Robert Szarka

Rob Szarka
Graduate Assistant
Department of Economics
University of Connecticut
341 Mansfield Road, Unit 1063
Storrs, CT 06269

Office: Montieth 440
Office Hours: Tues. 12:30-1:30 p.m.; Thurs. 9:15-10:00 a.m.; Friday: By Appointment

Email: robert.szarka "at" uconn.edu

Twitter: szarka

I'm a third-year student pursuing a PhD in Economics at the University of Connecticut. I like game theory, industrial organization, social networks, agent-based modeling, experimental economics, and getting caught in the rain. I'm here to meet a nice panel data set who knows how to have a good time.

Teaching

• ECON 2101W: European Economic History (Summer 2012)
• ECON 2456: Economics of Poverty (Spring 2012)
• ECON 2201: Intermediate Microeconomics (Fall 2011)
• ECON 3461: Organization of Industry (Summer 2011)
• ECON 2201: Intermediate Microeconomics (TA) (Spring 2011)
• ECON 3461: Organization of Industry (Winter 2010/11)
• ECON 2456: Economics of Poverty (Fall 2010)
• ECON 1000: Essentials of Economics (Summer 2010)
• ECON 1201: Intro to Microeconomics (Honors) (Spring 2010)
• ECON 1201: Intro to Microeconomics (Honors) (Fall 2009)

Resources

• Advice
  • How Universities Work: a guide for freshmen by Jake Seliger
  • How Art History Majors Power the US Economy: Virginia Postrel on learning to learn and the diversity of jobs
  • 10 Things I Tell Undergraduates: Chris Blattman gives advice to undergrads interested in international public service
• Software
  • Ubuntu: Linux for the desktop.
  • Firefox: an open-source, extensible, customizable web browser.
  • Zotero: a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources.
    • Why Undergrads Should Love Zotero (video)
  • LaTeX: A document preparation system. (MS Windows users: try proTeXt.)
  • R: free software for statistical computing and graphics.
    • Econometrics in R by Grant V. Farnsworth
    • R plm package
  • OpenOffice: a free, open source office productivity suite
• Economics Research
  • IDEAS: the largest bibliographic database dedicated to Economics and available freely on the Internet.
  • SSRN: Social Science Research Network.
  • arXiv: e-print archive.
  • AEA: American Economic Association.
• News
  • Planet Money: economic news from NPR.
  • Marketplace: twice-daily business news from APR.
  • The Wall Street Journal: still the "paper" of record for business & the economy.
  • BusinessWeek: weekly business news.
• Blogs & Podcasts
  • The Becker-Posner Blog: by Nobel Prize Winner Gary Becker & US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner.
  • EconTalk: Economics podcasts for daily life. Hosted by Russ Roberts.
  • The Economic Way of Thinking: by Boettke, Prychitko, & Beaulier.
  • Marginal Revolution: the popular economics blog by Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok.
  • Market Design: the blog for Al Roth's & Peter Coles' Market Design course.
  • Organizations & Markets: includes contributions from UConn's Professor Langlois.
  • Against Monopoly: includes contributions from UConn's Professor Zimmerman.
  • Managerial Economics: Economic Analysis of Business Practice.
  • TED: "ideas worth spreading".
  • Chart of the Day: a daily dose of data from Business Indisder.
• UConn
  • UConn Econ Blog: news from the Department of Economics.
  • UConn Econ Seminar Series: workshops & seminars at UConn.
  • UConn Association of Economics Graduate Students: we're here, we're econ nerds, get used to it!
  • UConn Libraries: the nice people who loan you books & journals.
  • UConn Women's Basketball: the best!

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham