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Richard Santos, (505) 277-2107 Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821

December 18, 2001

UNM ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT TO PRESENT PAPERS AT AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL MEETING

Several faculty members in the Economics Department at the University of New Mexico will present papers at The American Economic Association’s 114th annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 4-6, 2002. The meeting, held in conjunction with the Allied Social Science Association, is the largest conference of economists in the United States.

The Department of Economics at UNM will be well represented in terms of the number of faculty attending and also in papers and work being presented as part of the conference. Three papers, authored by four UNM Economics faculty members, have been accepted for presentation.

“I think it speaks well of the department presenting cutting edge research that has pubic policy implications, said Richard Santos, chair of the Economics Department. “Their work can be peer reviewed to get useful suggestions and guidance from other leading experts in the field. By presenting their work at the economic meetings it also increases the reputation and national prestige of the economics department at UNM.”

The first, “Consumer Response: Experimental and Real World Results for Water Pricing,” by UNM Professors Janie Chermak, Kate Krause and David S. Brookshire, describes an investigation into water consumption. The authors surveyed Albuquerque residents about their water use and opinions about Albuquerque’s water supply. Residents also participated in the economic experiments that tested consumer responses to changes in the price of water and to changes in the climate. The results of this study are important for formulating water policy in Albuquerque and elsewhere in the arid Southwest.

A second paper, “Probability Weighting in Choice and Pricing Tasks,” co-authored by Krause, William Harbaugh, of the University of Oregon, and Lise Vesterlund, of the University of Pittsburgh, will also be presented. This paper describes the results of experiments designed to test the robustness of a systematic bias in attitudes towards risk-taking. Undergraduate students at UNM participated in these experiments.

“The Motherhood Wage Penalty Revisited: Experience, Heterogeneity, Work Effort, and Work-Schedule Flexibility,” authored by professors Melissa Binder and Krause and Deborah Anderson of the University of Arizona, has also been chosen for presentation at this prestigious conference. This paper investigates sources of the persistent gap in pay between mothers and women who are not mothers.

Santos will also be in attendance at the conference and will be meeting with fellow economists to establish a Society of Hispanic Economists.

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The University of New Mexico
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