In this Issue
Message From the Chair
Undergraduate News
Graduate News
University Professors
Retirees
Institute for Policy Analysis
New Colleagues
Whats happening in the Department of Economics
Research Notes
From the Editor
In this Issue
Message From the Chair
Undergraduate News
Graduate News
University Professors
Retirees
Institute for Policy Analysis
New Colleagues
Whats happening in the Department of Economics
Research Notes
From the Editor
by Nancy Gallini
Welcome to the first Newsletter of the Department of Economics,
University of Toronto!
As a new Chair of the Department of Economics, I am looking
forward to the opportunity to work with a remarkably talented
faculty of 75 economists. Our faculty are first-rate,
internationally-known scholars. Critical to the preservation
of such high quality is the continual hiring of the best and
brightest young scholars. We have succeeded in making seven
superb junior appointments in tenure-stream positions over the
past two years.
Although its roots go back to 1988, the Economics Department as
we know it today has evolved since 1982 when the Department of
Political Economy was reorganized into two separate
departments--Economics and Political Science. The
Commerce faculty that had been in the previous department were
absorbed partly into the Economics Department and partly into
the Faculty of Management.
The Department is proud of its excellent undergraduate and
graduate programs. We have teaching links with the geography,
statistics, mathematics, philosophy, political science and
sociology departments through joint specialist programs. The
faculty's research crosses over into other disciplines through
collaborations with colleagues in Management, Law, the Division
of the Environment and the Center for Industrial Relations.
While deeply rooted in Canadian issues, our research activity
extends far beyond Canada, involving interations with
economists throughout the world. The Department looks
forward to continuing its role as a premier economics
department in both teaching and research.
To our alumni I would like to say that we want you to be as
proud to claim us as your alma mater as we are to claim you as
alumni. We invite you to join us by sending, either to me or
to the editor, information about yourself or other alumni that
you think would be of interest to graduates of Economics and by
letting us know which topics you would like to read about in
our Newsletter. After all, we want to deliver a product that
will be of most interest to you. For now, read on and enjoy!
by Michael Berkowitz, Associate Chairman
I am pleased to report in this inaugural issue of our
newsletter that undergraduate economics is alive and well at
the University of Toronto. We are continuing to attract
high-quality students on all three campuses, offering
high-demand specializations in many areas, including
international economics, labour economics, public finance,
monetary economics, and industrial organization. The latest
enrollment figures for this academic year show that demand for
our courses and programs continues to grow. At latest count
there are more than 300 students pursuing one of our many
specialist programs and over 800 students in the major program.
The large majority of our specialists are enrolled in the
Commerce and Finance Program. We began this program in 1920
when the Department was a component of a broad-based Department
of Political Economy. Over the years, the B.Comm degree has
been awarded to more than 8000 graduates. In 1982, with the
devolution of the Department of Political Economy, the Faculty
of Management assumed joint responsibility with the Department
of Economics for the program. We look forward to the continued
success of this joint effort.
As part of our commitment to undergraduate education we are
constantly examining the relevance of our courses to the
educational needs of today's students and looking for ways to
improve the learning experience. To this end we are beginning
a review of the undergraduate curriculum. During the present
year our efforts will focus on the first- and second-year
courses. Next year we will turn our attention to the third-
and fourth-year courses and Economic History. The scope for
discussion is wide-ranging and includes class size, new course
offerings, course content and the role of tutorials. Many of
you will have comments and suggestions based on your experience
in these courses and in the workplace thereafter. I would like
to encourage you to send your comments to me, care of the
Department. I look forward to hearing from you and will keep
you abreast of developments in subsequent issues of the
newsletter.
by Arthur Hosios, Associate Chairman
Let me take this opportunity, in the first issue of the
Newsletter, to provide some background information on the
Department's graduate programs. The goal of these programs is
to further our students' capacity for economic analysis through
rigorous instruction in theory, history, and quantitative
methods. We offer an exciting intellectual environment in
which students can participate in a broad range of courses and
seminars and interact with renowned scholars in every specialty
field area in economics.
