Assistant Professor Volodymyr Lugovskyy (PhD Purdue) joined the Ivan Allen College School of Economics in Fall 2008 after four years at the University of Memphis. Originally from Ukraine, which excels in education in the type of math/technical skills that are the underpinning of modern economics studies, Lugovskyy enjoys working in the US which leads the world in economics research.

"Surprisingly, in most countries there are a lot of barriers for outsiders and there is a much more closed system within the realm of education. American higher education invites global competition; it provides a ground for anyone to come here and prove themselves, and that accelerates the field and makes it stronger."

Lugovskyy has taught courses in microeconomics, statistics, game theory, and international trade. His main research interests are in international trade, particularly in the variety gains from trade, trade costs, and patterns of specialization. His most recent paper, International Pricing in a Generalized Model of Ideal Variety, co-authored with David Hummels, was published in the prestigious macroeconomics Journal of Money Credit and Banking (Jan 2009) and presented to Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, DC. Another paper, The Trade Reducing Effects of Market Power in International Shipping, co-authored with David Hummels and Alexandre Skiba, will be published in the May 2009 edition of the top-field Journal of Development Economics. The paper has already been previewed in the Paul Krugman's influential blog in the New York Times.

Lugovskyy is currently trying to resolve the problem of financial bubbles, a phenomenon that consistently develops in even the simplest controlled experimental models of financial markets, and that is a hot topic now with everyone given the near collapse in world financial markets. Lugovskyy, with co-authors Daniela Puzzello and Steven Tucker, will present a paper on the subject at the June meeting of the Association for Public Economic Theory (APET) at the National University of Ireland, Galway. They conclude that the only factor which appears to reduce the occurrence of bubbles is experience, which can be gained much faster if we replace one-to-one buyer-seller pricing agreements (double auctions) with a t tonnement pricing mechanism where all market participants agree on one common price so the market clears only when aggregate supply equals to aggregate demand. Lugovskyy and his co-authors' work shows that such the t tonnement pricing mechanism significantly mitigates financial bubbles and thus levels out steep losses and gains in the market.