Texonomics Fall 2014

transcript

TexonomicsTHE MAGAZINE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN // FALL 2014

Alums cash in on the poker circuit. p. 6

ANTE UP!

Message from the Chair p. 3

MA Program pp. 4–5

Alumni and Poker pp. 6–7

Faculty Research p. 8

Faculty | Student News p. 9

Alumni Online Ventures pp. 10–11

2 T E X O N O M I C S | F A L L 2 0 1 4

B Y T H E N U M B E R S

LARGEST MAJORS AT UT–AUSTIN2012–2013 BACHELOR’S DEGREES AWARDED

R–T–

380 368 355 323 297 292

76-‐77

78-‐79

80-‐81

82-‐83

84-‐85

86-‐87

88-‐89

90-‐91

92-‐93

94-‐95

96-‐97

98-‐99

00-‐01

02-‐03

04-‐05

06-‐07

08-‐09

10-‐11

12-‐13

% female Economics majors % FEMALE ECONOMICS MAJORS

100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

77-‐78

79-‐80

81-‐82

83-‐84

85-‐86

87-‐88

89-‐90

91-‐92

93-‐94

95-‐96

97-‐98

99-‐00

01-‐02

03-‐04

05-‐06

07-‐08

09-‐10

11-‐12

# BA degrees awarded # BA DEGREES AWARDED

ECONOMICS DEGREE TRENDS POPULAR MAJORSEconomics has become UT–Austin’s largest major, awarding the most bachelor’s degrees (380) in 2012. The number of majors has risen steadily since the early 1980s, and the percentage of female majors has remained mostly between 20% and 30% for several decades.

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PPeople say it all the time—the Internet is an amazing thing. And, after another

year of big change in the department, I’ve thought about how much of this

change would have been possible without the Internet. While the popular press

is focused on whether MOOC’s (massive open online courses) will transform

higher education, the truth is that the Internet’s scope for effecting substantive

and expeditious changes within academic departments is more far-reaching.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

D E P A R T M E N T

Dear Alumni and Friends:

As a case in point, the department launched a new

one-year terminal Master’s degree program last

summer (pp. 4–5). Through widespread email

communication and a strong on-line presence, the

department was able to enroll an inaugural cohort of

forty students (representing eight different countries)

just seven months after the program was formally

approved and announced. The program immediately

puts the department in the company of only a handful of

departments (including Duke University and New York

University) offering such a rigorous Master’s degree

in economics. Without the power of email and Internet

exposure, the “time to market” for such a program

would have been closer to five years.

The Internet has also allowed us to make stronger

connections with our alumni network. Our LinkedIn

group is just over a year old and is approaching 1,000

members. The LinkedIn group is already paying

dividends, with new job and internship opportunities

provided to our graduates and current students. The

group also made it possible for us to organize our

first (and now annual) Economics Career Forum in

November 2013. The Forum consisted of panels led

by UT economics alumni on specific job sectors and

career-preparation topics. While our faculty can impart

academic knowledge to our students, there is no better

resource than our own successful alumni to impart real-

world knowledge to those same students.

With the help of the Internet, we also continue to

communicate with our alumni through this very newsletter,

which is always available through the department website.

One of the features in this issue is, appropriately enough,

about several online companies that have been started by

our alumni (pp. 10–11). We thank each of them for sharing

the stories of their respective ventures.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• Ourcoverstoryprofileseconomicsalumniwhohave

been on the professional poker circuit (pp. 6–7).

One of those alumni played professionally during his

undergraduate years and subsequently graduated

from our new Master’s program.

• A recently hired macroeconomist, Professor Olivier

Coibion, describes his recent research on optimal

inflation rates in low-interest-rate environment

(interest rates near the “zero lower bound,” p. 8).

Professor Coibion joined our faculty after a prestigious

one-year fellowship with the International Monetary

Fund in Washington, DC.

We hope that you enjoy this issue of Texonomics. As

always, please email us at economics@austin.utexas.

edu if you have any alumni news or suggestions for the

department. We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Jason Abrevaya

CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

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M A P R O G R A M

MASTERING THE ART OF ECONOMICSNew accelerated Master’s degree program debuted in the 2013–2014 academic year.

