Hunter Grad Economics

Tryouts for the Fed Challenge (BA and BA/MA Students Only)

2007-08-17T17:35:00.000-04:00

We are planning to hold tryouts for the Fed Challenge on August 29 (Wednesday). We will be interviewing students in 15 minute slots between 9.30 am and 12 noon and then between 1 pm and 5 pm. The interviews will be held in the seminar room (1533 HW) in the
Economics Department. Please indicate whether you will be attending and give us a time preference. In case Aug 29 does not work for you, we are willing to try to reschedule for exceptional circumstances

Sangeeta Pratap
Niklas Westelius

More Job Opportunities

2007-02-01T12:45:00.000-05:00

Our work at making Hunter's economics program well-known is beginning to pay off, and subsequently, the job placement prospects for MA and BA/MA students are now better than ever. If you are looking for jobs in a specific field, ask around the department, and odds are someone can put you in touch with people who can find you relevant and rewarding work. The following are just a few examples of the many contacts Hunter is developing. We hope you find them useful in your entry into the economic and statistics workplace.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord
President, HCSFE

Kate Rock, a recruiter from Smith Hanley Associates is an expert in placing students in Marketing Statistics positions. She is especially interested in helping graduating MA students in finding job opportunities. If you would like her assistance, her email is krock@smithhanley.com, her telephone number is 203-319-4300, fax number is 203-319-4320. If you are interested in getting more information about Smith Hanley Associates, their website is www.smithhanley.com .

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

-HarperCollinsPublishers
Position Description

Title: Business and Marketing Analyst, General Books Group
Department: Internet Development Group
Division: Corporate
Date: January, 2007

Primary Objectives:
Provide analysis of HarperCollins internet marketing efforts to identify business trends, quantify performance, and make recommendations for improving the online experience. Areas of analysis include the main corporate web sites, newsletters, global consumer database, online book browsing, and affiliate sales revenue.
Work with the HarperCollins technical support and Internet Development teams, as well as our vendors, to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve systems issues.
Work with our technical support and management teams to identify and develop plans for improving our online reporting infrastructure and offerings.

Key Responsibilities:
Specific analytical responsibilities are listed below. For each initiative, the business analyst is expected to identify areas for improvement and present recommendations to management.
Retrieve data from a variety of sources in order to measure and report on website performance and make recommendations for improving our site design.
For our book browsing application, provide monthly reporting on books receiving the most page views, earning the most ad revenue, and other ad hoc analysis to enable the Corporate Marketing Team to make business decisions.
Generate monthly reports of our newsletter results, including the number of newsletters distributed, number sent to consumers, number opened, number of click-throughs, and subscriber growth.
Generate monthly consolidated reporting on HC consumer data worldwide, including total number of subscribers and the number and % communicated with during the past month.
For global standardization, work with Corporate Marketing team to introduce our reports to sister divisions.
Provide ad hoc analysis to enable the Corporate Marketing Team to make business decisions.

Other Responsibilities:
In addition to the analytical responsibilities listed above, the business analyst will be expected to:
Help troubleshoot and resolve systems issues.
Provide recommendations for improving our online reporting infrastructure.
Research topics of interest to the group.
Help optimize our use of the Web Trends tool.

Skills Required:
Ideal candidate is a college grad with a degree that is quantitative in nature (economics, math, business) and 1-2 years experience in a media company
Strong written communication skills
Self starter with good time management skills
Exemplary problem-solving skills
Web Trends 7.5
SQL and/or Access
Advanced Excel

Apply online at:
http://www.harpercollinscareers.com/careers/careers/display_jobs.asp?id=inter_dev

Or, if you prefer, please email your resume, cover letter, and salary requirements to Jobs@HarperCollins.com with the subject line MM-BALH.

