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Department of Economics

Investing in the Future

December 16, 2020 by Tori Miller

Jason Lamin, a 2020 Pro Bene Meritis award recipient, shares what he values in this moment and where he finds inspiration.

Political themed collage with Statue of Liberty, U.S. Capitol Building, mail-in ballots, unemployment chart, coronavirus, and protest viewed through magnifying glass with American flag background.

2020 Vision: Examining Some of the Country’s Big Issues

October 30, 2020 by Rachel White

Experts from UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts weigh in on some of the major issues facing our country and the president-elect over the next four years.

A moving illustration of a large scene. In it, we can see vertical windows looking to a peaceful night cityscape, with twinkling stars overhead. The windows are in the shape of a cellphone battery icon, and illustration slowly turns to a bright, cheerful day scene. The buildings all come to life in a bright, multi-colored wash of color. Around the border of the window, we can see stylized illustrations of people in various poses. We see people having fun with computers, people playing with their pets, families, riding bikes, reading. We also see a medical doctor with a mask waving. There are also wires leading from each person that connect with the battery-shaped window in the middle, giving life to the city.

Rebooting Our Lives After COVID-19

May 7, 2020 by Rachel White

The world’s new reality amid the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to confront issues and critically think about how to revive communities slowly, safely and sustainably.

Bianna Golodryga

Alumna Bianna Golodryga Joins CBS This Morning as Co-Host

October 3, 2018 by Emily Nielsen

Liberal Arts alumna Bianna Golodryga has been named co-host of “CBS This Morning.” She graduated in 2000 from The University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and a minor in economics. She began her television career as a bureau producer from the New York Stock Exchange for […]

Photo from a balcony in Safeda Basti, India. The street scene below appears dirty and is crowded with laundry hanging from clotheslines while a lone man pushes a banana cart. To the immediate left, we see an open-air squat toilet overlooking a balcony.

Where India Goes

January 18, 2018 by Rachel White

UT Austin economist Dean Spears and sociologist Diane Coffey founded the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (r.i.c.e.) in 2011 with the goal of improving health and well-being in India. They focus on an important driver of economic development: the health of children. Despite rapid economic growth, India’s infant and under-five mortality rate continues to be […]

Illustration of Jordan Metoyer.

Putting People First

May 3, 2017 by Emily Nielsen

Jordan Metoyer is an economics and liberal arts honors/urban studies alumna from Inglewood, California, by way of Sugar Land, Texas. She is the recipient of a 2017 Schwarzman scholarship, which will send her to pursue a master’s degree in global affairs with a concentration in public policy at Tsinghua University in Beijing this fall. As […]

Portrait of Stephen Ballantyne.

A Stand Up Longhorn

November 18, 2016 by Rachel White

The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits or have participated in service related […]

Portrait of Robert Dedman Jr.

Creating Your Own Noble Purpose

December 9, 2014 by Alicia Dietrich

The Pro Bene Meritis Award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. First granted in 1984, it is given each spring to alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic […]

The Palace of Culture and Science, Poland's tallest building, was 10 blocks from Cantu's Warsaw office.

What I Did Last Summer

December 4, 2014 by Emily Nielsen

Famed Polish Economist Invites UT Student to Think Tank In November 2013, famed Polish economist Leszek Balcerowicz spoke on the UT Austin campus as part of International Education Week, which celebrates the enriching benefits of international education and exchange. Those “enriching benefits” were not lost on one audience member, economics senior Hector Cantu from Monterrey, […]

The Developing Economist graphic with Tower

Budding Economists Launch Journal

December 4, 2014 by Emily Nielsen

The University of Texas at Austin is one of just four schools in the nation to publish its own economics undergraduate research journal. The Developing Economist was founded by students at UT Austin and published its inaugural issue in the spring of 2014, though the process of creating it began much earlier. Members of UT […]

Photo of community garden with a smiling woman at the vegetable stand. A large shed is in the background along with a group of students being shown how to harvest vegetables.

Food for Thought

November 20, 2014 by Michelle Bryant

Government Professor Bartholomew “Bat” Sparrow first got the idea to teach a class about food from his wife, who had worked at Whole Foods for eight years. The result was an undergraduate course—“The Politics of Food in America”—that uses food as a lens through which to view the entire U.S. political system. “The idea was […]

friends studying together focused on a calculater

Americans Work Too Much, and That Needs to Change

September 4, 2014 by Daniel Hamermesh

Work much lately? As we celebrated the American labor movement with Labor Day, a sad fact that we must face is that U.S. workers work more than their counterparts in other wealthy countries, and it doesn’t benefit us much. The average U.S. workweek is 41 hours, compared with Britain’s 38 hours, Germany’s 37 hours and […]

Photos of Adrian Audain (anthro sr), Macarena Jaraiz (American studies & IRG soph), Manjari Subramanian (psych jr); BOTTOM ROW: Michael Villanueva (IRG soph), Angelica Cruz (history soph) and James Barrington (gov & Air Force ROTC sr).