“The individualized advising attention that our students receive is one of the program’s distinguishing features. Whether students plan on applying to PhD programs in economics or entering the work force post-graduation, our academic and career advising resources are unparal leled.”

Beatrix Paal,MA Program Director

In the summer of 2013, the Economics department launched a new one-

year terminal Master of Arts (MA) degree program. The inaugural class

of forty MA Economics students began classes in mid-July and, after

completing a ten-course, thirty-credit curriculum, graduated 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 UT System officially approved the MA Economics program in December 2012. Even with only a few months to publicize the program, over 120 applications were received during the first application cycle. The inaugural class of forty students was especially diverse, including five former UT undergraduates, twenty international students, and nine students from non-economics/business backgrounds. While all students must have some exposure to economics prior to applying, non-economics majors are encouraged to apply. The program can serve as a “pivot” for people who had analytical training in another field but wish to pursue a job requiring more economics training. In addition, the program can serve as a stepping-stone to PhD work or as a complement to another area of expertise (law, public health, political science, etc.). With today’s workplace requiring more advanced analytical training than ever before, master’s degrees in economics are in high demand. A June 2012 Forbes.com feature story (“The Best and Worst Master’s Degrees For Jobs”) listed economics as one of the top ten master’s degrees in terms of job prospects and salaries; the mid-career median pay is $115,000 for degree recipients, and the projected employment increase for jobs associated with this degree is 14.3% over the next decade. The program trains students in the core disciplines of

microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics. Building upon a foundation of required core courses, the program then provides students with elective course options that serve as training for either specialized employment or future graduate study. Elective course offerings in the 2013–2014 academic year included Financial Economics, Industrial Organization, Energy and Environmental Economics, and Labor Economics.

MA courses are primarily taught by full-time faculty members, including some of the best and most experienced instructors in the Economics department. With comparable programs using adjunct faculty to staff many of their courses, the department seeks to attract the highest quality students by using the highest quality faculty. Despite its relative nascence, the program already boasts strong placement results. Members of the Class of 2014 were admitted to PhD programs at UCLA, UT-Austin, Rice University, UC Riverside, University of Arizona, and other high-quality institutions. Outside of academia, class members obtained placements at the Federal Reserve Board, Lazard, Sense Corp, Advisory Board Company, Berkeley Research Group, and Cornerstone Research, among others.

Student feedback about the MA Economics program has been overwhelmingly positive. MA Economics alumnus Rustin Partow, who completed a summer fellowship

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M A P R O G R A M

practicum with the American Institute for Economic Research before enrolling in UCLA’s PhD program, said, “I chose to do a Master’s to enhance my prospects in PhD admissions and to get a leg up in handling PhD coursework. I enrolled at UT because of the technically rigorous coursework and because of the department’s clear commitment to developing a strong program. The quality of teaching and mentoring here is great.”

According to MA Economics Program Director, Dr. Beatrix Paal, one of the unique strengths of the program is the academic and career support network available to MA students: “The individualized advising attention that our students receive is one of the program’s distinguishing features. A strong network of UT Austin faculty, career services offices, and student services personnel help our students to develop and pursue their academic and professional goals. Whether students plan on applying to PhD programs in economics or entering the work force post-graduation, our academic and career advising resources are unparalleled.”

The investment also paid off for students entering the work force, many of whom now work in analytics in the public or private sectors. Those who entered the program undecided as to whether to pursue a PhD referenced the program’s flexible, yet challenging, course of study as a key component in helping them choose the right path post-graduation. MA Economics alumnus Dan Ernst, who now works with GM Financial, cites the program’s versatility and strong analytical focus as the primary reasons why he enrolled: “The MA

Program at UT Austin has helped to hone my analytic skills and make me more competitive as an entrant into the job market. The relatively low ten-month time commitment is a big draw and is especially useful for those on the fence about pursuing a PhD or entering the job force. The program offers flexibility in choosing the electives that line up with my goals.”

