Past Seminars
April 1, 2026 (12pm – 1pm EST)
Dr. Daphne Munroe
Associate Professor at Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University
Shellfish Fisheries and Aquaculture: Three Economic Vignettes
Abstract: With a global human population of over 8 billion, demand for new and sustainable food sources is leading us to the ocean. Sustainable management of marine food systems requires a science-based foundation built through interdisciplinary collaboration. In this seminar, I will present three vignettes that explore the economic viability of fished and farmed systems in the face of anthropogenic and ecological challenges. These three cases highlight the utility of combining multi-disciplinary modeling and field-based programs in cooperation with fishing industry and farm partners to produce results that can support sustainability in marine food production.
The Northeast U.S. is home to a variety of ocean users, with fisheries among the more traditional. Offshore wind energy, a relatively new ocean industry in the U.S., threatens to dislocate fishing effort from traditional grounds. In the first vignette, I will describe how we have used multi-disciplinary agent-based models to anticipate how these new ocean uses will alter the future of some of the most important fisheries in New Jersey. Our simulations show the integrated effects of fishing on grounds outside of offshore wind areas creates economic uncertainty in the future of the surfclam fishery.
The natural oyster beds of Delaware Bay, N.J., support a commercial oyster fishery that has demonstrated long-standing sustainability despite notable environmental and biological challenges. Success in the fishery is attributed to the industry’s proactive collaborative approach with regulators and scientists. In the second vignette, I will assess the impacts of an industry-driven habitat enhancement program on oyster abundance and fishery performance. Results show that proactive habitat enhancement increases oyster abundance and allows economic persistence of the fishery.
Pest control is an ever-present problem for farmers, and shellfish farmers are no exception. Among the farm pests of consequence on oyster farms are mud worms, that can cause significant economic losses. In the final vignette, I will present our evaluation of the efficacy of a small change in oyster farming methods as a strategy to control mud worm pests. In this study, we worked with an oyster farmer to collect experimental data on the farm, for use in enterprise economic modeling to demonstrate that simply increasing the height of oyster racks might prove an effective strategy to control fouling pests.
About the Speaker: Dr. Munroe earned a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from Simon Fraser University in 2000 and a Ph.D. in Animal Science at the University of British Columbia in 2006. Now an Associate Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Science at Rutgers University, her research focuses on shellfish larval ecology and large-scale physical and biological drivers of population dynamics and climate adaptation in shellfish populations. Dr. Munroe has studied changes in populations of shellfish using physical oceanography models of larval connectivity and biological models of growth. Dr. Munroe has participated in or led at-sea cooperative fishery research programs and research related to ecosystem services provided by shellfish aquaculture farms. Recently, she has become involved in research related to development of offshore wind power and its interaction with commercial fisheries in the MidAtlantic Bight.
March 25, 2026 (12pm – 1pm EST/ 9:30pm to 10:30pm IST)
Dr. Binoy Goswami
Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics at South Asian University in New Delhi
Abstract: The issues of energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability have been posing an energy trilemma for countries across the world. The issue is all the more magnified for the countries in South Asia which is home to about a quarter of world’s population and has some of the fastest growing economies of the world. Consequently, the energy intensities of some of the economies in the region have been rising faster than the global average. Higher energy intensity has led to greater dependence on imported fossil fuels, straining public finances and further intensifying energy security concerns in these countries. Despite a growing share of clean energy, fossil fuel dependence remains high which has implications for global climate change, and hence the issues of energy efficiency in South Asia assume crucial importance even from a global perspective. Against this backdrop, the study examines the trends in energy intensities and identifies their determinants across major sectors of five South Asian countries. The results of empirical analysis show considerable disparities in the energy efficiency trends across sectors of these countries. Pakistan in agriculture sector, India in industry, services and transport sectors, and Sri Lanka in residential and services sectors have achieved substantial reduction in energy intensity over the period 1990-2018. On the other hand, all the sectors in Nepal, all except industry sector in Bangladesh, transport sector in Pakistan, and agriculture sector in India have witnessed considerable rise in energy intensities. The estimated panel regression models identify several macroeconomic variables as important determinants of energy intensities across different sectors. These variables include GVA per capita, services and industry sectors’ annual growth rate, price of crude oil, gross fixed capital formation, size of tourism industry, and urbanization. Additionally, the results suggest that the type of energy used in a sector has significant impact on its energy intensity. These results have important implications for energy policies of not only the countries in South Asia but also other similarly placed economies across the world.
