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2014-15 Economics Department Newsletter, Vol. 2
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Economics Department Newsletter

September 18, 2014
In This Issue:
  • Employment Opportunities
  • Interesting Reading
  • Meet The Professor
Employment Opportunities:

Clarion Healthcare Seeks Full-Time Associates
Clarion Healthcare, LLC, a boutique life sciences consulting firm in downtown Boston, is seeking intellectually curious, highly analytical, team-oriented individuals eager to roll up their sleeves and help pharmaceutical / biotech clients address their most important strategic and organizational challenges.
 
Clarion will be holding an Information session in the Lewis Room of Mears House on Tuesday, September 23 at 7:00pm. The deadline to apply for this position is Thursday, September 25 at 11:59pm. Please apply via The Route 2 OCC System.  If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to John Gorman, Williams ’14, at jgorman [at] clarionhealthcare [dot] com.



Mathematica Policy Research has immediate openings in multiple locations
Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) is currently recruiting students for various positions in their Princeton, NJ or Washington, DC offices.  Candidates are urged to apply as soon as possible as these are immediate vacancies.  Further information is available for the positions of
Data Analytics Associate and Program Associate.


 
Interesting Reading:

Roger Bolton, William Brough Professor of Economics, Emeritus, has provided the following information and suggestion for what may be interesting reading:

An interesting article in experimental economics is “The Social and Ethical Consequences of a Calculative Mindset,” in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (125:1, September 2014, 39-49). The authors conducted several experiments. Each had two groups: one group completed a task requiring numerical calculation (for example, computing net present value), the other a task requiring nonquantitative reasoning (for example, answering questions about a history article); then each group played a Dictator Game or an Ultimatum Game. The first group, which had done monetary calculations, behaved more selfishly or more unethically (they lied more). The authors say the results suggest that “engaging in a calculative task leads people to act both more self-interestedly and more unethically in a subsequent decision,” and “a calculative mindset will increase people’s utilitarian concerns, thereby trumping other moral concerns.” They also note that other researchers have found economics students to be more self-interested and even greedy compared to other students. The authors are in business schools in Hong Kong City University, University of Toronto, and Northwestern University. Article available at:   
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597814000454

 
Meet The Professor:  Jessica Leight

Professor Leight is in her second year at Williams and is interested in development economics and political economy, with a particular focus on China.  She teaches introductory economics as well as upper-level electives on political economy and China, and researches questions related to household decisions about health and educational investments, rural institutions, and voting behavior.  She also has a number of research projects in the field.  Her hobbies include reading of all kinds, classical music, and traveling, and she has a weakness for popular television shows (and is always eager to discuss the latest developments).


 

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