Now in its second year, the program has expanded elective course offerings that include Industrial and Network Economics, Urban Economics, Health Economics, International Trade, International Finance, and Econometric Policy Evaluation. An internship course will be introduced in the next academic cycle. Program applications doubled in 2014, and the current student cohort is equally as diverse as the last, attracting students from around the globe that reflect a wide variety of interests and diversity of experience, and bring a wealth of both professional and academic expertise to bear. Equally strong placement results are expected for the Class of 2015, and, as the reputation of our program grows, an increasingly competitive applicant pool. Despite the program’s success, however, the department remains focused on a quality-over-quantity growth strategy that will enhance the value of the degree and help to build a stronger UT Austin Economics alumni network in the years to come. For more information about the MA Economics program, including upcoming on-campus information sessions, visit the program website at http://ma.eco.utexas.edu. —Kristen Hotopp

PROFILE OF THE 2014–2015 CLASS

42 Total number of students

GENDERMale 26 Female

AGE20–24 3025–29 1030–34 2

CITIZENSHIPUS Citizen 15

International 27

COUNTRIESChina, Czech Republic, India, Iran,

Korea, Mexico, Scotland, Thailand, Turkey

UNDERGRADUATE MAJORSEconomics (20), Business/

Finance (10), Engineering (3), Math (3), Political Science (2),

Computer Science (1), Biology (1), Interdisciplinary Studies (1), Law (1)

6 T E X O N O M I C S | F A L L 2 0 1 4

IIn 2007, University of Texas drop-out Luke Priour hit

it big with a $71,314 payout—$20,000 more than

an economics graduate could make in a year’s time.

Four years later, he made his way back to the school

he left to earn the degree he never expected to need.

For Luke Priour, the plan was to attend university like everyone else. During his third year at UT, he witnessed a friend have success while playing online poker and realized that he too was talented at the game. He soon learned that he could make significant money playing, money that he had never really imagined earning. When Priour’s GPA slipped below a 2.0 he was faced with the reality that poker was a much bigger priority to him than his education. In 2006, he dropped out of UT knowing his passion lay with poker. “I knew that my heart was not in school

anymore,” he explained, “so I decided to put it on hold and move to Vegas to pursue a poker career. I played poker professionally for six years, living a lavish lifestyle that I had dreamed about.” But after a few years, the lifestyle and everyday routine grew old, and Priour had the realization that this was not what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

So, in 2011 he returned to Austin and reapplied to UT. Playing poker had helped Priour realize that he had a passion for subjects like optimization, risk management, and game theory. Priour explained that “poker is just the

P O K E R

ECONOMICS ALUMNI KNOW WHEN TO FOLD ’EM

ABOVE:

Luke Priour

now and then.

Luke Priour and

Dustin Dorrance-

Bowman know

how to make good

bedfellows of poker

and economics.

T E X O N O M I C S | F A L L 2 0 1 4 7

Dustin Dorrance-Bowman stopped

by the department to share his

story on the journey from being

an ordinary undergrad, to an

extraordinary poker player, to a

successful businessman.

Q: So you started playing with your

friends in high school, right?

A: “Yeah, so, strangely enough

[back then] I was really into playing

pool/billiards, so at that point the

plan was to be a professional pool

player, which is also pretty absurd.

In the midst of that, I was playing

poker totally for fun here and there...

like five dollar games, I was totally

terrible, the worst ever, but I was

always interested in it and it seemed

like the cool thing to do. Once I turned

eighteen I started playing online, I

started reading up on it more, and it

seemed like there was a really good

opportunity to make this a job, which

sounded really cool to me. Especially

back then, online poker was still in

its infancy, so it was really lucrative

because nobody really thought

about doing that professionally or

taking that seriously. So I saw an

opportunity and taught myself . . . and

that’s when I really started playing

more and it started going well

online. Like most successful online

players I was fortunate to have a big

score early on here and there, that

I probably shouldn’t have had, to

get the bankroll going, so there was

definitely some good fortune on my

side in the beginning.”

Q: After you graduated from UT,

what was your path?