About the Speaker: Dr. Binoy Goswami is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics, South Asian University. He has about 18 years of teaching and research experience. He has also been a visiting faculty at the Centre for Economic Studies and Policies, Central University of South, Bihar. His research interests include agricultural economics, environmental economics, energy economics, and institutional economics. He has published extensively in these areas in both reputed national and international journals. He was awarded the Prof. M. J. Manohar Rao Award for the year 2012 for the best paper presented by a young economist during the 49th Annual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society. He was nominated as an expert on agriculture and rural development by the Centre for Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific [CIRDAP] in the year 2025
Wednesday March 4, 2026 (12pm – 1pm)
Meredith Taylor MA, MPH
Associate Professor at Agricultural Economics Assistant Professor, Family & Community Health Sciences Educator III
Urban Agriculture in the Garden State – Pathways of Advancement, Adaptation, and Assimilation
Abstract: Urban agriculture in New Jersey has long been recognized as an important source of affordable fresh food in underserved communities without access to grocery stores. Urban food production is also relied upon as a strategy for addressing a wider range of social, environmental, and economic challenges in these same communities, yet quantitative data demonstrating the positive impacts of urban agriculture in these other areas is scant. Policy shifts underway to recognize urban agriculture in New Jersey as a protected land use with quantifiable impacts have been complicated and misunderstood. Researchers within Rutgers’ agricultural departments and cooperative extension services are ideally positioned to highlight similarities between traditional farm operators and newly emerging groups of urban farmers but also illuminate ways in which urban food production is about more than just food.
This interactive seminar will first summarize needs assessment data and findings from three recent studies conducted by Rutgers and by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, then transition to shared dialogue and envisioning of opportunities for collaboration across various units to collect much needed data exploring urban agriculture’s catalyzing potential for entrepreneurship in local food systems development, or its function as a protective environmental resource in mitigating excess heat in urban communities, reducing stormwater runoff in flooding events, or its regenerative capacity to restore urban soils and improve air quality.
About the Speaker: Meredith Taylor is the Middlesex County Educator for Rutgers Cooperative Extension. She holds master’s degrees in nutrition and food studies from New York University and in public health from New York Medical College School of Public Health. She is an EdD student at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. Meredith’s research focus is urban agriculture and community food systems, and she works statewide with community gardening organizations and urban farmers. Her current work is developing an urban grower education project to deliver more training and technical assistance to urban
farmers in key areas such as food safety, urban soil and water management, and IPM. She is also working with the New Brunswick Public School System to develop a district-wide school gardening program. Meredith was appointed to New Jersey’s Organic and Regenerative Farming Board; she serves as a trustee for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and is on the board of the Outdoor Equity Alliance.
Wednesday January 28, 2026 (12pm – 1pm)
Associate Professor at Agricultural Economics at Penn State University
Information Framing and the Impact of Nutrition Label Serving Size Change
Abstract: The framing of information can significantly influence how consumers interpret and respond to it. This paper investigates how the change in serving sizes in Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP) affects consumer choices for carbonated soft drinks (CSD). We first estimate a reduced form difference-in-differences (DID) model to document causal effects on purchasing behavior. We then develop and estimate an equilibrium structural model of both consumer demand and firms’ pricing and nutritional choices decisions. Our results show that larger labeled serving sizes significantly reduced demand for regular CSDs and lowered average nutrient intake. Counterfactual simulations indicate that more aggressive labeling (e.g., 16oz, 24 oz, or whole bottle) would amplify these effects, while firms would partially offset demand losses through subtle calorie, sodium, and caffeine reductions. These findings suggest that strategic serving size adjustments policies and product reformulations from food manufacturers may support healthier consumer choices.
About the Speaker: Yizao Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education at Pennsylvania State University. Her research lies at the intersection of food policy, food marketing, consumer behavior, and health. She has developed a research program that evaluates the economic impacts of a wide range of food-related policies using economic modeling and innovative econometric methods, including big data analytics and machine learning. Her current work focuses on assessing how policies, such as pricing regulations, food labeling, nutrition content regulations, and product reformulation, advertising restrictions, social media marketing, etc., affect consumer choices, healthfulness of food purchases, health outcomes, as well as the behavior of food manufacturers, food retailers in food and beverage markets.
Wednesday February 4, 2026 (12pm – 1pm)
Professor at Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis
The future of utility-scale solar installations on U.S. farmland in a changing climate.
Abstract: The growing electricity demand in the United States—driven by heating and transportation electrification as well as data center and AI expansion—has been driving a surge in solar electricity generation. As utility-scale solar farms increasingly replace farmland, concerns have been raised about land-use conflicts, food security, and rural landscape impacts. While previous research suggests that converting farmland to solar requires relatively little land compared to total cropland available, thus having minimal impact on crop prices, such findings assume crop yields and photovoltaic (PV) output are unaffected by climate change. Yet, changing climate conditions could reduce crop productivity and alter solar output, potentially amplifying land-use tradeoffs. This analysis quantifies those effects to reassess the viability of solar expansion on cropland under future climate conditions.
The research approach integrates climate impacts on crop yields and PV performance, least-cost solar siting, and an agricultural land-use model. The analysis focuses on maize, soybeans, and wheat, which account for over 70% of U.S. field crop area. Crop yields are modeled using climate variables including growing degree days, heat stress, and precipitation anomalies, while PV output is assessed using temperature, surface downwelling shortwave radiation (RSDS), and wind speed.
Modeling relies on projections from five global circulation models (GCMs) under the CMIP6 framework: GFDL-ESM4, IPSL-CM6A-LR, MPI-ESM1-2-HR, MRI-ESM2-0, and UKESM1-0-LL. These are combined into an ensemble average to avoid biases from individual models. Climate scenarios are based on Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) linked with Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), spanning low to high emissions trajectories, i.e., SSP1-RCP2.6 to SSP5-RCP8.5. PV performance projections follow Feron et al. (2021), and electricity generation targets are derived from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 2025 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO). A least-cost siting model places solar farms in counties with low installation and operating costs, while limiting solar expansion to 10% of county cropland. This prevents the entire cropland in a county being converted to solar. Land allocation and price effects are estimated using a county-level agricultural model previously developed to assess biofuel and electrification policies.
Preliminary results show that the effects of solar expansion on crop prices are relatively minor under mild climate change (e.g., SSP1-RCP2.6), with corn prices increasing by 3.0% under solar deployment compared to 2.9% without. However, climate change alone substantially raises crop prices—up to 40.3% for corn under ensemble projections—although still within historical volatility. Under the higher SSP3-RCP7.0 climate scenario, crop price effects become more pronounced, especially when solar development further reduces cropland. In this case, corn, soybean, and wheat prices rise by 17.3%, 32.4%, and 19.2%, respectively, due to compounded effects of lower yields and land conversion.
These findings suggest that while solar deployment on cropland appears practicable under stable climate, climate change could exacerbate land-use conflicts. Importantly, this research provides developers, farmers, and policymakers with data-driven insights to evaluate future land-use decisions. Future work will incorporate adaptive management responses such as crop switching and technological shifts, and consider land expansion into pasture areas to better estimate long-term outcomes.
