Author Archives: Tatyana Avilova

Blog Post Formatting Tips

For your byline (the names of the authors), use Heading 2

Note on bylines: the standard convention for author order is alphabetical by last name. Some papers order authors by level of contribution, with those who’ve made the most significant contributions appearing earlier in the list. Other papers randomize author order, which they denote with an ⓡ symbol next to the names that have been randomized (the symbol is important: otherwise, any deviation from alphabetical order is interpreted as ordering by level of contribution). Order of names matters: as researchers reference publications by authors’ names rather than paper titles, first/earlier authors are more likely to get credit and recognition for the work. For your posts, you may pick any of the three author orders (alphabetical; by contribution; random) above.

For your regular paragraphs, use Paragraph.

Before you forget, tag your post with at least one Category from the right-hand side menu: COVID-19, Great Recession, International, or US Policy.

As you work on your post, use the “Save Draft” button at the top to save your progress. You can preview what your post looks like with the “Preview” button.

Your blog posts will be very long. I recommend adding a “READ MORE” tag (the button above that looks like a sandwich of a dashed line between two solid lines) after the first couple of paragraphs of your introduction. It will show up as a “Continue reading –>” button with a hyperlink on the post preview.

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Your Benefits – Gone in a “SNAP”

By Tatyana Avilova

From December 22, 2018, until January 25, 2019, the United States government shut down for 35 days, marking the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The shutdown caused disruptions to the operation of several federal government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). One of the USDA programs affected by the shutdown was the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides benefits to eligible, low-income families to help supplement their grocery budget. In this post, I examine the impact of the government shutdown on SNAP participation and expenditure.

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Welcome to the Spring 2025 ECON 1102 Data Project Blog!

Economics is not just about models and theory. Our economic models are only as valuable as they are able to describe the real world. At its core, Economics wants to understand—and improve—the real world! However, oftentimes students don’t get to see empirical work by economists or don’t get the opportunity to do their own economic research until they get to higher-level elective courses (which could be in their junior year!).

The goals of this Data Project are as follows:

  1. Give you, the student, an opportunity to explore a topic you are interested in
  2. Expose you to the kind of work that economists do
  3. Give you skills to engage with the news, economic research, and data