A: “I was already playing poker

professionally during school, I mean

I was paying for school that way, so

it was pretty much the plan to play

online about twenty-five hours a

week. Occasionally there would be a

big online tournament series where

they would just run thirty or forty

huge tournaments, so that would

be the one time I would just go into

a cave and just do the poker thing

for a month. So online poker got

shut down in April 2011, basically the

DOJ just put a huge firewall against

any online site. I tried logging in one

day and got this big government

page saying “nuh-uh.” At that point I

switched over to live cash games, the

occasional tournament in Vegas or

Oklahoma, and more recently started

doing more of the coaching side.”

Q: What is some advice that you

would give to someone who would

want to take this route professionally?

A: “I guess the biggest mistake

that people make is bankroll

management, it’s probably the

reason I’m still here. A lot of people

would take [their big win] to the

nose-bleed stakes and it’s gone,

they blow it. But yeah, if you practice

good bankroll management you

can kinda work your way up stakes

slowly, pretty much what I did, start

off super small, twenty-five-cent,

fifty-cent games or less, build your

bankroll, and as your bankroll grows

you can move up in stakes. So um,

that’s probably the smartest way

to do it. Other advice I guess would

be just to always question yourself

and study as much as possible and

always work on improvement or

you’re getting worse, haha.”

Q: Ok, so tell me about Baby Zach’s

(now Hummusphere Foods). How

did you decide to become a co-

owner? Is Baby Zach a real person?

A: “When I went to UT Austin, I was

living at 21st Co-op, I lived there

all three years and there I became

pretty great friends with Zach Gultz,

Baby Zach himself. I guess it was

late 2010 he was . . . experimenting

with barbeque, and approached me

and he’s like ‘I’m doing barbeque,

but these vegetarians want

something, so I experimented with

making barbeque hummus. . . and

everybody liked it’. So that was

the original idea, this barbeque

hummus, which had never been

done before. So he came to me with

this idea, (and) he needed backing . . .

so I got involved helping with the

business. It just grew from there . . .

it’s funny, we finally got a meeting

with Whole Foods [in 2011], and

Zach was talking to them and at

this point we are . . . super small

time; it was literally Zach in this

tiny commercial kitchen with five

blenders lined up, and that was our

kitchen operation. They asked if

we could handle this volume, and

I guess Zach (said), “absolutely.”

So at that point it’s like “Okay, we

really need to ramp this up and

get serious about it.” Eventually we

grew out of our first kitchen and got

this kitchen in Manor which was a

huge step up . . . and then eventually

we got a call from HEB . . . and it’s

been growing steadily ever since.”

To see the expanded Q&A with

Dustin Dorrance-Bowman please

visit: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/

depts/economics/news/8432

P O K E R

ECONOMICS ALUMNI KNOW WHEN TO FOLD ’EM A CONVERSATION WITH DUSTIN DORRANCE-BOWMAN

compilation of decisions based on equity. Every decision during a hand requires the evaluation of expected utility of all possible choices. You arrive at these evaluations based on probability of what cards may fall, probability of what your opponent is holding, and developing an idea about how your opponent might react to your own decisions.” Returning as an economics major, he discovered something that he had not realized in his previous stint in college. “The skill-set that I had been using to be successful in poker could also be used to succeed in some aspects of economics. In other words, economics had been my calling all along, but I had just now realized this.”

After using this new-found knowledge and some dedication toward his studies, Priour was able to achieve high marks and a spot in the inaugural 2013–2014 class of the new ten-month Master of Arts in Economics Program. He received his B.A. in economics from The University of Texas in May 2013, and one year later completed his M.A. degree. Though he still plays poker part-time, it is no longer a major factor of his life, nor does he plan on returning to that career. He’s currently working as a Data Analyst for Public Consulting Group in Austin, TX. —Joanna Drake

Dorrance-Bowman received his B.A. at UT in 2007 and has been a professional poker player since 2005. Biggest win: $215K. Biggest loss: $30K.

8 T E X O N O M I C S | F A L L 2 0 1 4

OLIVIER COIBION“Changes in the monetary policy rule… are likely to be more effective both in avoiding and minimizing the costs associated with large economic downturns.”

