Spring 2012 Seminar Series - Lectures by Dr. Werling

The Commission of the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland

DATE: Monday, February 27, 2012
TIME: 12:00 pm
LOCATION: 0124B Cole Student Activities Building
HOSTS: The Maryland Population Research Center

Guest speaker: Jeffrey F. Werling
Executive Director, INFORUM
Department of Economics

With comprehensive immigration reform stalled at the federal level, state and local officials are being asked to address various issues relating to immigration and, in particular, the issues surrounding unauthorized immigration. To gain a broader understanding of the economic and fiscal issues surrounding immigration, in June 2008 the Maryland General Assembly authorized the Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland. On February 8, the Commission released its final report. As commission Staff Director, University of Maryland economist Jeff Werling coordinated the work of the panel, which included representatives from the governor's office, both houses of the Assembly, and the private sector. Together, they scoured data sources and immigration literature and interviewed dozens of witnesses. The report urges legislators to take a long view of immigration, which will show that the benefits significantly outweigh the costs, even the short run fiscal costs of providing state and local services. It says the state would be "foolhardy" to shortchange the education of immigrants' children, who will be part of the state's future workforce.

Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Seminar: Modeling the Economy, Energy, and the Environment with LIFT

DATE: Thursday, March 1, 2012
TIME: 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
LOCATION: 1124 LeFrak Hall
HOSTS: The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Departments of Geographical Sciences and Sociology

Guest speaker: Jeffrey F. Werling
Executive Director, INFORUM
Department of Economics

Meet & Greet session with Dr. Werling 3:00-3:30 p.m.

Light refreshments will be served.

Various policy initiatives have been drafted with the goal of putting a system in place for reducing U.S. dependence on energy and, thus, its carbon emissions. INFORUM is dedicated to improving business planning, government policy analysis, and the general understanding of the economic environment. Its flagship model, LIFT (Long-term Interindustry Forecasting Tool), is a 97-sector general equilibrium representation of the U.S. national economy that employs a "bottom-up" approach to macroeconomic modeling. The LIFT Model has been used for several recent studies to show the interaction between the economy, energy use and environmental consequences (E-3). Dr. Werling's presentation will provide an overview of LIFT and give some examples of these applications.