Eastern Economic Association

Vice President

Solomon W. Polachek

Solomon W. Polachek is Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University) where he has taught since 1983. From 1996-2000 he served as Dean of the Arts and Sciences College. Polachek received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and has held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Chicago, Stanford, and Princeton. He coauthored The Economics of Earnings with Stan Siebert, has published over 100 articles and book chapters, and presented seminars and workshops at over 60 universities. In addition, he visited Bar-Ilan University, the Catholic University of Leuven, Erasmus University, Tel Aviv University, the University of Michigan, the NBER, and the Tinbergen Institute for extended stays. Polachek is editor of Research in Labor Economics, on the editorial boards of a number of academic journals, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn. In 1997 he received the Daniel Hoffman Teaching Award, in 2005 the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2011 the Leading Book Series Editor Award from Emerald Press. He was elected to serve as President of the Peace Science Society during 1999-2000. His research spans two main areas. First is the application of life-cycle models to understanding earnings differences across demographic groups, particularly men and women. Second is the integration of economics and political science to explain political conflict and cooperation among nations.

Sol is married to Dora Polachek, a French professor also at Binghamton University. He enjoys giving seminars at universities he has never been to and traveling to places he has not yet seen.

Board of Directors (2 positions available)

Rosanne Altshuler

Rosanne Altshuler is Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Rutgers University. She holds a BA from Tufts University and a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Rosanne’s research focuses on federal tax policy and has appeared in numerous journals and books including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Public Economics, National Tax Journal, International Taxation and Public Finance, American Economic Review – Papers and Proceedings, and Tax Policy and the Economy. She was an assistant professor at Columbia University and has been a visitor at Princeton University, New York University’s School of Law, and the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. Rosanne was an editor of the National Tax Journal and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Tax Association. She has also been active in the policy world serving as Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, Senior Economist to the 2005 President’s Advisory Panel of Federal Tax Reform, and Special Advisor to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Rosanne lives in New York City with her husband and two time consuming cats. She spends her free time preparing elaborate meals for her friends, exploring nature, playing tennis and hanging out at the US Open.

Hope Corman

Hope Corman is Professor of Economics at Rider University, where she is the Director of the Health Administration Program. She is also a Research Associate in Health Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research has centered on issues related to human resources -- health, crime, and education. Publications appear in both economics journals (such as Economic Inquiry, American Economic Review, Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics, Southern Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources, and Eastern Economic Journal) and also appear in interdisciplinary journals (such as Demography and Social Science and Medicine). She was recently an Erskine Fellow at Canterbury University in New Zealand, and was awarded the Dominic Iorio research award at Rider University.

Hope lives in West Windsor, New Jersey with her husband, economist Hugh Rockoff, and her daughter, Jessica. Her son, Steven, has left the nest. She is Vice-Chairperson of the Board of Rockbrook School, a private school providing education for children with disabilities, and is also the Head Coach of the Lawrence Lightning, a Unified Special Olympics bowling team. She enjoys traveling and trying exotic cuisines.

Leanne Ussher

Leanne Ussher is Assistant Professor of Economics at Queens College, City University of New York. Her research is in money, banking, and the macro-microstructure of financial market architecture using agent-based modeling techniques.

Dr. Christian E. Weller

Dr. Christian E. Weller is an associate professor of public policy in the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research focuses on retirement income security, household wealth and individual risk exposure, and international financial stability. He is also a research scholar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Political Economy Research Institute, an institute fellow at the University of Massachusetts Boston's Gerontology Institute, and a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC. Christian's work has appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Development Studies, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Aging and Social Policy, and the Journal of Economic Issues, among others. His popular writings have been published in The New York Times, USA Today, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. He co-authored with E. Wolff the book, Retirement Income: The Crucial Role of Social Security and was a co-editor of Employee Pensions: Policies, Problems and Possibilities with T. Ghilarducci. In 2006, he was awarded the Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA). Christian also served on LERA's board from 2008 to 2011 and remains one of its two co-editors-in-chief. His work is frequently cited in the press and he is often a guest on national TV and radio programs. Christian holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.