One of the defining features of the current

economic crisis has been the zero bound on

nominal interest rates. With standard monetary

policy running out of ammunition in the midst of

one of the sharpest downturns in post-World War

II economic history, some prominent economists

have suggested that central banks should consider

allowing for higher target inflation rates than might

have been considered reasonable just a few years

ago (e.g. Olivier Blanchard, Paul Krugman, Ken

Rogoff and Greg Mankiw). Central bankers in the

U.S. and Europe, on the other hand, have so far

rejected this suggestion. Higher inflation rates

would imply higher nominal interest rates and

therefore more scope for countercyclical monetary

policy in the face of large negative shocks to the

economy such as those experienced in 2007 and

2008 without resorting to unorthodox monetary

policy actions (such as quantitative easing) whose

effects are poorly understood. But inflation has

costs which must be borne even in non-crisis

periods, so evaluating the pros and cons of higher

inflation targets requires balancing the costs of

inflation in all periods against the occasional (but

potentially large) benefits it provides during severe

economic crises.

In a recent paper, my coauthors (Yuriy

Gorodnichenko of UC Berkeley and Johannes

Wieland of UC San Diego) and I tackle this problem

head on by building a model to quantify both the

costs and benefits of higher inflation targets. In our

model, higher inflation is costly for several reasons.

First, in the presence of infrequent price changes

on the part of firms, higher inflation generates an

increasing dispersion in prices which leads to a

more inefficient allocation of resources among

firms. Second, higher inflation also implies more

inflation volatility, which is itself costly. Third, higher

inflation makes a given level of inflation volatility

more costly to households. Offsetting these costs

of inflation is the fact that higher inflation reduces

the frequency of hitting the zero bound on nominal

interest rates. Because the zero bound induces

a deflationary mechanism in the economy, these

episodes have very large welfare costs.

When the model is calibrated to broadly match

the moments of macroeconomic series and the

historical incidence of hitting the zero lower bound

in the U.S., the optimal inflation rate that balances

these costs and benefits is quite low (typically less

than two percent per year) and in line with the official

inflation targets of the US Federal Reserve and the

European Central Bank. The key intuition behind the

low optimal inflation rate is that, even though hitting

the zero bound on interest rates is very costly (for

example a two-year period of zero interest rates has

a cost equivalent to a 6.2% permanent reduction in

consumption, above and beyond the usual business

cycle cost), such events are also rare. In contrast,

the costs of inflation must be borne every period,

so even modest costs of inflation imply an optimal

inflation rate below 2%.

We conclude that raising the target rate of

inflation is likely too blunt an instrument to reduce

the incidence and severity of zero-bound episodes.

Instead, changes in the monetary policy rule, such

as price or nominal income targeting, are likely to be

more effective both in avoiding and minimizing the

costs associated with large economic downturns.

In the absence of such a change in the design and

implementation of monetary policy, addressing the

large welfare losses associated with zero-bound

episodes is likely to best be pursued through policies

targeted specifically to these episodes, such as

countercyclical fiscal policy or the use of non-

standard monetary policy tools. —Olivier Coibion

INFLATION POLICY IN THE FACE OF 0% INTEREST RATESProfessor Olivier Coibion’s new research suggests policy tools to address the

large welfare losses associated with interest rates near the zero lower bound.

F A C U L T Y R E S E A R C H

1 “The Optimal Inflation Rate in New Keynesian Models: Should Central Banks Raise Their Inflation Targets in Light of the Zero Lower Bound?” 2012 Review of Economic Studies 79(4), p. 1371-1406.

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INFLATION POLICY IN THE FACE OF 0% INTEREST RATES

FACULTY | STUDENTNEWS

FACULTY UPDATE

STUDENT NEWSOmicron Delta Epsilon (ODE),

the economics honors society,

has launched a student-run

undergraduate research journal

entitled The Developing Economist.

According to ODE chapter president

Robert McDowall, the journal

was started “after recognizing a

demand for additional publication

opportunities to undergraduates.”