2007-01-31T15:02:00.000-05:00

John Pemberton, one of Professor Deb's good friends from InsightExpress will be here on Tuesday, February 6th at 1:30 PM to speak with BA/MA and MA students about getting economics jobs in marketing research and sales research. This could be a very good opportunity for those of you who are looking to find economics jobs outside of Wall St. and academia.

To learn more about InsightExpress, and how they develop marketing research and tools to help businesses fine-tune their strategies in real-time, visit them at:
http://www.insightexpress.com/

Accion Risk Analyst Position Available

2007-01-31T13:14:00.000-05:00

This may be a good opportunity for some of the students nearing completion of the BA or MA degree.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord

Hello. My name is Amelia Lobo; I work for Anne Sormani at Accion New York. I would like to take this opportunity to announce that we are looking for an Underwriter/
Risk Analyst. This is a very exciting opportunity for those of you interested in microfinance. The job posting is available at http://www.accionnewyork.org/employment.asp

Goldman Sachs Information Session

2007-01-23T11:09:00.000-05:00

I received the following from Paula Wicklow, just as a heads up to you, Saturday is January 27th, not January 29th.

Dear Students:

We have just been notified of an Information Session on summer internships being held by Goldman Sachs on Thursday, January 25 from 6-8 pm at their headquarters. In order to attend, you must RSVP to offcampusrecruiting@gs.com by 12pm on
Tuesday, January 23. Include your full name, school, month and year of graduation, major GPA and attach a copy of your resume. Professional dress is required.

In addition, to apply for summer internships with Goldman Sachs, apply online to
http://www.gs.com/careers by 11:59pm on Saturday, January 29. Summer internships are in Operations, Technology, Finance and Service areas.

For questions and additional information, please contact Paula Wicklow at 212-772-4832,
pwicklow@hunter.cuny.edu

I hope all of you had happy holidays, and look forward to seeing you on Monday.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord

Hunter Grad Economics

2006-12-12T22:54:00.000-05:00

There is no software that needs to be downloaded to view any videos. As far as 721 videos are concerned I am not aware of which one's are posted, but a majority should be up there. Google Video search is all you need to watch a video. If that gives you a problem then simply stop by Room 1533 Hunter West and watch the lecture you want to watch on the desktop.

Ryan

Correction

2006-12-07T21:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry, goof up at the end
Email: rjmurphy3@gmail.com
Number: 917 - 684 - 9256

Video Lectures

2006-12-07T21:31:00.000-05:00

Microeconomic videos will not be displayed tonight, google video is temporarily down, very sorry for the delay, it will be dealt with ASAP.
However, all video content is stored in the TA office, please feel free to stop by and watch a video whenever you want.
My email is 917 - 684 9256
Thanks,

Ryan

Multiple Items

2006-11-13T15:27:00.000-05:00

As a reminder, Dr. Filer is conducting a workshop on applying to PhD programs Tuesday at 9:30 pm in 1537.

The conference room has been reserved from 1:30-4:30 for a study group for Financial Economics (ECO 760)

On November 29th at 6pm, in 1537 (conference room), Nikola Duravcevic, a Portfolio Manager from the Seneca Capital Group will be holding an informal session on how to get jobs after you graduate.

The new computer is in the TA office (many thanks to Dr. Honig and ICIT), while TA work has priority, you are welcome to use either computer if you need to utilize any of the installed programs. Please note there are guidelines (behind the monitor) as to where you need to save items if you want them to be backed up before the computers undergo periodic re-imaging.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord

Job opening at ACCION

2006-11-09T00:46:00.000-05:00

Recent BA/MA alumnus Anne Sormani, who has already been very successful at ACCION New York, is looking to hire more Hunter students to work in microfinance. She writes:

... I am also looking for a Business Systems Analyst, which I thought could be of interest to a recent graduate (undergrad or grad students). If you would like to forward on this email to someone you know please feel free.

Description of the position http://www.accionnewyork.org/employment.asp

Hunter Grad Economics

2006-11-02T22:53:00.000-05:00

Concerning Macro, Yay Conference Room, Boo uncomfortable - non air condition seats.

