Recent News

The department encourages outstanding students from all nationalities and regions to apply to its PhD program in economics. This research oriented program prepares students for careers in academia, research institutes, government, international institutions, and the private sector. We offer scholarships (and most of the accepted applicants obtain them) which cover the tuition, plus provide a generous stipend, guaranteed for 4 years. [Download Information Package Here] and then [Apply Here] Qualified US Nationals can also apply to W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship Program which can provide a generous additional financial support for the student. For more information please see [Turner Fellowship Information Here]

This is a new kind of M.A. in Economics, quite different from what is offered by other institutions. No prior background in Economics required: our first year classes teach the fundamentals of Economics. However, a strong mathematical background is required: linear algebra, real analysis, multivariate calculus, and if possible differential equations. The students will be taking PhD level courses with our PhD students, and have access to the same advising as our PhD students. Students who successfully complete the program can continue into our PhD program without taking additional course work, and be considered for funding for the following two years in the program. This research oriented program prepares students for careers in academia, research institutes, government, international institutions, and the private sector. Graduates from this program will be well prepared to continue their studies in top PhD programs in Economics and Finance, as well as the best MBA programs in the world. This is a full-time program during the first year, and it can be taken part-time starting in the second year. For more information you can [Follow this link] and then [Apply Here] For more information please e-mail Jenille Johnson at Graduate_Economics@notes.cc.sunysb.edu.

Biligbaatar Tumendemberel, one of our advanced graduate students has received a prestigious Grant from the Open Society Foundations for the 2011-2012 academic year These fellowships which target graduate students from certain areas of the world, fall under the Global Supplementary Grant program of this prestigious foundation. [read more about these grants]

Yun-Shan Chan, one of our advanced graduate students has received a prestigious Fellowship from the American Statistical Association for the 2011-2012 academic year to work on the topic of youth crime and economic incentives. The title of the supported research is "An Empirical Model of Criminal Behavior of Young Workers: An Economic Perspective." These fellowships which encourage researchers to study crime and justice data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics have been recently set up by the ASA, and Yun-Shan is one of the first recipients. "These are exciting news for Yun-Shan and our graduate program," says the Director of Graduate Studies, and member of Yun-Shan's committee, professor Benitez-Silva. "Once again (two years ago one of our students got a grant from the CRR to work on pensions, and four years ago yet another student got a grant from the same CRR to work on disability policy) one of our students is recognized with an external and extremely competitive fellowship, we are very proud and we are sure Yun-Shan will complete an insightful analysis of the determinants of youth crime in the USA," elaborated the smiling Director of Graduate Studies. [read more about these grants]

Two graduates from Stony Brook's PhD program in Economics have recently received a prestigious Research Grant from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Zhe Li who graudated with a PhD in Economics in the Spring of 2010, and Frank Heiland who graduated with a PhD in Economics in the Spring of 2002, have partnered to obtain a Steven H. Sandell Grant on retirement research. This very prestigious grant is given by the CRR every year to assistant professors working on cutting-edge research in the economics of aging. The title of Zhe's and Frank's work is "Changes in Labor Force Participation of Older Americans and their Pension Structures: A Policy Perspective." Zhe Li is an assitant professor at Framingham State University since the Fall of 2010, and Frank Heiland is an assistant professor at CUNY-Baruch College since 2009 after starting his career at Florida State University. Professor Benitez-Silva, who was Zhe Li's PhD thesis advisor, and was also a member of Frank Heiland's PhD committee expressed satisfaction at the news "We are extremely happy that our graduates continue their successes well beyond their time in our institution. Frank and Zhe were outstanding graduate students, and they have become outstanding members of the academic community, we could not be happier for them and for what this accomplishment means for our program." Interestingly, professor Benitez-Silva himself received a Sandell Grant when he was a first-year assistant professor at Stony Brook back in 2001. Additionally, in 2000 Deb Dwyer, then assistant professor and now affiliated professor received a Sandell herself. "I am extremely proud that ten years after I got one of these pretigious fellowships, two students I had the luck to advise follow on my footsteps," said a very proud and (again) smiling Benitez-Silva. [See announcement by the CRR]

