MEA 2006 Annual Conference

About the Speakers

V. V. Chari is the Paul W. Frenzel Land Grant Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. He has been a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota since 1994, and is a former chair of the economics department. Chari has been an adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis since 1994, where previously he was also a senior research officer. Chari's current research includes macroeconomic theory, fiscal and monetary policy, and financial intermediation. He serves in many capacities for various organizations, including serving on the board of editors of Econometrica, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Economic Theory, Macrodynamics, and the Review of Economic Dynamics. In 1998, he was elected a fellow of the Econometric Society. Chari received his Ph.D. in economics from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Elizabeth E. Davis is an associate professor in the department of applied economics at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on labor economics and public policy related to welfare reform and low-income families, child care, job mobility, and rural labor market issues. Current and recent research projects include studies of employment outcomes and earnings of parents receiving child care subsidies, dynamics of child care subsidy program participation, and the impact of competition on wages and job turnover in the retail food industry. Recent publications include articles in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Population Research and Policy Review. Davis received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.

Jody Hoffer Gittell is an associate professor and MBA Program Director of management at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Gittell is the author of "The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance." She won an Outstanding Young Scholar Award from the Industrial Relations Research Association. Gittell came to the Heller School at Brandeis after serving as an assistant professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School. She is also a faculty member of the MIT Global Airline Industry Program. Gittell received her Ph.D. in management from MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Thomas J. Holmes holds the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Economics at the University of Minnesota and is an adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Holmes teaches in the areas of industrial organization and applied microeconomics; his current research focuses on industrial organization. Recent publications include articles in the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and the RAND Journal of Economics. Holmes has been awarded three research grants by the National Science Foundation. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University.

Morris M. Kleiner is the AFL-CIO chair of labor policy and a professor at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute and Industrial Relations Center. His research interests include the impact of institutions on the labor market, the effect of labor-management policies on organizations, and the role of unions in democratic societies. He has published extensively in the top academic journals in labor economics and industrial relations. Kleiner is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research and currently is a visiting scholar in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and an adviser to the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. Kleiner received his doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois.

Ana McAhron-Schulz is director of the Economic and Financial Analysis Department (E&FA) for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). She is responsible for all economic and financial analyses in support of ALPA's efforts in collective bargaining, strategic planning, litigation, public relations and legislative activities. McAhron-Schulz has served as primary financial advisor for most of ALPA's member airlines and has been actively involved in the recent round of concessionary restructuring negotiations, including Delta, Northwest, United, USAirways, and Mesaba Aviation, among others. McAhron-Schulz is an industrial advisor to the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations and participates at various training seminars and conferences for IFALPA. Ms. McAhron-Schulz has a B.A. in International Studies and Economics and a M.B.A. from The American University in Washington, D.C.