About the Speaker: Dr. Jerome Dumortier is an economist and professor in the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis (IUI). I received my Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University in 2011. My research assesses the short- and long-term effects of climate change, policy, and macroeconomics on agriculture, energy, transportation, and the environment. In addition to quantifying future developments affecting U.S. agricultural production at various spatial scales, I am also investigating the implications of decarbonizing the U.S. transportation sector and its effects on biomass and bioenergy demand. My research is forward-looking and evaluates public policy aimed at reducing GHG emissions while meeting food, energy, and transportation needs. Climate change, improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency, and the global proliferation of electric cars will have long-term consequences for society. My work seeks to provide answers to some of the questions arising from these developments through economic modeling of energy and climate change policies. I am also co-editor for Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy (AEPP).
Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Technology of Guwahati
Wednesday December 3, 2025 (12pm – 1pm) Virtual Session
Antecedents of Technology Adoption in Agriculture: Conceptual framework for an empirical assessment based on technology adoption theories
Abstract: Agriculture continues to remain one of the most significant sectors of employment in the developing countries. Over the years, this sector witnessed a lot of variations and developments in terms of farming approaches and technology usage. Usage of technology in agriculture sector derives a lot of benefits such as crop productivity and better income for farmers. Therefore, even governments are promoting agricultural technologies for improving the livelihood of the farmers. Despite many government initiatives, adoption of technologies in the agricultural sector remains low (Ruzzante et al., 2021) specially in emerging economies. It raises a concern of how to accelerate the process of agricultural innovation adoption. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that influence the decision of a farmer to adopt a technology. This study attempts to propose a conceptual framework for technology adoption in the context of agricultural innovation and empirically validate the framework.
About the Speaker: Dr. Kuldeep Baishya holds a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Shillong. He completed his B.Tech. in Information Technology from North-Eastern Hill University in
2010 and subsequently worked as a Software Engineer for 2.5 years before joining the doctoral
program at IIM Shillong in 2013. Dr. Baishya has published several research papers in high-impact international journals. Prior to joining the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, he served as an Assistant Professor (Grade I) at IIM Rohtak. His teaching and research interests encompass Marketing Management, Marketing Research, Consumer Behavior, Technology Adoption, Capstone Simulation, and Marketing Analytics. In addition to his academic roles, Dr. Baishya actively engages in Management Development Programs (MDPs) and consulting assignments. He is currently involved in a training program with a nationalized bank in India and is undertaking a research consulting project with the State Innovation and Transformation Aayog (SITA), Government of Assam.
Wednesday Novemer 12, 2025 (10:30am – 11:30am)
Price Regulation and the Adoption–Innovation Trade-off
PhD Candidate in Economics at Northwestern University
Abstract: Regulating technology prices can raise adoption yet deter innovation. In India, price controls on genetically engineered (GE) cotton seeds induced this trade-off. Leveraging the policy’s differential timing across states, we show that mandated price reductions accelerated adoption of GE seeds by farmers. Although seed supply kept pace, innovation stalled: fewer new varieties were introduced. Using newly assembled data from experimental field trials across India, we show that agronomic yields of new varieties fell in price-controlled states. To quantify the welfare implications of price and yield effects, we develop and estimate a structural model of demand and supply for seeds with endogenous product attributes. While the policy raised farmers’ surplus, especially among the poor, ignoring innovation responses in equilibrium vastly overstates their welfare gains. We use the estimated model to assess alternative policies that better balance adoption and innovation incentives. For a given public budget, incentives for seed developers tied to the productivity of new varieties achieve the highest welfare for farmers.
About the Speaker: Matteo Ruzzante is a PhD Candidate in Economics at Northwestern University. He studies technological change and economic development in low-income and historical settings, with a focus on agricultural technologies and rural markets. In his dissertation, Matteo examines how public policies and private incentives shape technology adoption and innovation in the presence of incomplete markets and multiple frictions. In doing so, he aims to enrich our understanding of how technologies contribute to global productivity gaps and welfare. Matteo holds an MSc from Nova School of Business and Economics and a BSc from University of Padua. He has also worked as a consultant at the World Bank’s Development Impact Group (DIME).
