An Interview with Edward Kokkelenberg, Chair of the Economics Department at Harpur College

The Harpur Hotline was pleased to interview Edward Kokkelenberg, chair of one of the busiest departments on campus.

What's going on in Economics?
Our number of majors has grown over the last four or five years from about 220 to 650. We've essentially tripled our majors, but in terms of our faculty, we haven't grown as fast. In brief, faculty has grown by about 30% and students have grown by 300%. We have installed a new program, Financial Economics in which we emphasize the economics aspect of finance. The graduates are getting good jobs, but it shouldn't be thought of as a management school alternative. We've also established a Bachelor of Science program in Policy Analysis. About 15 students have elected for that option, which is doing quite well too, but it is more recent than the finance option.

What is policy analysis?
Well, these students are interested in political science, law, or possibly things like governmental service or think tank occupations. The tax policies of New York would be an area of interest for them, as opposed to someone who is interested in Wall Street or corporate finance. So it deals with fiscal policy, governmental policy, and the law.

What kind of research are your professors doing in your department?

A wide variety.

• Bent Sørensen, who is one of our new senior faculty, has presented several papers on risk sharing in an international sphere. He's recently published two papers on risk sharing in extremely important journals. One is the American Economic Review and the other is in the Journal of Political Economy.

• Neha Khanna, one of our outstanding young faculty, has a number of publications in the areas of air pollution, climate change and environmental issues. She is working on a paper on the Environmental Kuznets Curve. This is a theoretical relationship between pollution levels and economic wealth or income. This relationship postulates that as countries increase their economic activity, they start polluting more, until they reach a point where they start valuing the quality of life, and as their income goes up, they can afford to devote more resources to reduce pollutants. There's some question as to whether that theory is consistent with real data.

• Linda Wong, another up-and-coming young faculty, just received the John M. Olin Visiting Scholar Award at the University of Chicago. She works on the economics of the marriage market, mismatch issues and the speed and cost of how you find a partner. That's an outgrowth of how firms and employees find each other and how it affects productivity.

• Bong Joon Yoon has been working on labor militancy in South Korea. His research interests have changed from econometrics (mathematical and statistical analysis of economic data) to looking at the economics of free market economies.

• Sol Polachek is continuing to publish things he started back when he was Dean and working with research associate John Robst (Ph.D. `95). He's also written "Perceptions of Female Faculty Treatment in Higher Education" with Jennifer Van Gilder (M.A. `96, Ph.D. `00) and new work on multilateral interactions within the trade conflict model. He has received some notable awards and given talks at very good forums, including as an invitee to the 80th birthday commemoration of Jacob Mincer, a famous economist at Columbia.

• Florenz Plassmann, another new, young faculty, has done work on gun control, fair and efficient compensation for taking property, and urban economics.

• Haim Ofek has just finished a book, Second Nature: Economic Origins of Human Evolution and he's starting to work on an extension of that book.

• One of our most notable economists is Subal Kumbhakar. He keeps circling the world giving invited papers at prestigious conferences. He publishes work about productivity and efficiency and his work is very technical. The efficiency of individual banks, individual ship building yards, or fishing boats are some recent studies. A productive scholar, he averages about five publications per year.

• Ronald Britto just returned from a year's sabbatical in Europe where he was at Heidelberg, Germany and Thesalonika, Greece.

• Ken Greene keeps publishing articles about public choice and public economics. He recently wrote a book with Professor Emeritus Philip Nelson about the economics of politics and of moral behavior.

• Barry Jones is another young faculty. He works on macroeconomics issues and monetary economics.

• I just sent off an article on the effect of class size on student achievement. The bottom line is that you want to be in a class of 20 or less because your chance of a good grade increases.

That brings me to the next question: why the surge in popularity for economics?
Let me give you some history: back in the mid 80's, economics was quite popular -- not to the extent that we are today -- we had about 300 - 350 majors. This fell to about 220 in the late 80's and early 90's. It was like falling off a cliff. Every school experienced this; apparently it was quite a common phenomenon at liberal arts colleges, big research institutions like Yale and Cornell, public institutions like ourselves, "Big Ten" schools, right down to the small privates like Beloit, Ithaca College. St. Bonaventure, etc. They all lost econ majors. We're not sure why that happened then, and we're not quite sure why we've got this great surge now. People cite the stock market boom (economics is useful to someone participating in related occupations), or that it's a good entrance to law school, policy-making organizations, or an MBA program. All of this is true, but it also may be a question of the alternatives students face at this time. If good jobs are hard to get, students will opt to stay in school. So there is the attraction of high paying Wall Street jobs, or the MBA schools, and the lack of good jobs in other disciplines that leads to this surge. I like to think our superb program also has something to do with our particular success.

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Ali Bouanani
Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies

J. David Hacker
Assistant Professor of History

William Heller
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Douglas Holmes
Professor of Anthropology

Anna Klintsova
Assistant Professor of Psychology

Paul Loya
Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences

Marcin Mazur
Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences

Pamela Smart
Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Mary Lee Sullivan
Visiting Assistant Professor of Romance Languages

Michael West
Associate Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies

Thomas Wilson
Professor of Anthropology

Zili Yang
Assistant Professor of Economics

Not pictured: Karin Sauer, assistant professor of Biological Sciences, Rosemary Arrojo, professor of Comparative Literature, and Jean-Francois Lafont, visiting assistant professor of Mathematical Sciences.