Stony Brook's Economics professor, Warren Sanderson, is actively participating in the online discussions on population growth in the reknown Room for Debate at NYTIMES.COM, following the publication of the new population forecasts by the United Nations. See Discussion here. Professor Sanderson's piece focuses on the importance of educating the masses for an uncertain future with challenges coming from population growth and environmental changes linked to it. Professor Sanderson has published in the last decade several influential research pieces in the most prestigious journals in the sciences (Science and Nature) on the evolution of population growth. His work with his co-authors has influenced the way the United Nations computes its forecasts and analyzes its results.

A research piece by Stony Brook's Economics professor, Hugo Benitez-Silva, was cited in the following article published by the world reknown magazine The Economist, in the print edition of March 3, 2011 (in the special report on property, in the section titled "Up, up and away with the fairies"). The article is signed by journalist Andrew Palmer. The article focuses on the housing market, one of the areas of expertise of Professor Benitez-Silva. Notice, that two of professor Benitez-Silva's co-authors in that research paper are graduates from our PhD program: Frank Heiland, graduated from our PhD program in 2002 and after getting tenure at Florida State two years ago, he is now a faculty member at CUNY's Baruch College. Selcuk Eren graduated in 2006, and he is a Research Scholar at the Levy Economic Institute of Bard College. The latest version of the cited research can be found in pdf here ,

On November 30, 2010 about 20 economics alumni surprised their favorite professor,our own William Dawes, in his classroom, showering and embarrassing him with their love and affection. Check out the photos and also the video of the surprise visit. Two alumni, Sal Trifiletti '76 and Tom Kasulka '83, spearheaded a campaign to endow a fund in honor of Professor Bill Dawes. Over 200 economics alumni contributed more than $50,000 to the the William Dawes Fund for Excellence. The fund is designed to benefit and enhance the Economics Department and serves as a tribute to Professor Bill Dawes and his educational impact on students from 1968 to the present. To help the economics alumni reach their goal of $100,000 for the William Dawes Fund for Excellence please click here.

The recently published rankings of economic departments by the National Research Council, after years of analysis of detailed data provided by members of the academic community show our department ranked among the top programs in the country. The study, probably the most comprehensive and detailed one ever assembled of graduate programs in the United States, provides two summary measures depending on how the weights of different characteristics is computed, and in one Stony Brook appears as the 39th ranked program in the country, and in another one as the 53rd ranked program in the country. Additionally, a more dissagregated analysis shows that in some important dimensions, like the Professional Development of Graduate Students, or the Diversity in the Economic Environment we appear as a top 20 department in the United States. More information about this ranking can be found following the link NRC Ranking Page. And details about the rankings in economics in particular can be found in the followin link PhDs.org interface to analyze the rankings.

Professor Sanderson, who published another piece in Science in 2008, and who has published 4 articles in the journal Nature in the last decade and a half (more than any other economist in the world) has published in Science again. See our In Depth section to the right, on this very page.

Stony Brook's Economics professor, Mark Montgomery, participated as panelist in the important presentation to Congressional Staff members on the effects of Climate Change in an incresingly Urban world, with special emphasis on the effects for poor countries. This is one of the main areas of expertise of Professor Montgomery. See announcement

Stony Brook's Economics professor, Mark Montgomery, was recently interviewed on the important topic of Climate Change by the Population Reference Bureau. The interview , focused on the effects of climate change on our cities, an area of expertise of professor Montgomery.

Stony Brook's Economics professor, Hugo Benitez-Silva, was quoted in an article published by the magazine Physician Practice, in the issue for October 2009 (article in pages 61 and 62). The article is signed by journalist Janet Kidd Stewart. The article focuses on the housing market, one of the areas of expertise of Professor Benitez-Silva.