In other news, expect a new computer, printer and copies of STATA to be found on the 15th floor.

Murph

P.S. Anyone down for soccer this saturday? Americans vs. Foreigners, just seems like the easiest way to make teams.

Attention ECO721 Students..

2006-11-01T21:47:00.000-05:00

Video Recording of Professor Deb's Section of ECO721 are now posted on Google Video and can be found at the following links:

Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
Class 7

We would like to thank everyone for their patience, while we were trying to find an adequate solution to the problems we had posting the videos.

Course Offerings Spring 07

2006-11-01T16:15:00.000-05:00

Course # Code Title Day Time Professor

703 4738 Macroeconomic Theory Wednesday 5:30 Thurston
722 3032 Econometrics Thursday 5:30 Deb
723 4401 Time Series Monday 7:30 Makram
732 4215 Economic Growth Thursday 7:30 Kearney
748 4735 Health Economics Wednesday 7:30 Tennant
756 4381 Law & Economics Monday 5:30 George
761 4384 Adv. Concepts in Financial Markets Tuesday 7:30 Thompson
762 4216 Corporate Governance Tuesday 5:30 Nyman

Please note that there will be other 700 level courses listed in the on-line schedule. These will be MA courses for the new ACCOUNTING program and may not be used for the MA in economics.

As before, please respond by return e-mail indicating your desired courses. You MUST include in the e-mail your name, ID Number, and status (matriculated MA or BA/MA at Hunter, nonmatriculated, BA only or other). the reason for this new requirement will be obvious in a couple of lines.

As always, registration permissions will be allocated in the following order:

1) Matriculated Hunter Students in the order received
2) Non-matriculated Graduate students
3) Hunter undergraduates
4) Permit students from other colleges.

The college has not yet found a room for Econ 703. If they do not do so, we will have to teach it in the Economics Department conference room. In that case, there will be a STRICT limit of 25 students, which will bind very early. (Of course, if we have requests for many more than that, it will increase the odds that they will find a larger room). If we must stick to the low limit, Dr. Filer will violate the order received priority to accommodate students who plan on graduating by January 2008.

New School Open House

2006-10-31T08:56:00.000-05:00

I know many of you have already narrowed down your lists of PhD programs, but if you have not, depending on what kind of program you are interested in, you may wish to look into the program at New School. The New School for Social Research (where the Economics Dept. is) is holding open houses on November 8, 2006 and December 5, 2006 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm in the Wolff Conference Room (65 Fifth Avenue 2nd Floor New York, NY 10003). If you would like to RSVP, the phone number and email to do so are: (212) 229-5710 and socialresearchadmit@newschool.edu , respectively.

If any of you become aware of other open houses for PhD Econ programs in the near future, please email me at klord@hunter.cuny.edu so I can post them here.

Best Regards as always,
Ken

Joe Stiglitz a the Grad Center Tuesday

2006-10-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

Reminder: The seminar with Joseph Stiglitz will be held tomorrow (Tuesday at 11:45am) in rooms
C201-202 (Concourse, below the first floor). Professor Stiglitz will talk on: “A Modest Proposal for the Reform of the Global Financial System.”

Career Panel

2006-10-28T15:40:00.000-04:00

On November 16th, from 1400-1600, Hunter will be hosting "Career Opportunities In City Government" in the Student Center. Among others, there will be speakers and representatives present from the NYC Department of Finance as well as from the NYC Department of Management and Budget. Students are asked to email career@hunter.cuny.edu if you are interested in attending.

An Article of interest

2006-10-25T20:04:00.000-04:00

An interesting article appeared in the Financial Times

Business students portrayed as ethically minded in study

By Rebecca Knight in Boston

A study portrays today's business school studentsas ethically minded and concerned about issues of corporate social responsibility. The study, released yesterday, is based on research conducted by Net Impact, a group of MBA and graduate students who advocate that businesses should work for the social good. Net Impact polled 2,100 MBA students in 87 programmes in the US and Canada.

