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Housed within the Department of Economics, the Georgetown Center for Economic Research (GCER) is set up to foster an environment of open and rigorous scientific inquiry into current economic policy issues and problems.

To read more about our mission and activities, click here.  

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The Washington area political economy conference took place at the Inter-American Development Bank on May 19-20, 2015. The Washington PECO is an annual political economy conference hosted jointly by Washington area institutions, including Georgetown Center for Economic Research, the Department of Economics, the School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The conference is held each Spring.

See the conference website for more information.

 

The fourth annual GCER-IZA@DC Young Scholar Program is set to take place from September 27 to October 2, 2015 on the GU campus. The Young Scholar program is a joint effort by GCER and the IZA to bring outstanding PhD students to the Georgetown campus and meet with top labor economists from around world. 

Click here for the schedule of speakers. 

George Akerlof, University Professor and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001, presented the 2015 Razin Policy Lecture this past April. Professor Akerlof is a renowned economist whose innovative work on markets with asymmetric information explains why such markets often break down.

This year's Lecture, entitled "Phishing for Phools," was the 18th such lecture established by the Razin family in 1997 to honor the memory of Ofair Razin (1966 - 1996; PhD, Georgetown University, 1996).

Click here for more on the Razin Policy Lecture, its background, and history.

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Women's rise in college graduation rates in the last 40 years is spectacular by historical standards. In contrast to graduation rates, however, gender convergence in choice of major virtually ceased after the early 1980s. In 1985, women were awarded nearly 80% of education degrees and about 85% of degrees in nursing and health support fields, but less than 30% of hard science and engineering fields. The same is still true today.

In her study, "Degrees are Forever: Marriage, Educational Investment, and Lifecycle Labor Decisions of Men and Women," GCER Fellow Mary Ann Bronson shows that two facts help explain these observed gender differences in educational choices. First, a college degree provides insurance against very low income for women, especially after divorce or household separation. Secondly, Bronson shows that college majors differ substantially in the degree of 'work-family flexibility' they offer...

Click  here for complete profile.

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*GCER Fellow's research on voting abstention appears in VOX article

New research by GCER Fellow Laurent Bouton on voting abstention was recently published in the March 2015 issue of VOX. As distinct from the silent consent of traditional abstention rules, Bouton et. al. show that constructive abstention effectively combines the information aggregation aspects of majority rule while still allowing for veto power...

*GCER Fellow Levinson featured on Freakonomics Radio

Arik Levinson, GU Economics Professor and GCER Fellow was recently interviewed on Freakonomics Radio, a forum for economic ideas started by best-selling authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. In the interview Levinson discusses his recent paper, "How Much Energy Do Building Energy Codes Really Save? Evidence From California"...

*GCER Fellow Bouton examines restaurant rankings in Atlantic article

New research by GCER economist Laurent Bouton is featured in the June 2015 on-line edition of the Atlantic. The article, entitled "Consumers love rankings, but they may end up doing more harm than good" discusses Bouton's paper with co-author Georg Kirchsteiger on the effect of rankings of products on the welfare of consumers...

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Our PhD program is and will remain a hub of intellectual activity and advancement here at Georgetown.

This year's Razin Prize for best doctoral research paper was awarded to Jason Albert for his work on "Strategic Dynamics of Antibiotic Use and the Evolution of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections." Congratulations to Jason.

Congratulations to Georgetown Economics PhD student Caitlin Brown and Andrew Whitten for recieving the prestigious Vernon E. Jordan Jr Fellowship Award presented by the Economic Club of Washington. Caitlin and Andrew are the fifth and sixth GU students to receive the award, joining past recipients Jacob Mortenson, Alison Weingarten, Claire Brunel, and Mauricio Villamizar.

 

The 14th Annual Carroll Round was successfully held at Georgetown University from April 16th to 19th. The goal of the Carroll Round is to foster the exchange of ideas among leading undergraduate international economics and political economy students by encouraging and supporting the pursuit of scholarly innovation in the field. Read more about it here.

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GCER's activities are funded by a variety of sources, including contributions. Your generous contribution helps the center to advance its mission of research excellence.

To make a donation, please visit the Georgetown College's on-line gifting web site  and fill out the on-line form. Under the heading "Direct your gift,"  specify "Other". In the line that appears directly below, type "Georgetown Center for Economic Research (GCER)-Economics Department."  Thank you for your support.