Christian received her B.B.A. in Banking and Financial Institutions from Sam Houston State University in August 2022. She began working as an intern this past Spring during her final semester. She enjoyed both her Econometrics for Business course and Intro to Python for Data Science course while also being a member of the International Economic Honors Society, Omicron Delta Epsilon.
Christian’s Favorites Include:
Hobbies:
Running
Playing the Diablo video games
Cooking
Types of Movies and Books:
MasterChef
True Crime
Favorite Foods:
Tex Mex
Seafood
Favorite Quote:
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin
We are extremely thrilled to have Christian on our team. We offer our warmest welcome to our newest team member.
Adela Botello discusses what she has been up to since starting with EmployStats in September.
Adela with her Course Certificate
“To help improve my skills as an Operations Assistant, I am enrolled in an Introduction to Financial Account Course. In college, I registered for two accounting courses; however, my memory in how to debit and credit different accounts has become very hazy. In college, I would assume everyone had select courses they dreaded or simply wished they did not have to take. For me, accounting was that dreadful course. The first couple weeks of class I had to bribe myself to attend, but after those couple weeks, I began to enjoy the functions of accounting. I think all of the “rules” and the organization of journal entries pulled me in. Accounting was not my passion, but something I became to appreciate.
Since I only had to take two accounting classes for my Economics degree, I have not thought about accounting since. So, when I was offered this position, I decided to pull out my old notes and start refreshing my memory. Not only did I look over my notes, we enrolled me in a Coursera course. The amount of courses available was incredible! It took me a few hours to find a course that met my needs because the possibilities were endless. The specialization I chose was: Introduction to Finance and Accounting Specialization. This specialization has a total of four courses, but you are able to only enroll in what you need. For me, I only needed to take two of the four courses. Both courses are taught by Professor Brian Bushee of University of Pennsylvania, and I really enjoy learning from him.
The first course is about “master(ing) the technical skills needed to analyze financial statements and disclosures for use in financial analysis…”. The items we discuss include: the income statement, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows, and analyzing different types of transactions. The course is broken down into four weeks, and each week ends with “homework”, which is really only a quiz about that week’s content. Professor Bushee has created videos, not longer than 20 minutes, to learn the course. At the end of each video, he offers pdf files of the slides he uses, which has helped me fully understand topics I had issues with while watching the videos.
Coursera has great tools when it comes to note taking and layout of the website. During videos, I am able to take a screenshot and Coursera will note exactly what the professor is saying at the time of the screenshot. So, not only am I able to go look at screenshots of notes I took, I can also read a small subscript of what was being said during the video. It has been very convenient because I can simply go to my “Notes” tab and review for the end of week quizzes a lot faster than having to rewatch several videos.
My experience with Coursera and this particular course has been extremely helpful and a great review of topics I had previously learned. Once I finish the courses, I will receive a certificate of completion and recognition of my new learned skills. The new skills will help me manage the accounts receivable, accounts payable, and payroll for EmployStats. As well, I will fully understand how invoices are incorporated into different accounts. These courses will prepare me for daily categorization of expenses, auditing of expenses, bank account balancing, and bank account reconciliations. This course will improve my financial analysis skills and help me achieve the task of recognizing underutilized and/or inefficient services and products. I am excited to use these new skills and knowledge towards my work with Employstats!”
This paper (ASSA 2016 link below) looks to study revenue and sales volatility at the firm level and how that relates to employee level of wages. The main take away is that employee wages tend to be positively related to revunue shocks. That is, employers tend to keep employee wages steady and increasing over time regardless of the specific shocks that the firm may be experiencing at any given time.
Can Microlevel BLS data be used to study how and why employees are paid differently at US employers ? This paper and the work ultimately looks to provide a method to use the Microlevel, i.e. individual level survey observations, to match dispersion measures like, the standard deviation, in big data BLS employment data. The first step for the researchers is to try and match the aggregate numbers to the micro numbers.
Dr. Sandra Black, UT-Austin economics professor, looks at the impact of school starting age and family background on work earnings. From her work:
We find that if you enter the labor market later, as a result you have less experience and so you get paid less than the people who are the same age who started earlier, but by age 30 you’ve caught up. – Dr. Sandra Black
Expectation damages are damages intended to cover what the injured party expected to receive from the a contract and usually have straightforward calculations based on the contract itself or market value.
‘Reference Guide on Estimation of Economic Losses in Damages Awards’, by Robert Hall and Victoria Lazear is a frequently cited source for more discussion on business damages. The Reference Guide is part of the courts larger manual: : Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence.
The Economics department started a new one-year terminal Master’s degree this past summer. The inaugural class of 40 students began classes in mid-July and, after completing a 10-course, 30-credit curriculum, will graduate in May 2014. The rigorous program is the first of its kind in the state of Texas, and only a handful of similar programs (primarily on the East coast) currently exist.
The MA program at UT was designed for prospective students with any of the following goals:
Qualifying for jobs in the private or government sector that require greater expertise in economic, analytical, and statistical tools than provided by an undergraduate degree;
Obtaining the background in economics and mathematics required to gain admission to a high-quality economics PhD program;
Studying economics as a complementary field to another area of expertise (law, political science, public health, statistics, energy, etc.).
