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William D. Manson, JD, PhD, Deputy General Counsel of the Lubrizol Corporation, will present a talk, "Balancing the Impact of Regulation:  The Case of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act," on Thursday, April 25th at the Student Union, Room 312. Manson is the leader of the Regulatory Practice Section at Lubrizol, providing legal advice in a wide range of matters from contracts and product distribution to the resolution of complex commercial and patent disputes to guidance on export law.  Prior to joining Lubrizol, Manson spent 10 years with the law firm of Jones Day Reavis & Prgue in Cleveland.  He received his PhD in economics from Virginia Teach in 1980 and received his law degree, JD, with distinction, from Emory in 1985.

The talk is free and open to the public.  A reception will be held beforehand at 4:45 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. in Room 312.

Undergraduate alumnus Michael Morrell was appointed Acting Director of the CIA on November 9^th 2012.  Mike, a 32 year veteran of the CIA, earned his BA in Economics at the University of Akron in 1980 and began his career at the CIA as an Economic Analyst. While working, he continued his education at Georgetown University earning a masters’ degree in economics and completing the coursework for a doctorate.

Thomas R. Saving, PhD, University Distinguished Professor of Economics at Texas A&M University  presented, “Saving on Medicare: Prospects for Long-Term Reform.”   In 2000, Dr. Saving was appointed by President Clinton (and later reappointed by President Bush) as Public Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, serving from 2000-2007.  In 2001, President Bush appointed him to the bipartisan Commission to Strengthen Social Security.  Dr. Saving has testified before Congress numerous times on the pressing issues of Medicare and Social Security.

The talk was held on Tuesday, November 27^th at 6:15pm at the Martin University Center, 105 Fir Hill Street and was free and open to the public.  The event was sponsored by the Department of Economics and the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.

New Faculty Member

The department is pleased to welcome Dr. Muriel Fang to the faculty this fall 2012.  Dr. Fang's research focuses on Health Economics and Applied Econometrics. Her teaching specialties are Health Economics at the graduate level and Health, Labor and Microeconomics at the undergraduate level.

The Economics Department congratulates:

Undergraduate student Sam Hinkle, who is a BSLE major, spent this past summer (2012) in the internship program at the Georgia State University Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.  His final paper is titled, “The Influence of Random Payment Mechanisms on Risk Preferences in the Laboratory”.

Graduate Student Ali Enami will be presenting a paper titled "Exporting Oil to Import Goods: Current Account Analysis of Iran" at the upcoming Missouri Valley Economic Association 49th Annual Meeting on October 25th 2012 in Memphis TN. 

Previously Ali presented his paper titled "The Effect of  Oil Revenue on Consumption Expenditure in Iran," at the Mid-Continent Regional Science Association conference held June 6-8, 2012 in Bloomington MN.

This past summer 2012 Graduate Student Nicholas Fritsch interned with the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank enhancing their "Community Stabilization Index".  This index is used by policy makers to assess the stress levels of communities in the fourth District of the Federal Reserve System.

Earlier this year Nick's paper "Immigrants, Medicaid, and the Deficit Reduction Act" was selected for publication in a forthcoming Undergraduate Economic Review.  Nick's paper was completed as his undergraduate senior project under the supervision of Dr. Francesco Renna.

The Dilley Family Endowed Scholarship

The Department of Economics is grateful for David and Lessia Dilley’s gift to establish  The Dilley Family Endowed Scholarship in Economics.  In 1973, David received his Bachelor  of Arts degrees in Economics and Political Science.  He serves on both the Economics Department Advisory Board and The University of Akron National Alumni Board of Directors.