Submissions for the journal came

from undergraduates at UT–Austin

and at other universities across the

United States. “The editorial process

fostered communication between

our own students and faculty,”

said McDowall. “We hope that

future editions of The Developing

Economist will continue to inspire

students at UT, and those elsewhere,

to produce undergraduate research

of their own.” The inaugural issue,

available on-line at http://www.

developingeconomist.com, features

research on carbon pricing,

M&A activity, crime’s effect on

achievement, and other topics.

Juan Camilo De Angulo was awarded

the 2013–2014 Rapoport Service

Scholarship for his interest and

pursuit of volunteerism, community

service and service learning.

De Angulo is a double major in

Economics and International

Relations and Global Studies

(IRG) as well as a double minor

in Latin American Studies and

Spanish. His passion started

while volunteering abroad as a

sophomore in high school where he

committed his education, talents

and entrepreneurship towards

community development in

emergent countries.

De Angulo is an intern for the

Development Gateway and

Innovations for Peace and

Development Club at UT which has

given him an opportunity to learn the

administration and programming

behind the foreign economic aid the

World Bank and UNICEF provides

for other countries. His favorite

part of being active at UT-Austin

is meeting people who share an

interest in social entrepreneurship.

“Hearing about their . . . innovative

ideas on how to take economics and

micro-financing to help developing

communities around the world has

been as motivating as it has been

eye-opening.” He plans to commit

to ten days in Ghana with the Global

Brigades club at UT with the mission

of fundraising and opening a bank

in an impoverished community that

will make saving and investment

easier for residents.

In the summer of 2013 he had

an on campus internship helping

with research on United States

international funding and how

it impacts the world. Although

De Angulo doesn’t graduate

until Spring 2016 he plans to

eventually go to graduate school at

American University in D.C. to study

International Political Economy.

“I have been inspired to dedicate

my talents and career to helping

the people who need it the most.

The grass root experience of living

in developing communities, both

in Ecuador and in Nicaragua,

has opened my eyes to the daily

struggles that some of the poorest

communities in the world have to

go through day in and day out. I plan

on graduating from the University

of Texas at Austin with a double

degree in IRG and Economics

in order to eventually work in an

organization that finances foreign aid

through micro-loans to developing

communities abroad.”

Longtime faculty members Douglas Dacy and Daniel Hamermesh retired

this year. Dr. Dacy taught at UT-

Austin for over forty-five years, and

Dr. Hamermesh for over twenty

years. Both will remain a presence on

campus with their emeritus status.

Daniel Hamermesh was awarded

the prestigious IZA Prize in Labor

Economics from the German

Institute for the Study of Labor.

This internationally renowned

award honors Dr. Hamermesh for

his contributions to the analysis of

labor demand and his high level of

creativity and careful combination

of theoretical and empirical

methods.

The Department of Economics

welcomes three new faculty

members to its ranks:

V. Bhaskar joins the department

as a Full Professor and the holder

of the Sue Killam Professorship

in the Foundations of Economics.

His foundational work has been in

game theory, but his impressive

research spans fields including

dynamic games and contracts,

economics of marriage and the

family, industrial organization,

and development economics. Dr.

Bhaskar was previously a Professor

of Economics at University College

London (since 2005) and a long-

time Editorial Board member of

the Review of Economic Studies.

During the 2014–2015 academic

year he will teach game theory

courses at the undergraduate and

graduate level.

Saroj Bhattarai joins the department

as an Assistant Professor. He

received his PhD from Princeton

University in 2010 and was an

Assistant Professor at Penn State

University from 2010–2014.

Dr. Bhattarai’s research and

teaching focuses on international

macroeconomics and finance. His

recent published work explores

the price-setting behavior of

multi-product firms and the role of

public debt and policy regimes in

inflation dynamics. Dr. Bhattarai is

also a Research Associate with the

Globalization and Monetary Policy

Institute at the Dallas Fed.