Millennial Nation

April 24, 2014 by Emily Nielsen

A Generational Look at Education, Money and Work Empathetic. Impatient. Innovative. Unfocused. Rational. Naive. Excited. These are the words millennials in the College of Liberal Arts use when they’re asked to describe themselves. However, it’s a question they’re not often asked. Plenty of people, from journalists to researchers to employers, are looking to define who […]

Photo collage of a man riding a lawnmower over an oversized dollar bill.

No More Keeping Up with the Joneses

April 20, 2014 by Michelle Bryant

It has long been assumed that many low- and middle-income Americans over-borrow so they can keep up with wealthier Americans—or “keeping up with the Joneses.” This condition is often blamed for the large rise in household debt that occurred during the 2000s, but a UT Austin economist’s research tells a different story. The study examines […]

Illustration of a high school yearbook picture with Bevo . The caption reads, "Most Likely to Stampede."

Can You Leave High School Behind?

April 20, 2014 by Michelle Bryant

The quality of a student’s high school is a key predictor of grades earned in college, according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin. The study examines the relationship between high school quality and student success at college and takes advantage of the unique policy environment provided by Texas’s Top Ten […]

headshot

A Stack of Books

June 27, 2013 by David Kendrick Leave a Comment

Recently the dean’s office asked liberal arts faculty to provide copies of the books they had authored over the years for a collection to be exhibited in  the Gebauer Building. To comply with this request I began making a stack on my office desk. My stack grew to 13 books, including two I had edited […]

Daniel Hamermesh

Labor Economist Daniel Hamermesh Receives Mincer Award for Lifetime Contributions

June 3, 2013 by Michelle Bryant Leave a Comment

Daniel Hamermesh, professor of economics at The University of Texas at Austin, has received the Jacob Mincer Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Labor Economics. The award was presented at the Society of Labor Economists’ annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts on May 3, 2013. The Mincer award was established in 2004 and is […]

highschool hallway with blue lockers

High School and Beyond

April 11, 2013 by Michelle Bryant Leave a Comment

University of Texas at Austin sociologist and Population Research Center affiliate Chandra Muller and economist Sandra Black have received a $3.2 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study the effects of cognition on health, mortality, education and employment from high school and beyond. The three-year grant will support a Muller-led study that […]

aerial view of UT campus

Liberal Arts Introduces 10-Month Master of Economics

April 10, 2013 by Michelle Bryant Leave a Comment

A new 10-month master’s degree program offered by the Department of Economics will provide a rigorous curriculum and quantitative training to those seeking more economic expertise in a variety of fields. The first cohort will be admitted for the 2013-14 academic year, with classes beginning in July 2013. An undergraduate degree in economics is not […]

Bernard Rapoport

Friend and Champion of Education

May 1, 2012 by Geoff Leavenworth Leave a Comment

Bernard Rapoport, Economics Alumnus, Dies at 94 Bernard Rapoport, a Waco businessman who was active in higher education, politics, human rights and philanthropy, died Thursday, April 5. “The University of Texas and our state have lost a great friend who was relentless in his support of education, democracy, the arts and creating opportunity for the […]

Early Earners

May 1, 2012 by Michelle Bryant Leave a Comment

Economist looks at the long-term effects of school starting age and family background “Redshirting” is a popular term among parents of the pre-K set, and it has a lot of parents asking a familiar question: Is my child ready to start kindergarten, or would she or he benefit from delaying this debut into the world […]

Researchers eye a better camera

Research Briefs: Spring 2012

April 29, 2012 by Molly Wahlberg Leave a Comment

College of Liberal Arts: Not Even Past Brings History to the Public The Web has many sites devoted to history, but only one brings together such a diverse group of historians with expertise in every major field and time period. For the past year, Not Even Past has drawn on the expertise of faculty and […]

"retirement"

Retiring Faculty 2012

April 26, 2012 by Jessica Sinn Leave a Comment

Harry Cleaver Economics Cleaver, associate professor of economics, taught at the university for 35 years. A specialist in Marxist theory, he taught a popular introductory course on Marxist economics for more than 20 years. Cleaver’s recent work has focused on social struggles, particularly in rural Mexico. He has published several articles on the Zapatista uprising […]

flight attendant woman flying on top of a paper airplane

Riding High on Good Looks

November 28, 2011 by Gary Susswein Leave a Comment

Beauty impacts hiring, salaries and profits, economist finds The best looking people earn an extra $250,000, on average, during their careers than the least attractive people and are more likely to remain employed, get promoted and even secure loans, according to a new book by University of Texas at Austin economist Daniel Hamermesh. The most […]

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