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Economics is concerned with the interactions of individuals, firms and governments in markets, interactions
which are reflected in consumption, investment, cooperative and production outcomes in both the private and
public sectors. What is less widely understood is that economic analysis can be applied to the study of a wide
range of topics such as health, crime, abortion, happiness, marriage, neurology, discrimination on the basis of
race, gender and sexual orientation, and fertility, as exemplified in the recent bestseller Freakonomics by Steven
Levitt of the University of Chicago and Steven Dubner.
USC economists look at issues of health in developing countries, the provision of health insurance in the US,
what causes some countries to grow faster than others, what leads to exchange rate movements, the economics
of financial markets, behavioral economics, the determinants of subjective well-being over an individual’s life,
optimal design of contracts, the factors behind economic innovation, the economies of Indonesia, Thailand,
Japan and China, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Sahara Africa, Islamic Economics, statistical theory,
the determinants and effects of economic reforms, neuro-economics, experimental economics, and the
experimental and non-experimental evaluation of economic policies. Two important journals, The Journal of
Econometrics and Economic Development and Cultural Change are edited at USC, and USC faculty serve on
many journal boards. USC Economics faculty publish in all the top journals in Economics as well as writing
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important books. They also advise many governments and scientific agencies, and several faculty members are
fellows of the Econometric Society. University Professor Richard Easterlin was just made a fellow of the
American Economics Association, an honor that is given to only two or three economists every year.
• The department teaches a large number of undergraduate students and graduate students. In particular, at
any one time it has approximately 400 undergraduate majors,
• 45 Masters’ students (Including approximately 20 students in the Math-Finance Master’s program run
jointly with Mathematics),
• and 70 Ph.D. students.
• The department takes its undergraduate teaching role very seriously, as exemplified by the fact that the
departmental undergraduate committee currently consists of
• a University Professor,
• a chaired professor,
• and the department chair.
• The department is fortunate to have excellent undergraduate and graduate advisors.
• The department has two undergraduate associations: ODE and the Economics Association.
1. The department has substantial ties with many other units on campus.
2. The USC Population Research Center is shared between the Economics and Sociology
departments.
3. The department shares undergraduate and graduate programs with the Mathematics department.
4. The department runs a workshop and joint graduate degree with the Law School.
5. The department shares faculty and workshops with the Marshall School of Business,
6. and many Marshall faculty members serve on Economics Ph.D. dissertation committees.
7. The department runs a joint Ph.D. program with the School of Pharmacy in Pharmaceutical
Economics,
8. and Economics department faculty are currently work on research projects with faculty in the
Marshall School of Business,
9. the Law School,
10. the Medical School,
11. and the Psychology department.
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http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/econ/home/candidates.html
Jihad Dagher
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~dagher/
CV
International Economics and Finance, Macroeconomics
Fields of Studies
Development Economics, Applied Econometrics
Thesis Title Essays in International Economics
Vincenzo Quadrini, Caroline Betts,
References
Pablo Andres Neumeyer, Robert Dekle
Contact dagher@usc.edu
Rahul Giri
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~rgiri/
CV
Fields of Studies International Economics, Macroeconomics
Thesis Title Explaining the Cross-section Distribution of Law of One Price Deviation
Caroline Betts, Vincenzo Quadrini, Doug Joines, Guillaume Vandenbroucke,
References
Richard Easterlin
Contact rgiri@usc.edu
Subha Mani
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~smani/
CV
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Fields of Studies Development Economics, Applied Microeconomics
Thesis Title Essays in Human Capital Accumulation-Health and Education
