Department of Economics M.A. Forecasting Program Faculty

The core faculty associated with the program are four current members of the Economics Department plus one new member who is expected to join the department in Fall 2004. In teaching the courses designated for the certificate, these faculty will be joined by outside economists who are experts in forecasting. In addition, a number of faculty from other departments at the University are affiliated with the forecasting programs.

Professor Kajal Lahiri, an internationally recognized forecasting expert, has agreed to spearhead the departmental effort to set up the certificate program and teach some of the core forecasting courses.

Resource Economics

Introductory Statistics is a class most students approach with fear and trembling, but for Richard Rogers, associate professor of Resource Economics, this attitude just makes teaching the course a more interesting challenge. "My motto is: Stats is Fun',' says Rogers. "And I want students to be pleasantly surprised."

Rogers's enthusiasm and teaching skill have earned him public recognition, including the College of Food and Natural Resources's Outstanding Teaching Award and the University's Distinguished Teaching Award as well as the USDA's National Award for Excellence in College and University Teaching. Colleagues and students praise his creativity and commitment. "Even when he has developed a course to perfection, he will tinker with the next offering and, to my amazement, will improve upon perfection." wrote Cleve Willis, head of Resource Economics, in support of Rogers' nomination for the Distinguished Teaching Award.

A slim man in his early 40's, Rogers conducts the class with energy and enthusiasm. He will stop at almost nothing to make statistics comprehensible to his 367 students, whose range of mathematical skill varies greatly. Every Friday he plays "Stats Live!" with the class, adopting a snappy game-show host manner as he uses his computer to choose students to participate in empirical demonstrations of statistics concepts discussed in class. He has even resorted to handing out hundreds of bags of M&M's to the students so they can calculate the probability of finding different colors in each bag.

"I'll spend $35 or $40 out of my own pocket for the M&M's," he says. "Some students think it's silly, but for others, it's a tangible way to relate to the concept of probability."

Not every minute is fun and games, but Rogers does his best to connect the material with students' daily lives. One Friday morning in September, he starts a lecture on probability by exclaiming,"Get statistics into your weekend. Just think, you'll probably go out, and you probably won't have a good time!" The students burst into laughter. "This stuff applies," he says. He then asks the students how they like his outfit � khakis, a denim shirt and a stylish black-and-white tie. Having engaged their attention, he turns on his overhead projector and begins the days lecture.

Rogers illustrates statistical formulas using simple examples like throwing dice and flipping coins. He then applies the formulas to serious, real-life situations, such as the probability of getting breast cancer or the accuracy of the stereotype that young people don't vote. Once he had his students do a taste test of Stateline potato chips, which the company used as market research. "It gave the students a practical view of how companies make decisions," he explains. He laces his lectures with up-to-the-minute examples from UMass (the changing length of basketball shorts) or national news (public opinion supporting Ross Perot's participation in the presidential debates).

Rogers cares not only about communicating his subject, but also about setting an example. "A student may have forgotten standard deviations," he says, "but will remember how I responded to a person of color in the classroom."

Tardiness is unacceptable. "I tell students,'If you're 15 minutes late for your plane at spring break, it doesn't wait for you.'"

For students who need extra help, Rogers holds "Saturday Stats" sessions. "It's exciting," he says. "By fear or some other motivation, I've brought them in on Saturday morning to talk about statistics." He also offers an honors section "open to anyone who's extremely serious about the class and would like to put forth the extra effort to make me feel my job is worthwhile."

Along with his commitment to teaching, Rogers is also a nationally recognized scholar. He studies the structure and performance of the national food industry, a subject he teaches to upper level and graduate students. Having attended large public universities himself (Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin), Rogers wants students to recognize that they are getting a first-rate education at UMass. "I want them to think: 'He's available to us, and he's widely respected in his field.'"

The secret of Rogers' success is simple, he says."I really care. It's a passion. Every day I come in wanting to do a good job in the classroom."

MU professor Haslag named Kenneth Lay Chair in Economics

COLUMBIA — The MU Economics Department has finally hired a professor for the department’s Kenneth Lay Chair in Economics, a position it has struggled to fill for nearly a decade.

