Economics News

According to Professor Mary Lovely, a drawback to the hefty tariffs President Trump imposed on imported washing machines and solar panels is that "there will be less innovation in the long term." 

Stuart Rosenthal, professor and chair of economics, gave a keynote lecture titled "Building Specialisation, Anchor Tenants and Agglomeration Economies," which offered a new perspective on the productivity of cities. Rosenthal discussed the productivity spillovers that occur when tenants in tall commercial buildings are in close proximity, and how this leads to shared skilled labor, intermediate inputs and knowledge.

Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs, argues that trade has been beneficial to developing countries in Asia, with competition leading to higher productivity, lower price-cost markups and lower poverty.

"There is a mechanism that will distribute gains from trade in a more inclusive way," said Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs, "that, over time, will build the support for globalization."

"However the Trump administration tried to achieve the goal of reducing the overall trade deficit quickly would come into conflict with other very important Trump administration objectives," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

The Maxwell School has appointed new chairs for the departments of anthropology, economics, history, international relations (undergraduate), political science and sociology, as well as an interim chair of social science. 

Don Dutkowsky, professor of economics, says cities such as Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse—with clusters of universities nearby and relatively low housing costs—may prove to be more attractive than places with a higher cost of living, such as New York City and Boston.

“The purpose of gaining knowledge is not to get a nice job or a fancy house or season tickets for basketball. Academic research in the social sciences should be motivated by a desire to change things for the better,” says Alexei Abrahams ’08 B.A. (Econ). He credits Syracuse University's Coronat Scholars Program for allowing him to take his time in finding his career path as an economist researching the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"Typically people who qualify for higher SNAP benefits are in the worst health, so this suggests there is something really protective about the SNAP benefits," says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

"Theoretically, cash back should be the best rewards currency, since the rewards can be used practically anywhere," says Don Dutkowsky, professor of economics. "But that only holds when the value of the rewards (for a given amount of purchases) of cash back and product/service-based rewards (e.g., airline miles, automobile discounts) are the same."