Satellite monitoring technology is helping to protect Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest. Sensitive ecosystems in other developing economies could also benefit from adopting the country’s deforestation reduction model, according to a study conducted by two University of Toronto researchers and their co-authors. The model combines satellite monitoring with a targeted location-based policy that includes prompt inspections of newly cleared forest areas and quick enforcement measures, including fines. Analysis of the data found that the model reduced deforestation by 43% and cut emissions by almost 50 million tons of carbon. [Read more…]
PhD Candidate Sean Elliott Awarded BFI Honour
Sean Elliot has been awarded a spot at the Becker Friedman Institute’s (BFI) Price Theory Summer Camp. He is the only student enrolled at a Canadian university among the 40 PhD students from 27 universities who will make up the 2024 cohort.
A PhD candidate at the Department of Economics, Elliott’s research is rooted in the Economics of the Family and focuses on demographic shifts in how couples now match and, if and how the perceived impact of divorce may influence couples’ considerations in choosing to marry, delay marriage, or forego marriage in favour of cohabitation.
“It’s not entirely clear, if this this delay in the in marriage — people get married at a later age now than they used to — is a genuine delay, or if it is a permanent effect and there are just fewer people getting married than before,” Elliott explained. “I am dealing with the challenges of trying to answer these kinds of questions.” [Read more…]
Seeds of Time: In Memory of Professor Emeritus Andrew Murray Watson
Professor Emeritus Andrew Murray Watson died on April 4, 2024. He was 93. A professor of Economic History, Watson was affiliated with the Department of Economics and Trinity College, where he was Emeritus Fellow, throughout his career with the University of Toronto.
While Watson retired in 1995, he taught until at least 2005 and completed his last academic assignment, a chapter for The New Cambridge History of Islam titled “Rural life and economy until 1800” at the age of 80.
After that, “he decided it was time to say goodbye to academia and joyously devote himself solely to travel, adventure, and the enjoyment of the good company of his friends spread round the world. Which he did and did well,” his family said in his obituary. “Amongst his many adventures in his 80s, he explored ancient grave sites in the Gobi Desert, and acted as guide for tours along the Silk Road. For over thirty years he spent the better part of his winters at an old palace in Bali where the staff treated him as an honoured uncle.” [Read more…]
Daniela Draaisma Rodriguez Short-listed for TATP Award of Excellence
Daniela Draaisma Rodriguez is one of 207 teaching assistants currently working with students of the Department of Economics. She is also one of just 14 TAs shortlisted for the 2023-2024 TA Teaching Excellence Award. UofT employs roughly 6000 TAs at the St. George campus and about 8000 across all three campuses.
The Teaching Assistants’ Training Program’s (TATP) Teaching Excellence Award was created in 2003 to recognize the outstanding contributions of teaching assistants at the University of Toronto. The jury examines educational leadership, meaningful contributions to course and curriculum development, and the overall impact on student learning. The announcement of the final winner is expected at the end of April.
Draaisma Rodriguez has been a TA for ECO101 since she was a master’s student and currently serves at the head TA for Professor Nate Vellekoop’s section of ECO102, Principles of Macroeconomics.
“For inexperienced students to have a dedicated TA when they are beginning a difficult course full of completely new concepts is a true gift,” said Vellekoop. “It’s also a gift for professors who are delivering that course to know that your students are in good hands. The learning community is grateful to Dani for her hard work and, yes, that work is excellent teaching.” [Read more…]
Professor Khazra’s Direct Entry to Teaching Excellence
Experience is usually a pre-requisite to achieving excellence. For Professor Nazanin Khazra, teaching excellence is more a matter of direct entry.
After just four years with the Department of Economics, the Assistant Professor has won the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award – Early Career for 2023-2024.
“I’m sure Professor Khazra’s students are not shocked by her winning this award at all,” said Thomas Byrne, a third year Math and Economics major at Innis College.
The award recognizes excellence in undergraduate and graduate education with a focus on classroom instruction, course design and curriculum development for early career faculty. [Read more…]
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