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Harpur College Congratulates Promoted Professors

Harpur College of Arts and Sciences has promoted the faculty members listed below. We recognize their successful research, publication, teaching, and service to Binghamton University. Many have produced original research in their fields, worked hard to improve the campus, and most importantly, delighted their students. Harpur College is pleased to recognize this important milestone in their careers.

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The Tradition Continues! Harpur College alumni reunited in September 2001 for a warm, memorable, fun weekend. Call your friends and mark your calendar for this year's big event on October 11, 12 and 13.

All alumni are encouraged to "come home again or for the first time" and participate in this annual event for Binghamton University. Special reunions or homecomings are being organized for alumni groups who have indicated an interest in a homecoming. Click the banner above for more information. Hope to see you there!

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Harpur Friends & Family

In response to your much-appreciated feedback, the Harpur Hotline has developed a regular feature of alumni news. Please send us anything you want: publications, promotions, marriages, babies, graduations, retirements, etc. Many thanks to everyone who shared their stories. Here's what some of your fellow Harpur alumni are doing:

1958: Steve Mydanick and wife Susan are thrilled to announce the birth of their first grandchild, Michael Roark DiNapoli (pictured right), on August 15. Mydanick serves as director for corporate affairs for the Society for Accessible Travel & Hospitality and will run their Seventh World Congress in Miami in January 2002. "The Society seeks to facilitate understanding between the Disabled Community and the Travel Industry," he explained. The Mydanicks live in Boca Raton, Fl. "We see Jerry and Anita Weiss and other Harpur Alumni in the area," Steve writes. He has also stayed in touch with Professor Emeritus Kenneth Lindsay. "I still revere the man and what he taught me."

1972: Margaret "Margi" Park and Teven Laxer ‘71 are producing the Sacramento Jewish Film Festival, scheduled for March 2003. The event is dedicated to social justice issues, such as racial discrimination, freedom of speech, activism, and unions. On opening night, the festival will highlight the controversial "Strange Fruit," starring Billie Holiday, among other contemporary, award-winning selections.  For further information, contact the Manager of the Crest Theatre at www.thecrest.com.

1972: The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has named William J. Froehlich head of its newly re-established Office of Administrative Litigation. He will oversee the nearly 100-member Commission trial staff who represent the public interest in administrative proceedings at the Commission. The office provides testimony, exhibits and studies on electric rate, transmission, open access and restructuring cases and in natural gas rate-design cases. Froehlich graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1975 and also teaches administrative law at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

1976: Rosemarie Zeccola and husband Anthony Poole `76 live in Apalachin, NY and have two daughters, Angela (16) and Leanna (8). Zeccola is a licensed Occupational Therapist at Broome Developmental Center in Binghamton and Poole works at Binghamton University’s Computing Services Center.

1985: Francene D. Reichel Sokol told the Harpur Hotline, "After graduation, I attended graduate school at Brandeis University where I earned my Master Degree and my Ph.D.  I then taught at Brown University in the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences.  I also worked part-time at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in the Neuropsychology Laboratory and taught at their Institute of Health Professions.  In 1994, I married a wonderful guy named Scott Sokol and we are blessed with a little boy named Benjamin.  We now live in the Boston area, and I am happily employed as the Chair of the Mathematics Department at Maimonides School in Brookline, MA.  I am especially excited about this year's curriculum, as I'll be teaching a new science elective in Neuroscience.  As for hobbies, I do a lot of singing.  I've sung with a number of Boston choirs including the Zamir Chorale of Boston (13 years!).  I continue to sing with a number of community groups."

1986: From Old Hickory, TN, Dorinda (Trumble) Wolentarski (pictured with her husband and daughter) writes, "Since April of this year, I have been elected onto the homeowner's board, and am currently the newsletter's editor-in-chief, as well as the welcoming committee and the clubhouse committee chairperson. Recently I unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the county commission; however, I have been asked by the city of Mt. Juliet to sit on their newly formed greenways commission. This commission will be in charge of planning where bike trails and hiking trails will be placed in the city, as well as controlling growth along these trails. I remain very active in local politics, and I am enjoying watching my daughter Rachel grow every day! You can reach me at grnpc@comcast.net."

1988: Kathleen Colligan Cleary (MA) earned a PhD at Ohio State University in 1994 and now coordinates Clark State Community College’s Performing Arts Program in Springfield, Ohio. She writes, "I just finished playing the part of "Miss Rose" in the film, ‘Diary of a New York Lady’, based on the short story by Dorothy Parker." The independent film will appear at festivals nationwide starting in October.

1988: Dan Reynolds was back on campus for University Fest. He is hot on the campaign trail, running for Broome County Legislator of the 19th District. Reynolds has been practicing law in the Binghamton area since graduating from Albany Law School in 1991. In his spare time, he is a Vestal Youth Soccer coach and serves on the Board of Directors of the Broome County Bar Association. Reynolds is married to Nancy Barno `88, MSED `90, who works as a teacher. The couple has four children, ranging in age from one to eight.

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