ““Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: What's Trade Got To Do With It?”.

Shlomo Weber Retirement Conference

The Department of Economics at Southern Methodist University (SMU) hosted a conference on April 29-30, 2016 in honor of Professor Shlomo Weber for his dedicated service and contributions to our department. The conference took place at SMU campus in Dallas, bringing together several leading scholars to present work in the areas aligned with Shlomo Weber’s research work, including Professor Alberto Bisin from New York University, Professor Michel Le Breton from Toulouse School of Economics, Professor Victor Ginsburg from ECARES at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Professor Juan Moreno-Ternero from Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Spain), and Professor Hans Wiesmeth from Technische Universität Dresden (Germany).

Shlomo Weber with family at conference held in his honor

 North American Conference of the Economic Science Association

SMU hosted on campus a small gathering of invited speakers to a Workshop in Honor of John Van Huyck. This workshop was organized by Professors Tim Salmon of SMU and Catherine Eckel of Texas A&M University and funded in part by the Van Huyck Family. John Van Huyck was a Professor at Texas A&M for many years and a leader and pioneer in the field of experimental economics. He died the year before and this workshop allowed many of his former colleagues, students and friends to gather together to celebrate his remarkable life and career. There were over 60 people in attendance to listen to 13 talks on research that built off of John’s path-breaking research as well as a keynote address by Larry Samuelson of Yale University