Groundbreaking Text Author to Speak
The author whose new economics textbook has been called the heir to the nearly 50 year-old Economics by Paul Samuelson, will give a public one-hour lecture in Lecture Center 7 on Friday, Nov. 7, beginning at 1:25 p.m.
Professor N. Gregory Mankiw Harvard University economics professor, and author of Principles of Economics, released in August by Dryden Press, will be a guest of the Department of Economics. The public is invited to the event.
Mankiw was on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers in 1982-1983 and received his doctorate from MIT in 1984. He was appointed to the rank of Professor in the department of economics at Harvard in 1987. He was also a member of the National Science Foundation Economics Panel, 1988-1990.
Mankiw is the author of the most widely used intermediate macroeconomics textbook, also published by Dryden, a division of Harcourt Brace publishers, now in its third edition. In addition, he was associate editor of the Review of Economics and Statistics and Economic Perspectives. His current book, however, has been lauded as the successor to Economics, which, although no longer holding the top spot spot among most-used college economic textbooks, held that distinction for decades. Mankiw’s book, which received a record $1.4 million advance for a college text, has been compared to the groundbreaking nature of Samuelson’s for its style, look and organizational approach to subject.
The tone of the language, like Samuelson’s, is more breezy and student-oriented. At 797 pages, it is one of the shortest introductory texts on economics, and its pages are more open in look with many graphics, including photos of current well-know case studies and even cartoons.
More importantly, while Samuelson brought macroeconomics into the freshman classroom — particularly the teachings of big-government-activism proponent John Maynard Keynes — Mankiw looks anew at microeconomics, including six chapters on supply and demand. He also, unlike Keynes, looks at macroeconomics through long-run trends, rather than short-run. This last method has sparked debate, but few deny the work its merits.
“Flat out, I think it’s the best principles of microeconomics text on the market,” Matthew E. Raiff, assistant director of undergraduate studies at Penn State University, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “[Mankiw has] upped the ante on what’s required in an introductory economics class.”
Mankiw is currently a panel adviser to both The Brookings Institution and the Congressional Budget Office. He is also a director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economics Research.
His has authored several other publications, books and journal articles, and has been cited for outstanding teaching at Harvard, having received the Galbraith Teaching Prize for graduate teaching and the Nomination for the Joseph R Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize for undergraduate teaching both in 1991.
CWG Places 1997 Fellows
The Center for Women in Government has announced its 1997 Fellows on Women and Pubic Policy, which places graduate students with New York State governmental offices and leaders.
Five of the eight placements went to University at Albany students. They are: Denise Jeremiah, an M.S.W. candidate, placed with State Senator Velmanette Montgomery; Catherine Laurence, M.S.W. candidate, with the Office of the Comtroller’s Fiscal Research and Policy Analysis Unit; Eunju Lee, Ph.D. candidate in sociology, with Assemblyman Paul Harenburg; Trista Lombardo, M.S.W. student, with the Department of Social Services; and Kristen Schworm, master student in sociology, with the Department of Labor’s Community Services Division.
UUP Lump Sums and Salary Increases
After creative efforts by the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations and approval from SUNY’s Board of Trustees, payment of negotiated salary increases to employees represented by the UUP negotiating unit will begin in the paycheck of Nov. 26, it was announced by Stephen J. Beditz, Assistant Vice President for Human Resources.
On that date, full-time employees will receive a one-time payment of $1,250 and a flat amount increase to base salary of $496, retroactive to July 1, 1996, or date of hire if later, for employees with a calendar or college-year obligation, and Sept. 1, 1996, for those with an academic year obligation.
Part-time professional employees will be paid lump sums in accordance with a schedule agreed upon by UUP and the state: up to $8,499, $250; $8,500 to $12,749, $500; $12,750 to $16,999, $1,000; and $17,000 and over, $1,250. Part-time academic employees will be pad according to this schedule, split into Fall 1997 and Spring 1998 payments: 1 course, $125; 2 courses, $250; 3 courses, $500; more than 3 courses, $625.
Flat amount pay increases for part-time employees will be $248, the exact rules for distribution still being discussed with UUP.
A one percent discretionary pool increase, scheduled for December, and a 3 and one-half percent across the board increase, scheduled for Jan. 1, 1998, await authorization from the Legislature, according to Beditz.
"Mark of Excellence" Award Winners
President Hitchcock and Dean of Business Don Bourque (top right) pose with 1997 Capital Region Chapter American Marketing Association “Mark of Excellence” award winners, named for the School’s graduate student recruitment campaign, which increased the School’s applications by 36 percent and its average GMAT score of accepted applicants by 31 points. Linda Wheeler (front row, center), the School’s director of marketing and public relations, headed the project. University Graphics staffers who created the winning look were, upper left, designer Sean Farley, lower left, photographer Mark Schmidt, and, lower right, designer Bonny Merrill.