Business and Economics

The International Input-Output Association (IIOA) has awarded Allegheny College Professor Steve Casler with its bi-annual Sir Richard Stone Prize for the best paper published in the journal Economic Systems Research over the past two years. Prof. Casler’s work, “Coefficient Change, Price Effects, and Implicit Elasticities: Estimating Microeconomic Determinants Over Two Periods,” appeared in ESR in 2011 (Volume 23, pp. 153-174).

In announcing their award, the jury for the Prize summarized Prof. Casler’s work as the following:

The paper  contributes significantly  to  the literature on Structural  Decomposition Analysis. Firmly grounded in microeconomic theory, it develops a model to show how price effects on I-O coefficients, including the full array of own- and cross-elasticities of demand can be estimated accurately  within an  analytical  framework comprising 15 industrial sectors and two time periods. A major novelty is found in the extensive use of the “arc elasticity” concept, which paves the way from price, output and technological change to changes in I-O structural coefficients. The approach is particularly relevant to the study of ‘key sectors’, since it enables to identify those price changes that have the largest overall impact on I-O coefficients.

The Department of Economics wishes a hearty congratulations to Prof. Casler for his significant accomplishment in input-output research!