Sponsors

NEUDC 2014 is sponsored by the Boston University Department of Economics and the Boston University Institute for Economic Development.

Boston University Department of Economics

The Department of Economics at Boston University is home to a wide range of world-renowned scholars in all areas of economics. A common characteristic of research at BU is the application of frontier theoretical and empirical tools to the analysis of important practical issues – issues ranging from global warming to racial discrimination, Google ad auctions, socioeconomic mobility, and new approaches to alleviating poverty in the developing world.

The Department is distinctly international in character. Approximately two-thirds of our graduate students and of our faculty come from outside the US and many faculty members have worked on Asian, Latin American, or African economic issues. Within the Department of Economics, the Institute for Economic Development (IED) conducts research on issues facing developing countries.

Our faculty includes Fellows of the most respected academic societies: two Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Larry Epstein and Laurence Kotlikoff), seven of the Econometric Society (Christophe Chamley, Larry Epstein, Robert King, Laurence Kotlikoff, Barton Lipman, Dilip Mookherjee, and Pierre Perron), one of the Cliometric Society (Robert Margo), and one of the Society of Labor Economists (Kevin Lang). Many faculty have won prestigious awards such as the Sloan Fellowship (Kevin Lang), the Guggenheim Fellowship (Dilip Mookherjee), and the Frisch Medal (Larry Epstein). Four faculty members (Larry Epstein, Robert King, Laurence Kotlikoff, and Pierre Perron) are in the top 0.5% of most-cited economists in the world according to data from RePEc. Twenty-three faculty members serve in editorial positions with 41 different economics journals. A dozen faculty members are affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The Institute for Economic Development

The Institute for Economic Development (IED) is an umbrella organization within Boston University’s Department of Economics focusing on the economic problems of developing countries. To this end, the Institute provides facilities and a supportive intellectual environment for students, faculty and visiting scholars pursuing research in the problems of economic development, and in related areas of economic growth, international economics, and financial institutions. It consolidates previous economic development research centers at the University which focused on specific regions.

Active areas of research and discussion at the institute span a broad range of issues that include trade, international finance, labor migration and labor markets, human capital, poverty and discrimination, economics of the family, social norms and cultural values, agrarian contracts, land reform, wage and income inequality, social security, health, public finance, reforms in governance and public enterprises, privatization, decentralization, deforestation, and comparative business strategy. The research methodologies employed represent a combination of theoretical, empirical, historical, and policy analyses, that uniformly aim for high standards of rigor.