Zhe Li, one of our graduate students has received a prestigious Dissertation Fellowship from the Center for Retirement Research for the 2009-2010 academic year. [read more]

Stony Brook's Economics professor Benitez-Silva was cited in an article published by the U.S. News and World Report in the issue for June 23-June 30, 2008 (article in pages 57 and 58). The article is signed by journalist Emily Brandon. Benitez-Silva's work was also cited in a related article in the same prestigious magazine in early February. The article focuses on retirement and Social Security Benefits, area of expertise of Professor Benitez-Silva.

Ahmad Yusuf will be studying his PhD in Economics at Duke starting in the Fall of 2008 with a full scholarship, and Ataoulaye Bah will join, also with a full scholarship, Columbia's M.A. program in International Affairs at The School of International and Public Affairs. "The successes of our majors continues in the competitive market of graduate education," states professor Benitez-Silva, proud advisor of Ahmad and Ataoulaye, remembering that last year one of our own joined Yale University's Ph.D. program in Economics.

Erem Atesagaoglu, a young macroeconomist who will soon obtain his Ph.D. in Economics form the University of Minnesota will join our department in the Fall of 2008. Erem's work trying to explain the declining volatility of aggregate economic measures in the United States since the mid 1980s with the changes in the tax system, without relying on the traditional explanation using changes in monetary policy, promises to bring a whole new view on the analysis of business cycles and their volatility. [read more about Erem]

Professor Montgomery's research on the growing urbanization in the developing world has been published this month in the journal Science, in their February 8th issue. The paper argues that developing countries in Asia and Africa are likely to cross a historic threshold, joining Latin America in having a majority of urban residents. The challenges that this will bring to researchers and policy makers are discussed. [read more]

Stony Brook's Economics professor Benitez-Silva was cited in two articles published online by U.S. News and World Report on January 9, 2008, and the in print issue of February 11, 2008, both signed by journalist Emily Brandon. Both articles focus on retirement and Social Security Benefits, area of expertise of Professor Benitez-Silva. [read more]

Professor Sanderson's research on the evolution of the world's population has delivered yet another fascinating chapter, and again has caught the attention of one of the most prestigious journals in the world. In Nature's January 20, 2008, advance online publication, Dr. Sanderson and his co-authors uncover the continue acceleration of the world's ageing population, and force us to continue to analyze how this phenomenon, which they helped bring to light with their outstanding research in the last decade (see other articles in Nature in 1997, 2001, and 2005), will challenge our economies and our lives in an variety of ways. [read more]

Graduate student Donghwan Kim is working with Professor Mark Montgomery on studies of urban poverty and health in developing countries. This research explores whether urban poverty is concentrated in slums or is distributed more widely across city neighborhoods. Kim's research is funded by an award from UN-Habitat (Nairobi) for the Fall 2007 period. [read more]

Na Yin, one of our graduate students has received a prestigious Dissertation Fellowship from the Center for Retirement Research for the 2007-2008 academic year. [read more]

A recent research study by Stony Brook's Economics professors Benitez-Silva, Dwyer, and Sanderson was cited in the New York Times on May 12, in an article on retirement and Social Security Benefits. [read more]

Adam Osman will be studying his PhD in Economics at Yale starting in the Fall of 2007 with a full scholarship. [read more]

Graduate student Zhen Liu's paper 'Fair Disclosure and Investor Asymmetric Awareness in Stock Markets' is selected by the 2007 AAA (American Accounting Association) Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting for an Outstanding Doctoral Student Paper award.

Robert J. Aumann, a member of the Stony Brook faculty at the Department of Economics since 1989 has received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences shared with Thomas C. Schelling. [read more]

The University acquires a new supercomputer 'Seawulf Cluster' to aid research. [read more]

Graduate student Na Yin receives the 2006 USB President's Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Instructor. [read more]