Erica Chuang
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Stocks versus Flows: Second-Best Incentive Design for Stock-Generated Externalities
An Economic Fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity.
Abstract: Conventional wisdom states that incentives targeting stocks and flows can lead to equivalent externalities correction. However, this may not hold when externalities are more directly produced from stocks (“stock-generated externalities”) rather than flows of production, as is commonly modeled. Stocks that exhibit these external effects include trees and CO_2 absorption, shellfish and water cleaning, and livestock and methane emissions. I present a dynamic optimization model of privately-owned renewable resource extraction where the stock of natural capital jointly produces a private good and social benefits in order to assess the performance of various incentive-based policies. In particular, I explore how incentives targeting measures of stock abundance and flows of production perform relative to the social optimum and a no-policy benchmark. I present both theoretical and numerical results by calibrating the model to industry and scientific parameters from the Chesapeake Bay, where Eastern oyster (C. virginica) cultivation yields water filtration benefits. I find that stock-targeted incentives have the potential to achieve the socially optimal paths of resource abundance and environmental quality. While flow-targeting may achieve short run gains in environmental quality, as the system achieves a steady state the firm reverts back to levels of extraction as if no policy occurred. This is likely driven by differences in revenue sources for the firm. Stock-targeting allows the firm to flexibly maximize profits over two sources of revenue: the natural resource stock and the private good. By contrast, flow-targeting solely changes the price of the private good, leading to similar dynamics and the same profit maximization and extraction behavior as no-policy in steady state. The model provides a theoretical framework for incentive design aimed at minimizing environmental damages through management of privately-owned living natural resources.
About the Speaker: Erica Chuang is an Economic Fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity. Erica received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego. Her research centers on how the design of renewable resource-based systems, such as markets for food, can affect environmental quality. She has served as a Research Associate with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) focused on commercial fisheries and species conservation. Prior to her doctoral studies, Erica held positions at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and the Population Council where she coauthored academic publications on development, education, reproductive health, and survey methods. She received a Master of Pacific International Affairs in 2014 and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies in 2011 from UCSD.
Wednesday April 30, 2025 (12pm – 1pm)
James Oehmke is a Professor and Chair for Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics as well as the Faculty Director for Office of Economic Development at SEBS Rutgers University.
Persistence of Child Undernutrition in West Africa: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis of Population-Level Trends, 1999–2022
Abstract: Undernutrition remains a leading cause of child morbidity and mortality globally, particularly in sub Saharan Africa. While interventions to treat acute undernutrition are often effective at the individual level, our study provides rigorous empirical evidence that undernutrition functions as a persistent, chronic condition at the population level in West Africa—persisting for decades even after a modest shock. Using a dynamic panel data model applied to six Feed the Future countries over a 23-year period, we demonstrate that child undernutrition is statistically self-reinforcing and strongly influenced by environmental and structural factors such as climate-related disasters. Addressing these issues requires a much more comprehensive set of interventions than is currently recommended.
About the Speaker: Dr. Oehmke is a health and development economist who seeks to generate policy-relevant research innovations and scholarship. His latest project is creating global and local dashbaords with statistical and AI models of the relationships between climate and one health, with an emphasis on human health and the sustainable development goals. Dr. Oehmke’s passion is to inform public and private policy and resource allocation decisions with valid data and objective analysis. He is Professor Emeritus of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University; and has previously served as Senior Policy Analyst and Acting Director of the Office of Policy, Analytics and Engagement at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and as CEO of the George Morris Centre for Agricultural Policy in Canada. James earned a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Yale University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Wednesday April 23, 2025 (12pm – 1pm)
Pam McElwee is Professor in the Department of Human Ecology.