Richard Murphy joins the department

as an Assistant Professor, having

just received his PhD from

University College London. He

specializes in the economics of

education and labor economics,

and he will be introducing a new

undergraduate course entitled the

“Economics of Education” in the

spring semester. Dr. Murphy is also

the co-founder of the Economics of

Higher Education research network

(www.economicsofhe.org).

10 T E X O N O M I C S | F A L L 2 0 1 4

ALUMNI ONLINE

VENTURES

A L U M N I

DepositGuard Website: Depositguard.com

Purpose: A secure payment service between renters and owners for the vacation rental

marketplace.

Alumnus: Alan Lane (BA ’92), co-founder. “I wanted to find a vacation rental for a weekend

getaway in Mexico. The property owner asked that I wire him the full rental payment to reserve

the property. Ultimately I did not move forward with the reservation so both the owner and I

lost. Of course then my thoughts turned to how to provide a more secure payment service for

the vacation rental marketplace and shortly afterwards DepositGuard was born.”

Gazelle Website: Gazelle.com

Purpose: A “reCommerce” website that pays money for used cell phones, tablets, and computers.

Alumnus: Austin Ligon (MA ’79), board chairman. “I found the basic idea of Gazelle to be

simple and compelling. [There’s] stuff we all were mostly throwing in a drawer or closet, but

that had real value IF we sold it on a timely basis. … The global market for used smartphones,

tablets, and hi-value laptops is huge and growing exponentially. So we think the company can

continue to grow VERY fast for years to come.”

HeadlightLLC Website: HeadlightData.com

Purpose: An information system website that aggregates all workforce, economic, and

demographic data for a community into one central website that allows users to generate

colorful charts and dashboards using their own custom criteria.

Alumnus: Chris Engle (BA ’94), founder. “Data analytics and “Big Data” services [are] a

fast-growing market and viewed by many to be one of the top influencers in how business will

operate in the future. People and companies who can access, analyze, and understand data

trends will be empowered to adapt quickly to changing conditions, make better decisions,

and generally be more successful.”

T E X O N O M I C S | F A L L 2 0 1 4 11

A L U M N I

NuHabitat Website: NuHabitat.com

Purpose: Real estate search tool based upon real-time MLS listings, currently focused on

Houston and Austin.

Alumnus: Jeff Burke (BA ’89), co-founder. “I felt compelled to use my experience in the

financial industry combined with what I saw in the real estate industry to see if I could help

consumers and agents work together more efficiently. … I always wondered why consumers

weren’t able to see the same real estate data that real estate agents look at.”

Personal Wine Website: PersonalWine.com

Purpose: Personal customization of wine bottles.

Alumnus: Alex Andrawes (BA ’99), co-founder. “The initial concept was conceived over

a bottle of 1997 Grape Creek Vineyard Tre Somme. We felt that mass customization [was]

lacking in the wine business and thought personalization of wine would be a nice addition to

the corporate/executive gift market.”

Spacefoot (footeo.com) Website: Spacefoot.com

Purpose: Free digital tools for amateur sports clubs to communicate and create their

own website.

Alumnus: Cédric Courteau (BA ’98), co-founder. “Professional sports clubs have at

their disposal the latest technical tools (performance, statistics, etc.) for their players and

coaches, revenues from sponsors and TV rights and all the press coverage they need. On the

other hand, amateur sports clubs (where [I came] from) have basically no media coverage,

no performance tools, and less and less money from cities or private sponsors.”

WePlann Website: WePlann.com

Purpose: A travel and leisure agency focused exclusively on helping Spanish-speakers living

in the U.S., Spain, and Latin America book unique travel experiences online.

Alumnus: Oliver Camargo (BA ’99), co-founder. “I believe the online market for booking

unique travel experiences such as guided tours, activities and show and attraction tickets

[will] expand significantly as tools continue to make it easy, and natural, for travelers to book

their flights, hotels, and now travel experiences both prior and during travel.”

Nonprofit org. US postage

paidAustin, Texas permit #391

The University of Texas at Austin

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ChairmanJason Abrevaya

EditorJoanna Drake

Texonomicsis a publication of The University of Texas at Austin Department of Economics

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Texonomics Fall 2014

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