Each year we receive about 330 applications, many from outside
of Canada. A typical entering class in the M.A. program has 45
students; the Ph.D. program admits about 10 students.
The M.A. program is a one-session (eight month) course of study
with no written thesis requirement. Most students in this
program aim to upgrade their skills for the job market. Our
new collaborative programs in Environmental Studies and
International Relations allow students to pursue an
interdisciplinary program with faculty members from other
departments. Graduates of the M.A. program traditionally
pursue careers in both the public and private sectors.
The Ph.D. in economics is a research degree which requires two
years of course work and the submission of a dissertation that
usually takes an additional 2-3 years to complete. Joint
programs with other faculties have been created to allow
students to gain credentials outside of economics, and to
specialize in law and economics or financial economics.
Graduates of the Ph.D. program typically take up academic
positions at other universities or research positions in
international organizations, government or the financial and
investment services industry.
Photo of Profs Epstein and Hollander
Although most can agree that the purpose of legislative
initiatives should be to promote competition, and thus benefit
the consumers of financial services, there is disagreement as
to whether the specific proposals--such as permitting banks to
sell insurance through their branch networks--will enhance or
retard competition. Of particular importance, as well, are the
implications of current and emerging technological innovations,
such as the smart card and the internet, for financial services
regulation. In light of the importance of competition issues,
two of the four commissioned papers focused explicitly on this
issue. The conference proceedings, to be edited by Jim Pesando
and Jack Mintz, will be published by the C.D. Howe Institute.
Photo of New Faculty
Loren's initial and ongoing collaboration was with colleague
Arthur Hosios. Drawing on a unique set of data at the
household-level collected by Japanese investigators in
Northeast China in the 1930s, Loren and Arthur are analyzing
the incentive and reputation issues underlying the design of
land, labour and credit contracts. Loren has also joined
forces with Dwayne Benjamin to examine a wide set of issues
that include the economic organization of activity within the
household and the economic contribution of women, and the
impact of market development and structure on income
distribution.
In the past two years Loren has also been working with Zhu
Xiaodong who joined the Department in 1992 after completing his
dissertation at the University of Chicago under 1995 Nobel
Laureate Robert Lucas. This effort has culminated in a paper
which models formally the behaviors of enterprises, financial
institutions, government and households that have given rise to
the highly cyclical growth process observed in China since the
early 1980s. Their analysis answers questions regarding the
interaction between political institutions and inflationary
cycles, the sustainability of China's current reform course,
and the applicability of China's reforms to Eastern Europe.
Loren's most recent collaboration is with Yehuda Kotowitz.
Working with members of the Shanghai Economic Research Center,
they are studying the effects of technology transfer and
foreign direct investment on local enterprises. In recent
visits to China, they have designed and tested an extensive
enterprise questionnaire that is now being administered in
Shanghai to a sample of 250 enterprises drawn from five key
sectors. The results of this survey and the follow-up
interviews will enable Brandt and Kotowitz to provide an
analysis of alternative forms of technology transfer including
foreign investment, licensing alliances, purchase and indirect
and informal transfer mechanisms in the Shanghai area.
Brandt's research complements research on China-related
projects by other members of the Department, including Richard
Bird, Jack Mintz, Peter Pauly and Tom Wilson.
Prof. J. E. Floyd
Return to the Index
Email the Editor
Message From the Chair
Undergraduate News
Graduate News
University Professors
LARRY EPSTEIN
Larry is world renowned for his seminal contributions to the
study of preference structures of economic decision makers.
His efforts have enabled economists to model individual
preferences using much less restrictive assumptions than those
required in earlier work. These ideas are opening up many
exciting new possibilities in other areas of economics such as
growth theory and asset pricing. Since Larry joined the
Department in 1977 he has published over forty articles in
major economic journals. In 1994 he was awarded the Frisch
Medal by the Econometric Society for one of these articles. He
is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Canada and is listed in Who's Who in Economics.
