Curriculum Vitae

Placement Director: Neil Wallace
    (814) 863-3805
     neilw@psu.edu

Contact Information:
Gary Lyn
Office: (814) 865-1108
Cell: (814) 380-2389
Email: gary.lyn@psu.edu
Website: http://www.personal.psu.edu/gal154/

CITIZENSHIP:

• Jamaica, F1 Visa

EDUCATION:

• Ph.D., Economics, The Pennsylvania State University, June 2012 (expected)
• M.Sc., Economics, University of the West Indies, Jamaica, 2006 (Distinction)
• B.Sc., Economics, University of the West Indies, Jamaica, 2004 (First Class Honors

PH.D. THESIS:

• "Essays on External Economies of Scale and International Trade"
• Thesis Advisor: Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Clare 

FIELDS:

• Primary: International Trade, Economic Development
• Secondary: International Migration

PAPERS:

• "Marshallian Externalities, Comparative Advantage and International Trade," with Andrés Rodríguez-Clare (Job Market Paper)
• "Brain Drain, Brain Circulation and the Role of on-the-job Learning"

• "External Economies, Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Trade," with Andrés Rodríguez-Clare

• The Economics Prize (highest average yr 2, MS.c. Economics), UWI, Jamaica, 2006
• G.Arthur Brown Memorial Scholarship, UWI, Jamaica, 2004 – 2006
• Department of Economics Fellowship, UWI, Jamaica, 2004
• Featured in the UWI's Calendar for Academic Excellence, 2004
• Certificate of Excellence for Leadership as President of the Honor Society, UWI, Jamaica, 2004
• The Economics Prize (highest average yr 2, BS.c., Economics), UWI, Jamaica, 2003
• Faculty Honor Society Inductee for academic excellence, UWI, Jamaica, 2002

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

• Instructor (Full Responsibility):
• International Trade (Penn State, Undergraduate level), Summer
  2011
• Intermediate Macroeconomics (Penn State, Undergraduate level), Summer 2008
• Mathematical Economics (Penn State, Undergraduate level), Spring 2008
• Financial Management (UWI, Jamaica, Undergraduate level), Summer 2006
  

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

• Visiting Scholar at the Bank of Jamaica (Central Bank), Summer
  2005
• Research Assistant for Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, Summer 2009
  

REFERENCES:

• Andrés Rodríguez-Clare: 627 Evans Hall Berkeley, CA, 94720-3880. PH: 510-642-0822
• Jonathan Eaton: 518 Kern Graduate Building, University Park, PA, 16802. PH: 814-865-8871
• Stephen Yeaple: 520 Kern Graduate Building, University Park, PA, 16802. PH: 814-865-5452

THESIS ABSTRACT

"Marshallian Externalities, Comparative Advantage, and International Trade" with Andrés Rodríguez-Clare (Job Market Paper)

Abstract: There is strong evidence for the existence of external economies of scale that are limited in their industrial and geographical scope. What are the implications of these Marshallian externalities for the patterns of international trade, the welfare gains from trade, and industrial policy? The standard model in the literature assumes that firms engage in perfect competition and ignore the effect of their actions on industry output and productivity. This has the unfortunate implication that any assignment of industries across countries is consistent with equilibrium.

To avoid this predicament, we follow Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg (2010) and assume that firms in each industry engage in Bertrand competition and understand the implications of their decisions on industry output and productivity. We develop three main results.

First, we show that the indeterminacy of international trade patterns still persists for some industries when trade costs are low.

Second, we apply these results in a full general equilibrium analysis and reexamine the implications of Marshallian externalities for industrial policy. Our results indicate that the additional welfare gains from moving to the Pareto-superior equilibrium depend positively on the strength of Marshallian externalities and negatively on the strength of comparative advantage, and - using reasonable parameter estimates - are at most about 2%.

Finally, our framework allows us to ask whether Marshallian externalities lead to additional gains from trade. Our quantitative analysis indicates that this is indeed the case, and that Marshallian externalities increase overall gains from trade by around 50%.

"Brain Drain, Brain Circulation and the Role of on-the-Job Learning" (Working Paper)

Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on skilled migration by providing a framework which simultaneously examines the effects of skilled migration from a developing country on both the developing and the developed country. In particular, we incorporate the fact that some skilled emigrants do return to the developing country after acquiring expertise abroad by way of on-the-job learning.

Ignoring return migration in our model yields results consistent with a "brain drain" for the developing country as well as overall welfare gains for the developed country nationals. Once we account for return migration the results are more nuanced. If the cost of return is sufficiently low to attract skilled emigrants with enhanced foreign expertise, then skilled emigration can lead a "beneficial brain drain" for a "sufficiently developed" developing country, as well as welfare gains for the developed country nationals.