Jim Barbour, an associate professor of economics, and Thomas Tiemann, Jefferson Pilot Professor of Economics, presented “Crafters and Competition: The Impact of Amateurs on Professionals’ Livelihoods” at the 34th Annual Conference of the Eastern Economic Association, March 7-9, in Boston. The paper deals with the fact that in some types of crafts professionals are readily able to make a living, while in others it seems they are not. This is an exploration of the structural differences among various crafts that lead to this phenomenon.
Barbour also presented “Journeys of a Medieval Master Stone Carver in Catalonia” at the same conference. The paper develops a method of tracking a particular carver, using a 9th century Indian musical notation as the base, as he moved through Catalonia in the late 12th century.