Students surveyed overwhelmingly said that they believed corporate profits and social responsibility could co-exist.

About 81 per cent of the students said companies should try to work "toward the betterment of society", while 18 per cent thought most of them were already seeking that goal.

Nearly 90 per cent said business leaders should factor social and environmental effects into their business decisions, with 60 per cent saying such an approach could be profitable.

In the aftermath of scandals at Enron and WorldCom, many US business schools have placed a greater emphasis on ethics courses in their programmes of study.

According to the survey, about 78 per cent of MBA students believed classes in corporate social responsib-ility should be part ofthe core curriculum in MBA programmes.

The survey, which was presented at a business school forum at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, also found that MBA students were interested in working in socially responsible jobs.

Nearly 80 per cent ofstudents polled wanted to find socially responsible employment at some point in their careers, according to the survey, while 59 per cent said they would seek such work immediately after graduating from business school.

The survey comes only a month after a separate study published by Duke University's centre for academic integrity found that 56 per cent of MBA students admitted cheating, compared with 47 per cent of graduate students in non-business programmes.

Business schools are highly competitive and have been criticised for fostering a "culture of greed" in MBA programmes.

Best regards,

Aziz

Thesis Workshop Tomorrow

2006-10-20T14:57:00.000-04:00

From Professor Filer,

Given the full class schedule this year, the consensus seems to be that the best time for a workshop on thesis writing hints would be on a Saturday. Accordingly, I have chosen Saturday October 21st. We will review the requirements and I will try and provide as many hints as I can accumulated over years of seeing students succeed (and fail) in the process. We will cover scheduling, format, literature searches, how to pick a topic, etc. The ideal participant would be a student who plans on finishing a thesis for 2007 graduation (June, September or December) but all students would benefit. We will start at 11 and run until we are done (before dinner time!) Lunch will be provided. Please confirm participation by return e-mail so we will know how much lunch to obtain.

Regards

Professor Filer

War, Genocide and Economic Growth

2006-10-18T16:37:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow's brown bag seminar (Thursday 10/19, 11:30am-1pm in HW 1537) will be given by Nils-Petter Lagerlöf from York University (on leave at Brown) who will present: War and Genocide: Is There a Connection to Transitions From Stagnation to Growth?

Now you know why we're called the Dismal Science. This should be a provocative talk combining both empirical analysis and growth theory. Matt Baker will be the next speaker on 11/2 with his talk on "Technological Progress, Property Rights, and Population Growth: A Structural Model of the Transition to Agriculture."

The entire schedule is online. All BA/MA students warmly invited to attend.
~~ Ingmar and Jonathan

ECO 721 Study Group

2006-10-16T12:26:00.000-04:00

After conferring with both students and professors, I have arranged for the conference room (1537 HW) to be available for an ECO721 study group on Wednesday from 1:30-4:30. The study group will not be led/moderated. While we are happy to answer specific questions, your ability to succeed, especially in 722, will be strongly correlated to your ability to study, research, and learn in a more peer-oriented and individual manner. I realize that the time may not be convienent for you, however there are significant limitations on the availability of the conference room this semester.

*It has come to my attention there will be a fire drill at approximately 1:30, you may wish to wait until the drill is completed before beginning your review.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord

Invisible Children / Child labor

2006-10-10T13:29:00.000-04:00

On behalf of Americans for Informed Democracy(AID), I am honored to invite you to attend a screening of a groundbreaking documentary called “Invisible Children" . “Invisible Children” is a rough cut documentary made by several young Americans to document the war in Northern Uganda , in which children are being abducted by a rebel army and forced to fight as child soldiers. After the film Professor Partha Deb who had done a research on the same theme of the movie will lead us in a discussion on the topic of child labor. This event will take place on Wednesday, October 11th at 1 pm, Thomas Hunter Room 105 Our plan for this event is to first screen the film, which is 55 minutes long and then have 30-45 minutes of discussion about what we’ve just watched together. Free Snacks will be served.

For more information see http://www.invisiblechildren.com/

Brown Bag Seminar

2006-10-03T15:52:00.000-04:00

From Professor Conning

The Hunter Economics Brown Bag Seminar series has started up again. The talks will be held every other Thursday from 11:30am-1pm in the Economics Seminar room. All Hunter BA/MA students are very welcome and encouraged to attend. This semesters talks are focused on public finance (Brunner, Rockoff), macro (Westelius), and some very interesting demographic issues in economic development (Lagerlof, Baker, Kazianga).

Date

Speaker

Oct 5th

Eric Brunner (Quinnipiac College)

Tiebout Choice and Universal School Vouchers

Oct 19th

Nils-Petter Lagerlöf (York U and Brown U)

War and genocide: is there a connection to transitions from stagnation to growth?

Nov 2nd

Matt Baker (Hunter College)

Technological Progress, Property Rights, and Population Growth: A Structural Model of the Transition to Agriculture.

Nov 16th

Jonah Rockoff (GSB, Columbia)
Title to be announced.

Nov 30th

Harounan Kazianga (Columbia and The World Bank)
The Intra-household Economics of Polygyny: Fertility and Child Mortality in Rural Mali

Dec 14th

Niklas Westelius (Hunter College)

Imperfect Transparency and Optimal Monetary Policy

The website with the papers is available here: http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/RePEc/seminar/

You might want to mention that Hunter Faculty are also involved in organizing or presenting the seminars in two other series:

The Friday 1pm Labor, Education and Health Seminar and the Tuesday 11:45am Applied Economics Seminar
both held in room 5383 at the Graduate Center. Worth highlighting is a talk by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz to be held at the Graduate Center
Tuesday Oct 31 (Room C201&C202) entitled "A Modest Proposal for the Reform of the Global Financial System."

I've also made a public Google Calendar that lists the talks from all three series in one place.

Elections

2006-09-29T17:04:00.000-04:00

Thank you for your participation in the HCSFE elections on Thursday and Friday. All the necessary paperwork has been completed and submitted to the USG. We really appreciate the time many of you took to stop by the office and vote.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord

HCSFE Elections

2006-09-27T11:15:00.000-04:00

In addition to the Friday hours elections and budget input, and because of numerous people informing me of schedule conflicts, HCSFE (The undergrad part) will be effectively holding a two day election on both this Thursday (2:00pm-6:30pm), and this Friday (2:30pm-5:00pm). We need at least a quorum of active members (16) to vote... the process is fairly quick since the three electable positions are uncontested.

We are aware of the encoding problems with some of the videos on the website, including those in the ECO721 section... we are working diligently to re-encode the videos so they work properly, but the process is time consuming (for a 140 minute class, the total time to convert from tape to a raw file, then from a raw file to a properly encoded file is 280 minutes). In our budget request (which only gets to go through the process if we have enough people vote), we have requested a DV camera to streamline the process. I cannot impress upon you enough how important it is to vote on Thursday or friday.... the appropriate voting forms will be available in 1538 HW both days, regardless of time (until 5:00 friday, when they get submitted). It is only with your support that we can utilize the money you already pay in fees so that we can provide you with resources to help you achieve your academic goals.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord

Hunter now has WRDS access (and this is a big deal for you finance people)

2006-09-25T08:17:00.000-04:00

Hi guys,

Prof. Filer has informed me that Hunter now has access to the Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), an on-line portal that gives you access to data from the NYSE, CRSP, Thomson Financial, and many others.

This is the kind of access that firms pay dearly for, so I strongly suggest to students that are seeking to do a finance-centered thesis to either see your thesis advisor or Prof. Filer on how to establish an account.