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Felicia Ionescu

Felicia Ionescu

Assistant Professor of Economics
Economics , 224 Persson Hall
p 315 2287955
Personal website

Degree
  • PhD in Economics- University of Iowa, 2006
  • MS in Mathematics- University of Iowa, 2006
  • MA in Economics - University of Iowa, 2002
  • BS in Economics - University of Transilvania, Romania 1999

Teaching Experience
  • Visiting assistant professor, University of Pennsylvania, spring 2010
  • Teaching assistant and instructor, University of Iowa, 2000-06

Specialities

 Macroeconomics, student loans (in particular student loan default and policies)

Interests
  • Higher education policies, human capital
  • Unsecured credit markets, consumer bankruptcy
  • Heterogeneous economies, computational economics

Professional Experience

  • Member of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity: A Global Working Group (Markets) at Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics, The University of Chicago
  • Visiting Scholar, The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Summer 2011
  • Research Visitor, The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, May 2010
  • Visiting Scholar, The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, March 2010
  • Research Visitor, The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, July 2008
  • Roundtable on Student Loan Debt and Default organized by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (one of the four academic experts invited)
  • Referee: Review of Economic Dynamics, Journal of Labor Economics, B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics,Economic Inquiry, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Journal of The Japanese andInternational Economies, Journal of Human Capital, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
  • Local co-organizer for the Liberal Arts Macro Workshop, Colgate University, August 2010
  • Member of the American Economic Association, Econometric Society, and the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP)

Publications
1. Insuring Student Loans Against the Risk of College Failure (joint with Satyajit Chatterjee)
Forthcoming in Quantitative Economics, March 2013, Vol. 4, Iss. 1
Previous version:  Insuring Student Loans Against the Risk of College Failure
This paper was discussed in several articles in the press:
 The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, HeraldNet Politics Daily

2. Risky Human Capital and Alternative Bankruptcy Regimes for Student Loans
The Journal of Human Capital, Summer 2011, Vol.5, Iss. 2; Codes (in C and Matlab) are available upon request

3. The Federal Student Loan Program: Quantitative Implications for College Enrollment and Default Rates 
Review of Economic Dynamics, January 2009, Vol. 12, Iss. 1  Technical Appendix;  Codes (Matlab)

4. A Theory of Brain Drain and Public Funding for Higher Education in the U.S. (joint with Linnea Polgreen)
The American Economic Review (P&P) , May 2009, Vol. 99, Iss. 2

5. Consolidation of Student Loan Repayments and Default Rates Across Income Groups 
The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, August 2008, Vol. 8, Iss. 1 (Topics) 


Working Papers

Credit Scores and College Investment: Implications for Student Loan Policies (joint with Nicole Simpson)

The Interplay Between Student Loans and Credit Cards: Implications for Default (joint with Marius Ionescu)

The Effects of Credit Status on College Enrollment and College Completion (joint with Dora Gicheva and Nicole Simpson)


Work in Progress

The Cost of Financial Surprises (joint with Kartik Athreya and Urvi Neelakantan)

Rising delinquency on unsecured debt for young households ((joint with Marius Ionescu and Wenli Li)

The Skill Premium and Household Indebtedness: A Tale of Five Series (joint with Kartik Athreya and B. Ravikumar)

The Rise in College Premium and Positive Assortative Matching in Colleges: Some Implications for Attainment (joint with Satyajit Chatterjee)

Intergenerational Transfer of Credit Risk (joint with Nicole Simpson)

Distinctions
  • Research scholarship, The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and CSWEP (2011)
  • Research grant, The Econometric Society (2010)
  • Dissertation Summer Fellowship, University of Iowa, 2005
  • Distinctive Fellowship, University of Transilvania, Romania, 1995-1999

Other

 Service at Colgate
  • Initiating and organizing the Brown Bag Department Seminars, 2006-2011
  • Organizing the Joint Colgate-Hamilton Workshop Series, 2010-2011
  • Advisory Committee on Information Technology, 2008-2011
  • Advisory Committee on International Students, 2011
  • Committe Member of the Undergraduate Research Conference, April 2011
  • Ph.D. Program advisor, 2006-2011
Research advisor
  • Honors thesis by Mark Nasca, Spring 2012, graduating with high honors and winner of the ShortliffePrize for his honors thesis and of the Stevenson Prize for the best undergraduate research paper at Colgate University, spring 2012
  • Independent study research by Caroline Morrow, 2011-2012
  • Summer independent study research by Joseph McGovern, 2009
  • Summer independent study research by Victor Omwando, 2007