References John Strauss, Jeffrey Nugent, John Hoddinott
Contact smani@usc.edu
Ladan Masoudie
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~masoudie/
CV
Fields of Studies Finance, Contract Theory, Labor Economics, Industrial Organization
Empirical Analysis of Gender Differences in Risk Behavior of Top-Level
Thesis Title
Executives in Compensation and Decision Making
References Fernando Zapatero, Jeffrey Nugent
Contact masoudie@usc.edu
Alexey Ravichev
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~ravichev/
CV
Fields of Studies Applied microeconomics, Industrial organization, Finance
Thesis Title Online Auctions: timing and information
References Guofu Tan, Svetlana Pevnitskaya, Rakesh Niraj
Contact ravichev@usc.edu
Guillaume Roger
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~roger/
CV
Fields of Studies Industrial Organisation, Mechanism Design
Thesis Title Two-sided markets with imperfections
References Guofu Tan, Juan Carrillo, Simon Wilkie
Contact roger@usc.edu
Francesco Sobbrio
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~sobbrio/
CV
Applied Microeconomic Theory, Political Economy, Public Economics, Industrial
Fields of Studies
Organization
Thesis Title Essays in Political Economy
References Juan Carrillo, Guofu Tan, Andrea Mattozzi, Simon Wilkie
Contact sobbrio@usc.edu
Pawel Szerszen
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~szerszen/
CV
Fields of Studies Financial Econometrics, Empirical Asset Pricing, Bayesian Analysis, Value at Risk
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Analysis, Derivative Pricing
Thesis Title Bayesian Analysis of Stochastic Volatility Models with Levy Jumps
References Michael Magill, Christopher Jones, Jaksa Cvitanic
Contact szerszen@usc.edu
Rubina Verma
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~rubinave/
CV
Macroeconomics; International Economics; Economic Growth and Technological
Fields of Studies
Change
Growth, Trade and Structural Transformation in Low Income Industrializing
Thesis Title
Economies
References Caroline Betts, Robert Dekle, Guillaume Vandenbroucke
Contact rubinave@usc.edu
Engin Volkan
Name http://www-scf.usc.edu/~volkan/
CV
Fields of Studies International Finance, Financial Economics, Macroeconomics
Thesis Title Topics on Emerging Markets
References Vincenzo Quadrini, Robert Dekle, Fernando Zapatero
Contact volkan@usc.edu
PEPP
Ximena V. Del Carpio
Name
CV
Fields of Studies Development Economics and Poverty
Job Market Paper Does Child Labor Always Decrease with Income?
References Jeffrey Nugent,Francisco Ferreira, Karen Macours
Contact dc_trans@yahoo.com
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/econ/home/MAstudents.html
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Cowart, Christie L.
Name Degree Date : August 2007
CV
Contact christie.cowart@gmail.com
Lambrechts, Veronica
Name Degree Date : August 2007
CV
Contact veronica_lambrechts@yahoo.com
Nahas, Bahaa M
Name Degree Date : June 2007
CV
Contact bnahas@usc.edu
Srivastava, Parul
Name Degree Date : December 2007
CV
Contact parulsri@usc.edu
Tan, Rachel
Name Degree Date : May 2007
CV
Contact rtan@usc.edu
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/econ/graduate/RecentPlacements.html
Placement 2008:
Maria-Eleni Athanasopoulou:
Economist, International Monetary Fund
Jihad Dagher:
International Monetary Fund
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Rahul Giri:
Assistant Professor
ITAM-Centro de Investigacion Economica
Subha Mani:
Assistant Professor
Fordham University
Voraprapa Nakavachara:
Senior Associate
KPMG
Guillaume Roger:
Lecturer
University of New South Wales
Shivendu Shivendu:
Assistant Professor
UC Irvine
Francesco Sobbrio:
Assistant Professor
IMT Lucca, Italy
Pawel Szerszen:
Board of Governors
Federal Reserve System
Rubina Verma:
Assistant Professor
ITAM-School of Business
Engin Volkan:
Manager, Transfer Pricing
Deloitte
====================================================
Placement 2007:
Burcu Aydin:
Economist
International Monetary Fund
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Kawon Cho:
Associate Research Fellow
Science and Technology Policy Institute, Seoul, Korea
Kannika Damrongplasit:
Post-Doc., RAND/UCLA
Minki Hong:
Research Fellow
Korea Labor Institute
Dmitri Kantsyrev
Quantitative Equity
Putnam Investments
Pouyan Mashayekh-Ahangarani:
Quantitative Analyst
Countrywide Mortgage Bank
I. Serkan Ozbeklik:
(Graduate Visitor)
Assistant Professor
Claremont McKenna College
Olga Shemyakina:
Assistant Professor
Georgia Institute of Tech.
Shin-Huei Wang:
Research Fellow
CORE, Universite Catholique de Louvain
Anke Zimmermann:
Post-Doc., Cambridge University