SAM HOLLANDER
Sam has been teaching here since 1963 and is one of the world's
leading scholars of the history of economic ideas. He has been
a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1976. In
addition to many scholarly papers, his work includes THE
ECONOMICS OF ADAM SMITH (1973), THE ECONOMICS OF DAVID RICARDO
(1979), THE ECONOMICS OF JOHN STUART MILL (1985) and CLASSICAL
ECONOMICS (1987). The Ricardo volume received the Social
Science Research Federation of Canada's 50th Anniversary Award
in 1990. Sam also has two forthcoming books: THE ECONOMICS OF
THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS (University of Toronto Press) and
RICARDO--THE NEW VIEW: COLLECTED ESSAYS I (Routledge), which
reprints twenty of his papers written since 1973 interpreting
Ricardo.
Return to the Index
Retirees
ALBERT BRETON
Albert came to us from the London School of Economics in 1970.
Previous to that he was at the Universite de Montreal where he
collaborated with his brother Raymond, Pierre Trudeau, Marc
Lalonde and others in publishing a manifesto against separatism
in Quebec. He has contributed extensively to both the academic
and the popular literature on problems of public choice, the
economics of nationalism, public goods and federalism, the
economics of bilingualism, the theory of bureaucracy, and
economic aspects of the theory of representative government.
Albert also served as a major advisor to the Prime Minister of
Canada during the 1970s. He became a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Canada in 1976 and an Officer of the Order of Canada
in 1984. Though retired, he has continued lecturing and
remains active in research.
ABRAHAM ROTSTEIN
Abe has been active and well known in Canadian public policy
discussions throughout his career, taking a traditional
Political Economy perspective. He was Managing Editor of THE
CANADIAN FORUM for many years and has published three books and
edited several others. Noted both for his independence of
judgment on current topical issues in economics and public
policy and his wit, he continues to teach on a stipend basis
and, as Senior Southam Fellow, to administer the Southam
Fellowship Program.
ANDREW WATSON
Andy has been on faculty for 38 years, serving as Director of
the Graduate Programme in Economic History for 8 years and
convener of the Economic History Workshop for 10 years. He has
also served as Supervisor of M.A. students and Supervisor of
Ph.D. students. Although his teaching interests have been
mainly in European Economic History from late-Roman until
early-modern times, Andy's research efforts have concentrated
largely on the middle east. He has been a Ford Foundation
consultant on economic development to the Kingdom of Jordan,
Economist for the International Centre for Agricultural
Research in the Dry Areas, Aleppo, Syria, and Senior Regional
Programme Officer for the International Development Research
Centre.
JOHN WINDER
John has been here, in body and/or spirit, since his student
days. He has worked on a number of problems in Canadian public
policy and co-authored, with Harry Johnson, a well-known study
of the lags in the effects of monetary policy in Canada. As
one of the builders of the TRACE ECONOMETRIC MODEL OF THE
CANADIAN ECONOMY, he ranks among the founders of the Policy and
Economic Analysis Program of the INSTITUTE FOR POLICY ANALYSIS.
John was also M.A. Supervisor in Economics for many years.
Institute for Policy Analysis
On January 5th, 1996 the Institute for Policy Analysis, in
conjunction with the Faculty of Management, held a conference
entitled ISSUES IN THE REFORM OF THE CANADIAN FINANCIAL
SERVICES INDUSTRY. The purpose of the conference was to
provide input into the revision of the Canadian financial
services legislation that is scheduled for 1997, and for which
the preparation of draft legislation is imminent.
New Colleagues
MARTIN BOILEAU
Martin is a Ph.D from Queen's University who specializes in
International Macroeconomics with particular reference to
growth and business cycles. He does his undergraduate teaching
at Scarborough College.
KAREN CLAY
Karen specializes in economic history and industrial
organization. A recipient this year of the Polanyi Prize, she
is a member of the Erindale Group. Her Ph.D. is from Stanford
University.
HUW LLOYD-ELLIS
Huw does his undergraduate teaching at Scarborough. His
research interests are in economic development, technological
change, occupational choice and wage inequality. He has his
Ph.D. from Queen's University.