The IPBES Nexus Assessment on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food, Health and Climate Change
Abstract: The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is a major science-policy assessment panel modeled on the IPCC for climate. At the most recent IPBES plenary in December 2024 in Windhoek Namibia, over 140 governments approved the Nexus Assessment Summary for Policymakers. The result of three years of work by 165 experts from 57 countries, the report synthesizes information from over 6,500 references, drawing three major conclusions: crises across biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change are interconnected, but our responses are not; solutions already exist, many of them cost-effective and available now; and everyone has a role to play in ensuring more integrated and holistic responses. Having served as one of two co-chairs of the report, I will present the key findings and discuss how recent uptake events with national governments, particularly in Europe and Africa, are showing encouraging results, even as the current US administration turns away from interest in climate and biodiversity..
About the Speaker: Pam McElwee is Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers. In addition to co-chairing the IPBES Nexus Assessment, she was also chapter lead for ecosystems, biodiversity, and ecosystem services for the Fifth US National Climate Assessment (2023), and has served as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land. She is trained as an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, with a joint Ph.D. in anthropology and forestry from Yale.
Wednesday April 16, 2025 (12pm – 1pm)
Improving Productivity in African Agriculture: Fertilizer, Soil Health, and Human Capital
Dr. David Nielson is a Developmental Economist with a focus on agriculture and rural development.
Abstract: his talk will cover the Soil Initiative for Africa (SIA), a Human Capital Initiative for African Agriculture, and efforts to utilize agricultural extension to scale up success stories in Africa agriculture.
First, it will discuss Africa’s persistent soil degradation and its detrimental effects on agricultural productivity, food security, and environmental sustainability. It highlights the vital need for coordinated, continent-wide efforts to improve soil health through the Soil Initiative for Africa (SIA).
Second, it will discuss the challenges that African countries face in human capital and its implications to agricultural development and economic growth.
About the Speaker: Dr. David Nielson is a distinguished development economist specializing in agriculture and rural development. With nearly 30 years at the World Bank as Lead Agriculture Economist, he has significantly contributed to agricultural research and productivity programs globally, particularly in Africa. Dr. Nielson spearheaded the establishment of multi-donor trust funds and regional agricultural research programs, yielding over $1 billion in investments. He played a pivotal role in developing influential agricultural extension programs in Venezuela and Uganda and founded key advisory institutions like AFAAS and GFRAS. His recent efforts focus on strengthening tertiary agricultural education and improving soil health in Africa. Dr. Nielson holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago and an M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Minnesota.
Wednesday April 9, 2025 (12pm – 1pm)
The 25% Tariffs on Wine Under the First Trump Administration: Who Bore the Burden and Lessons for the Future
New York University and American Association of Wine Economists AAWE
Abstract: On October 22, 2019, the first Trump administration imposed punitive tariffs on bottled still wine from France, Spain, Germany, and the UK. The tariffs were imposed in response to a feud over subsidies paid to Airbus, which put Boeing at a disadvantage, and they were suspended by the Biden administration on March 22, 2021. This paper analyzes the effects of the tariffs, including tax avoidance strategies and tax pass-through rates for wine from each affected country.
Was there a way to avoid the new tariff? For those who could not, who bore the burden—the producer in Europe by lowering export prices or the consumer in the U.S. by paying higher retail prices? Did pass-through rates differ by price bracket? What lessons can be learned for future tariffs on still and sparkling wine?
About the Speaker: Karl Storchmann is a co-founder and the executive director of the American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE). He is also a co-founder and editor of AAWE’s academic publication, the Journal of Wine Economics. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bochum, Germany (1998).
After a postdoctoral year at UCLA and Yale University, he was a lecturer in Yale’s Economics Department from 2000 to 2005. From 2005 to 2009, he was an associate professor at Whitman College. Since 2009, Karl Storchmann has been a Clinical Professor of Economics at New York University.
