The department will be honoring Mark and Bee Roberts’ contributions to the department on October 17 and 18. Roberts Fest will be held at the Penn Stater Conference Center and will feature John Haltiwanger, Professor of Economics, University of Maryland as the keynote speaker. Students and colleagues will present papers in the disciplines of Applied Microeconomics and International Trade and Development. The conference will honor their combined 89 years of service to the Economics Department.
Day 1: Friday, October 17
8:45–9:00 a.m
Opening remarks (Barry Ickes)
Paper Presentations: Session I
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Hongsong Zhang: Marketing and the Growth of Young Manufacturing Firms: Evidence from a Tax Incentive Policy
9:30–10:00 a.m.
Florin Maican/Matilda Orth: Measuring the dynamic effects of building broadband infrastructure
10:00–10:30 a.m.
Coffee Break
10:30–11:00 a.m.
Rong Luo: Market Size and Vertical Bargaining in Two-sided Market: an Application to Shopping Malls
11:00–Noon
Larry Samuelson, Tim Dunne and Ron Jarmin on “Patterns of Firm Entry and Exit in U.S. Manufacturing Industries” (RAND) and “Growth and Failure of U.S. Manufacturing Plants” (QJE)
Noon–1:30 p.m.
Lunch (Gardens Restaurant)
Paper Presentations: Session II
1:30–2:00 p.m.
Gaurab Aryal: Bridging Quasi-Experimental and Structural Approach for Robust Evaluation of US Airline Mergers
2:00–2:30 p.m.
Alex Fakos: Asset-market frictions, Capital structure, and Aggregate Productivity
2:30–3:00 p.m.
Daniel Xu: Regulation meets Public Infrastructure–Evidence from Environmental Water Policy in China
3:00–3:30 p.m.
Coffee Break
4:00–4:30 p.m.
James Tybout on “The Decision to Export in Colombia” (AER) and “Market Entry Costs, Producer Heterogeneity, and Export Dynamics” (EMA)
5:00–6:00 p.m.
Keynote Address: John Haltiwanger
6:30 p.m.
Dinner (Senate Suite)
Day 2: Saturday, October 18
Paper Presentations: Session III
9:00–9:30 a.m.
Hale Utar: Elsewhere in North America: How U.S. Tariffs on China Boosted Mexico’s Manufacturing Employment and Output
9:30–10:00 a.m.
Joonkyo Hong: Trade, Oligopsony Power, and Wage Inequality
10:00–10:30 a.m.
Coffee Break
10:30–11:00 a.m.
Bettina Peters: “Unleashing Productivity: The Role of AI and Data-Driven Investments in Firm Performance”
11:00–11:30 a.m.
Shengyu Li: Non-neutral Technology and Within-firm Heterogeneity in Multi-product Firms
Session V: An Institution Within the Institution: Honoring Bee Roberts
Roundtable: Sung Jae Jun, Aiden Stein, Hope Bodenschatz, David Bodovski
12:30–1:30 p.m.
Lunch (Gardens Restaurant)