Lay, an MU alumnus, donated $1.1 million of Enron stock in 1999 to fund the chair.

After years of attempting to use the chair to bring in world-renowned economists from other universities, the College of Arts and Science has now decided to give it to one of their own, Joseph Haslag.

He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MU and his doctorate from Southern Methodist University. He has been employed at MU since 2000.

As Lay Chair, Haslag will be paid $150,000 for the academic year.

Lay was CEO of Enron from 1986 until 2002. The company declared bankruptcy in 2001. Enron’s bankruptcy and collapse caused the loss of more than 4,000 jobs and $2.1 billion in pension plans. The company and Lay’s name subsequently were associated with shoddy accounting practices and white-collar crime. The Missourian reported in 2002 that MU raised $1.1 million when it sold Lay’s donated Enron stock in 1999.

In 2002, MU faculty members spoke out against the university’s ties to Lay and acceptance of such a large donation from him.

Professor Emeritus Haskell Hinnant was one of the faculty members to speak out, but now thinks that Lay’s stigma is fading with time and the greater issue is MU’s difficulty filling the position.

“It’s a little embarrassing that they weren’t able to fill it with an outside person,” Hinnant said. “But the university has other embarrassments, too.”

Michael O’Brien, dean of MU’s College of Arts and Science, said the department made four offers to faculty at other universities, all of which were topped by counteroffers from the professors’ home institutions.

“We know what we’re up against in this arms race,” O’Brien said.

However, O’Brien maintains that Haslag is a good candidate for the chair position.

“We’re just delighted to be able to use the chair to retain one of the outstanding faculty members in Arts and Science,” he said.

Professor Emeritus Rex Campbell, who spoke out in 2002 against Lay’s donation, said he still thinks that filling the chair position could be damaging to the MU’s reputation.

“I don’t know what the impact is going to be immediately,” he said.

Haslag said that his duties will not change significantly with his new position.

“My position is to continue to do as high quality economic research as I can and to teach students here at MU,” he said.

Welcome to the Economics Program

Economics is a study of how our society chooses to allocate its limited resources to best meet our unlimited wants. As a social science, economics attempts to describe behavioral idiosyncrasies of consumers and producers and their responses to changes in incentives. Furthermore, economics attempts to predict future patterns of economic environment on an individual as well as a global scale. An economics degree is ideal for most careers. Economics stresses critical thinking. Economics also stresses computer proficiency and communications skills. There is a plethora of potential jobs available for those with economics degree. Graduates work in government, academia, commercial banks, insurance companies, International lending institutions, unions, consulting firms, and trade associations. Red Rocks offers economic courses in a variety of formats including on-line classes.

Department of Economics

Economics is the study of the ways in which individuals, households, companies, industries, governments, and nations allocate scarce resources among alternative uses and the resulting consequences of these decisions. The choices and the consequences are evaluated in terms of performance criteria such as efficiency, stability, and economic growth.  The understanding and the objective evaluation of these choices and their consequences allow us to explore alternative forms of private and public organizations and their economic decisions that may further improve the long-run performance of those organizations and institutions.

The Department of Economics at Cleveland State University offers a general undergraduate economics major and minor as well as an MA program in Economics.  The Department also offers a certificate program in Applied Economics and Public Policy.  These web pages provide more detailed information about these programs, the faculty and the Department's research activities. Please feel free to navigate our website through the links provided on the right side of this page.

Economics Department

The Department strives to acquaint the students with the economic aspects of modern society, familiarize them with the techniques for the analysis of the contemporary economic problems and develop in them an ability to exercise judgment in evaluating public policy. There is training for the students as well as for those who plan careers as economists in civil service, private enterprise, teaching, or research.

The under-graduate programme provides an excellent background for those who want to graduate in the professional schools (for example, business and law).

The primary objective of the graduate programme is to educate students as research economists. In the process, students also acquire the background and the skills necessary for careers as university teachers and as practitioners of economics. The curriculum includes a comprehensive treatment of modern theory and empirical techniques.

School of Economics and Management

I studied at Lund University School of Economics and Management. it encompasses the department of business administration, department of economics, department of economics history, department of business law, department of informatics, etc!