ABIGAIL PAYNE
Abigail is a member of the Scarborough Group. Her research
interest lie in the areas of public finance, law and economics
and industrial organization. Her Ph.D. is from Princeton.
MICHAEL SMART
Michael is a Ph.D. from Stanford University who specializes in
public and corporate finance and the economics of information
and uncertainty.
MATTHEW TURNER
Matt is a Ph.D. from Brown University. He specializes in
economic theory and environmental and resource economics.
MIKE TSIONAS
Mike specializes in econometrics, macroeconomics and financial
economics. His Ph.D. is from the University of Minnesota.
Return to the Index
Whats Happening in the Department of Economics
ST. GEORGE CAMPUS
On October 19-23 a conference entitled NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE
THEORY OF MARKETS AND GAMES was held here at the University in
honour of the distinguished game theorist Robert J. Aumann.
The conference was organized by Professor Myrna Wooders of this
Department, herself a well-known game theorist, and sponsored
jointly by the Fields Institute, recently relocated here from
the University of Waterloo, the Department of Economics, the
Institute for Policy Analysis, the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, and the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University.
In addition to a public lecture by Professor Aumann, over 80
papers were presented by a distinguished group of participants
that included Birgit Grodal (University of Copenhagen), Egbert
Deirker (University of Vienna), Bob Anderson (University of
California at Berkeley), Ehud Kalai (Northwestern University),
John Weymark (University of British Columbia) and David
Schmeidler (Ohio State University and University of Tel Aviv).
SCARBOROUGH CAMPUS
Half of the Department's newly hired faculty this past year are
part of the Scarborough contingent. Abigail Payne teaches the
undergraduate courses in public finance. Her research concerns
the degree to which government funding of non-profit
institutions crowds out private donations. Martin Boileau
teaches advanced macroeconomics and international finance. His
research focuses on growth and real business cycles from an
international perspective. The College also was able to hire
Walid Hejazi on a five-year contractual basis to offer courses
in macroeconomics and international economics. Three of the
contingent's senior faculty are on secondment to the St. George
Campus for administrative duties. Jon Cohen is Dean of the
School of Graduate Studies, Sue Howson is Associate Dean of
that same faculty and Sue Horton is Acting Associate Dean of
the Faculty of Arts and Science. Al Berry, in association with
the Center For International Studies, has recently organized a
successful conference on labor market policy in Canada and
Latin America.
ERINDALE CAMPUS
The Erindale economists have been working hard to maintain
their undergraduate specialist program in the face of
substantial funding cuts to the University and are hoping to be
able to replace Uzi Segal, who was lost to the University of
Western Ontario. Efforts are underway, in cooperation with the
political Science and philosopy groups, to develop a
Philosophy, Politics and Economics specialist program. A
similar initiative is being made to join with the mathematics,
statistics, computer science and management groups in
developing a joint Mathematics and Economics undergraduate
specialist program, with particular emphasis on Financial
Economics. Both of these programs will draw almost exclusively
on existing course offerings. Congratulations are due to a
number of Erindale colleagues: to Karen Clay for winning the
John Charles Polanyi Prize, to Myrna Wooders for her successful
game theory conference, to Scott Eddie for obtaining a
Connaught Transformative Grant, and to Mike Hare and Arthur
Hosios for obtaining project grants from the Donner Foundation.
Research Notes
Loren Brandt came to the U. of T. in 1988 from the Hoover
Institution and Stanford University. Since then he has
generated a lot of research activity, including collaborations
with four Departmental colleagues on projects dealing with
China's contemporary and historical economy. In these
endeavors, Loren's many talents have been complemented by those
of his colleagues in microeconomics, macroeconomics,
development and labour economics.
From the Editor
In the next issue we will be featuring Dale Poirier, who has
recently been elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and Gerry
Helleiner, in whose honour a festschrift is about to appear. We
will also be running a story on the extensive on-going research
program of Dwayne Benjamin and Mike Baker.
Communications, suggestions, and information about alumni and other
matters should be addressed to me:
Department of Economics
University of Toronto
150 St. George St.
Toronto, M5S-1A1
Department
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