Business Spotlight: Professor Shows Big Picture of Microeconomics

Hard work, keen instincts, and perseverance have been the cornerstones of Florence Neymotin’s life and career. As the first child in her family born on U.S. soil to Jewish refugees who fled the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, she calls herself a “freedom baby.” Prof. Neymotin makes an appreciation of academic and economic freedom a focal point of her research.

She currently serves as Professor of Decision Sciences in the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship. While at NSU, she has received various grants and awards at both the local, national, and international levels, with a number of these focused on the advancement of individuals with a minority representation. To name a few, she was the recipient of the Kauffman Foundation Series Promising Paper Award, the Academy of Business Research Best Paper in Session Award, a President’s Faculty Research and Development Grant from NSU, and both Fulbright Canada’s Distinguished Chair position and their Visiting Scholars Speakers Program Award.

Before coming to South Florida 10 years ago with her husband, her path had taken her on a cross-country trek. Neymotin received her M.A. and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. She also holds an M.S. in Psychology. Sometimes, she says, the best possessions to take with you are good instincts. In June 2000, while an undergraduate majoring in economics at The Ohio State University, Neymotin landed a securities analyst banking internship with the Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers. Despite being offered a full-time position, it didn’t take long before Neymotin saw signs of the company’s inevitable downfall.

“It was very unclear what they were doing with their securities,” she said.

In particular, mortgage-backed securities, or MBSs, were ubiquitous during the housing boom of the mid-2000s. Ultimately, the deep investments by Lehman Brothers in these “toxic assets” contributed to the company’s demise and was the harbinger of economic changes to come.

“I told them that MBSs didn’t make sense,” she said. “They told me to keep reading and it would make more sense. It didn’t, so I went to graduate school instead.”

Neymotin headed to the University of California Berkeley in 2001, and it would be there that she would find her calling, as well as the guidance of a future Nobel laureate, Prof. David Card.

“I quickly realized that applied microeconomics was a good fit for me,” she said. “I liked the real-world aspect of it; I liked that I could answer multiple questions with the same kinds of tools, so it gave me a little more freedom in choosing topics of interest.”

At Berkeley, Neymotin had the privilege of working with Professor Card, whose research covers such topics as immigration, unemployment, and equality. Card would go on to win the 2021 Nobel Prize in economics, and Neymotin would write a piece on her work with him for The American Economist.

After receiving her degrees from Berkeley, Neymotin began her teaching career at Kansas State University, along with her husband. She spent six years in Kansas before looking for a more fulfilling opportunity. NSU was the answer, she said.

“I got my offer first at NSU, and I said to my husband, ‘We’re coming here!’” she said. “What I really ended up liking about NSU are the interactions I’ve had. People here are friendly and willing to try a new approach.”

Prior to the pandemic, Neymotin was named a Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Entrepreneurship. Her research project at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, focused on issues in applied microeconomics and health. Her husband, Louis Nemzer, Ph.D., received a Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Biology at the same time. He is currently an Associate Professor of chemistry and physics at NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences. After the couple got settled in Canada, COVID-19 hit and, with it, the accompanying uncertainty.

“We were told we had to leave the country or risk being stuck in Canada if they closed the borders,” she said. “So, I finished my obligations remotely.”

Neymotin’s body of work has been internationally presented and recognized over multiple continents, and her research in education was awarded the editor’s choice in Science magazine. She has also been featured in several publications.

When she’s not teaching and learning from her sons Zachery, 4, and Joseph, 8, