Some Hype About the USC Economics Department
I joined USC’s Economics Department 8 years ago because I believed the hype that a private University in the Los Angeles sunshine can outperform the lower tier of the Ivy League schools and quickly build a great department. I am now even more confident about this bet. Yes, I ducked out for 2 years and learned that the grass isn’t greener in Baltimore. Yes, we need to continue to improve our PHD program and to improve our student placement. In recent years, we have had great success placing students in private sector data science jobs.
In this column, I want to focus on the USC Economics talent under the age of 45. I won’t be talking about myself here. Anonymous websites go on that USC is an older department. In 2023, that’s not true. The order I list people will be from A to Z. I won’t even mention the talented people at USC Price or Marshall. Let’s see if we can identify 20 rising stars.
#1 Marianne Andries —- she has published in the JPE (I have never achieved that feat). Behavioral finance , macro/finance
#2 Tim Armstrong —- a co-editor of Econometrica. Tim turned down an offer from a top 5 department to remain on our faculty. Revealed preference! Tim is always willing to answer my stupid questions!!
#3 Yuehao Bai a recent hire who moved from University of Michigan to USC. Revealed preference again! He has published a solo authored piece in the AER. He is a Uchicago graduate and we crack plenty of jokes together about our old training ground.
#4 Vittorio Bassi —- my co-author. I worry that our joint work is dragging down his average! He has published two pieces in Econometrica.
#5 Augustin Bergeron development and local public finance. As I try to learn more about Africa, he is always willing to chat with me.
#6 Fanny Camara Structural IO
#7 Thomas Chaney —- A key anchor of our faculty. Editor at RESTUD.
#8 Pablo Kurlat —- Pablo joined us when I was the Department Chair. I always learn from speaking with him. He is always willing to answer my many macro questions.
#9 Nicholas Lambert —— Theory is back! USC is serious about having 4 balanced groups (micro, macro, applied micro and econometrics).
#10 Jonathan Libgober —- more theory, more ideas, more enthusiasm and a great spirit. He was hired when I was Department Chair.
#11 Rob Metcalfe —- - my co-author, journal editor, applied micro, field experiments.
#12 Monica Morlacco —- macro/trade —- very interesting work bridging micro/macro . She was hired when I was department Chair.
#13 Afshin Nikzad —- He has 2 PHDS! market design research.
#14 Paulina Oliva —- a leader in development and environmental economics. UC Berkeley’s PHD program is a well known stellar training program. Paulina has helped us to implement many of teaching innovations she gained from during her time at UC Berkeley.
#15 Simon Quach —-Labor economist with an exciting research agenda
#16 Jeff Weaver —- more than 20 years younger than me and he has already published more papers in the AER than I have!
At USC, CESR is part of the Economics Department. Permit me to name some young stars who are part of USC Econ and CESR.
#17 Dan Bennett
#18 Simone Schaner
#19 Silvia Barcellos
#20 Maria Prados
#21 Leandro Carvalho
To close this promotion post, I want to point out that REPEC ranks our department at #13 in research productivity in the U.S. I view this to be “too generous”. Our Deans tells us that our current rank of #38 in U.S News and World Report is how they see us. This ranks us way too low. We are just inside the top 20 and we are rising.
The department has achieved this rise while we only have 1 endowed chair. People are voting with their feet to join us.