Vol. XIX, Spring 2007

By Duke Economics in Uncategorized on August 9, 2007.

The Duke Journal of Economics is published each year to showcase outstanding research in economics by Duke undergraduates. This volume contains both honors theses and essays. The articles are examples of research written by Duke Undergraduates at various stages of their economics education at Duke. Honors theses which were presented at the 2006 undergraduate research symposium and are to be published in the special edition of the Duke Journal of Economics devoted to that symposium are not included here.

The Allen Starling Johnson, Jr, award for the best thesis was shared by R. Selin Dilmenter and Tzuo Hann Law. Dilmenter’s thesis “A Theory of Evacuation as a Coordination Problem” is published in the symposium issue of the DJE, and Law’s thesis, “The Elusiveness of Systematic Jumps,” is published in this issue.

We dedicate this issue to the memory of Peggy East. Peggy joined the Duke economics department in 1979, serving as secretary and eventually the administrative assistant and continuing to return to help after her retirement from full time work. At our service in her honor this spring several members of the department spoke. We include their reflections on Peggy here. At the service Tom Nechyba announced that henceforth the economics department conference room would be known as “The Peggy B. East conference room.” Her name is on the door and her picture on the wall facing those of the past chairs of the department.

Some honors theses lead to publication in the profession’s peer reviewed journals. Pauline Abetti (Duke BS, Economics, 2006) will be publishing a revision of her honors thesis, “Congressional Voting on DR-CAFTA: A Focus on Environmental Lobbying” in the March 2008 issue of the Journal of Economic Policy Reform.

Five undergraduate and master’s students wrote book reviews in the spring of 2007, which have been scheduled for publication in scholarly journals. We are delighted that their critical skills are being appreciated by the profession. These are:

Indra Astrayuda, On the Wealth of Nations, by P.J. O’Rourke. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006. Econochannel (published by State University of Jakarta, Indonesia) forthcoming in September 2007 and also on the journal’s website.
Simon Blank, A Corporate Solution to Global Poverty: How Multinationals Can Help the Poor and Invigorate Their Own Legitimacy, by George Lodge and Craig Wilson. Princeton University Press, 2006. Journal of Economic Ideas.
Agung Budilaksono, East Asia, Globalization, and the New Economy, by F. Gerard Adams, Routledge, 2006. South Asia Economic Journal, (published in India) forthcoming in September 2007.
Katelyn Donnelly, The Marketplace of Christianity, by Robert B. Ekelund, Robert Hébert, and Robert Tollison. MIT Press, 2006. History of Political Economy.
Annah Peterson, Africa’s Silk Road: China and India’s New Economic Frontier, by Harry G. Broadman, The World Bank, 2007. Africa Today, forthcoming in early 2008.

Our department is pleased when undergraduates organize house seminars for themselves and other undergraduates. Joshua Kazdin developed and chaired a course titled “Investment, Political Economy and Economic Regionalism in Asia.” The syllabus for that course is available on the “Open Courseware for the Study of China’s Economy” website: http://ics.nccu.edu.tw/eced/eocw/.

We congratulate the students mentioned above and the authors of the research presented in this issue.

Thanks go to Chris Genwright, who put the journal online.

Charles Becker & Ed Tower, Faculty Advisors to the Journal