Lawrence M v D Schloss Economics Prize

2012 Recipients: Keith Finlay and Douglas R. Nelson

Mr. Lawrence M. v. D. Schloss, 1976 cum laude graduate from Tulane, now Chief Investment Officer for the $120 billion New York City Retirement Systems following a successful 30-year career in private equity, has endowed a Lawrence M. v. D. Schloss Prize for Excellence in Economics. “The Schloss Prize is to be offered to outstanding full professors, associate professors, or assistant professors, or graduate or undergraduate students, who do outstanding work in the Department of Economics.”

Mr. Schloss has had a distinguished career in the financial services industry. Following his 1976 graduation from Tulane, he went on to earn an MBA from the Wharton School in 1978. He then joined Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in 1978 as an investment banker focused on leveraged finance and energy, and began investing DLJ capital when the firm began its dedicated leveraged buyout principal investing activities in 1985. Prior to the acquisition of DLJ by Credit Suisse, Mr. Schloss spent 22 years at DLJ, and was Chairman of DLJ Merchant Banking since 1995. Under his leadership, the alternative asset investment business at DLJ grew to include $19 billion under management across various fund strategies. He was also the Chairman and CEO of Diamond Castle Holdings, and was Global Head of CSFB Private Equity, where he was responsible for a staff of 450, including 125 investment professionals on four continents with $32 billion of alternative assets under management.

In addition to serving on the Board of Trustees of Tulane University, Mr. Schloss is a member of the New York City Police and Fire Widows’ Fund and the Children’s Benefit Fund, and has served on the boards of directors of numerous public and private companies. He has recently joined the New York Federal Reserve advisory board.

There are two 2012 recipients of the Schloss Prize. Keith Finlay is the recipient of the Schloss Prize for Excellence in Outreach and Service. Douglas R. Nelson is the recipient for Excellence in Research.

Keith Finlay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics. He received a B.A. in economics from Reed College in Portland, OR and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Irvine. He has been at Tulane since 2007.

Keith Finlay

In the past year, Keith has made outstanding contributions to the Department of Economics in all areas. He taught two of the six core classes in the new Ph.D. program in Economic Analysis and Policy. He had two papers accepted in high-quality and high-profile economic research outlets. What truly separates Keith’s recent accomplishments from those of other productive colleagues is a remarkable contribution to service and outreach. These activities include:

• Planning and organizing the construction of the Department’s new econometrics laboratory, a Tilton Hall facility that consists of state-of-the-art technology for faculty instruction and student computer use and that was funded with generous support from Provost Michael Bernstein and Dean of the School of Liberal Arts Carole Haber
• Obtaining a National Science Foundation grant (with Professor Jonathan Pritchett) that provides research opportunities for undergraduate economics students at Tulane University and other institutions
• Managing the Department’s on-line working paper series
• Co-organizing the Department’s seminar series, which brings nationally and internationally prominent economists to campus to present research and interact with Tulane faculty members.

Outreach and service activities are often taken for granted. However, Keith’s contributions in these areas have vastly improved the quality of the teaching and research environment for faculty and students alike.

More details on Keith’s research, teaching, and other activities can be found on his Tulane website, at http://econ.tulane.edu/kfinlay/ .

Douglas R. Nelson is a Professor in the Department of Economics and in the Murphy Institute of Political Economy. He received a B.A. from Miami University (Oxford, OH), and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He taught at Rutgers University, the University of Texas at Dallas, Syracuse University, and Washington University (St. Louis) before joining Tulane University in 1993.

Douglas R. Nelson

Doug is a leading scholar on the political economy of trade. Over the years, he has written or edited dozens of journal articles, books, and book chapters. In the last year alone, he has published (or has forthcoming) an impressive number of articles, including:

• “How Bad is Antidumping: Evidence from Panel Data” (with Peter Egger), Review of Economics and Statistics
• “Did the World Bank Drive Tariff Reforms in Eastern Africa?” (with Chris Jones and Oliver Morrisey), World Development
• “Foreign Partners and Finance Constraints: The Case of Chinese Firms” (with Peter Egger), World Economy
• “How Many Migrants Do We Need for Import Networks to Succeed?” (with With Peter Egger and Maximilian von Ehrlich), World Economy
• “Skilled Worker Migration and Trade: Inequality and Welfare” (with Spiros Bougheas), World Economy
• “Does Aid Cause Trade? Evidence from an Asymmetric Gravity Model” (with Simone Juhasz Silva), World Economy
• “A Behavioral Model of Unemployment, Sociotropic Concerns and the Political Economy of Trade Policy” (with Carl Davidson and Steve Matusz), Economics & Politics
• “Bridging Trade Theory and Labour Econometrics: The Effects of International Migration” (with Noel Gaston) , Journal of Economic Surveys
• “International Migration” (with Noel Gaston), Handbook of International Trade.

The common theme running through these papers is the analysis of trade policy, especially the effects of international trade and the empirical link between globalization and national labor markets.

More details on Doug’s activities can be found on his Tulane website, at http://www.tulane.edu/~dnelson/.

The Department of Economics is proud of Keith’s and Doug’s accomplishments. The Department’s selection committee (Stefano Barbieri, Jay Shimshack, and James Alm) was unanimous in the recommendation that Keith and Doug be the 2012 joint recipients of the Lawrence M. v. D. Schloss Prize for Excellence in Economics.

The Department of Economics is grateful to Mr. Schloss for his generous and ongoing support, which has made recognition of Keith’s and Doug’s accomplishments possible. Previous Schloss Prize winners are Marco Castaneda (2009), Jay Shimshack (2010), and Stefano Barbieri (2011).