Dr. Storchmann is an applied microeconomist whose research focuses on environmental and industrial organization issues related to energy, transportation, and the wine market. He has published in academic journals such as the American Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics, Agricultural Economics, the Journal of Wine Economics, the Review of Industrial Organization, Energy Economics, and Transportation.
Wednesday February 19, 2025 (12pm – 1pm)
Analysing Firm Growth with Parametric Quantile Regression
Alessandro Sapio (PhD Economics and Management at Sant’Anna School, Pisa) is Full Professor of Economic Policy at the Parthenope University of Naples since 2018, where he coordinates the bachelor’s degree in International Business Administration and Management.
About the Speaker: Alessandro Sapio (PhD Economics and Management at Sant’Anna School, Pisa) is Full Professor of Economic Policy at the Parthenope University of Naples since 2018, where he coordinates the bachelor’s degree in International Business Administration and Management.
He is Editor in Chief of the Italian Economic Journal (Springer), Associate Editor of Economia Politica – Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics (Springer) and Development and Sustainability in Economics and Finance (ScienceDirect).
QRCM is hereby applied to a panel of UK manufacturing firms, using a specification that accounts for variance-size scaling and alternative parametrizations for the quantile regression coefficients (Legendre polynomials; Gaussian, logistic, and asymmetric logistic laws). Our analysis allows to separate the location effect of firm size on the firm growth distribution location from a scale effect. Finally, our results confirm that fat-tailed models, such as the asymmetric logistic distribution, provide a better fit than the normal distribution.
Previously he has been council member, European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy-EAEPE; coordinator of the PhD programme in Economics, Management and Accounting (cycles 36 and 37); visiting scholar at London Business School, European Business School Paris, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, GREQAM-Université d’Aix-Marseille; research fellow, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa.
Prof. Sapio’s research interests include firm growth, energy economics, and climate-economy integrated assessment. He has published about 50 articles in peer-reviewed scholarly journals (more than 2200 citations, source Google Scholar). He leads a research project on energy consumption and ageing, funded by the EUNextGen programme; was part of European Commission-funded projects such as DIME (FP6), FINNOV, Impressions (FP7), and ISIGrowth (Horizon 2020); and received research funding within the Vinci Programme of the Université Franco-Italienne, PON-AIM (Italy), Observatoire du financement des entreprises par le marché (France).
Sapio has presented his research in several conferences and workshops. He was Chair of the local organising committee for the 33rd and 34th Annual EAEPE Conferences, 2021 (online) and 2022 (Naples, hybrid), and Energy Finance Italia 7 (2022, hybrid). He has served as a referee for several scholarly journals.
Dr. Jasmina Spasojevic, Research Scientist, Office of School Health, Division of Family and Child Health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
An Economic Perspective Through the Lens of Public Health Practice: An Example of School Health Programs in New York City (NYC)
Wednesday March 5, 2025 (12pm – 1pm)
Abstract: School health services greatly improve children’s health, and many of these benefits can be long-term. The returns include better health and wellbeing of children, educational benefits, improved labor market outcomes, and social welfare effects. In this talk, an overview of the organization and programs in the Office of School Health at the NYC Department of Health will be presented, including the type of health care services delivered in schools, surveillance data systems used for monitoring, and assessment of children’s health outcomes, and the main characteristics of our ongoing programmatic efforts.
About the Speaker: Jasmina Spasojevic is a researcher in the Office of School Health in the NYC Department of Health. Her background is in health economics and health care policy. Her interests include policy implications of the links between education and health. Jasmina’s current research has focused on children’s oral and vision health disparities, and policy design around public oral health. Jasmina received her PhD in Economics from The City University of New York Graduate Center. Prior to working for the NYC Health Department, Jasmina was a faculty member at Metropolitan College of New York, Trinity College in Hartford, CT and Yeshiva University in New York City, has taught a variety of courses in economics including economics of health care and mentored students for over ten years.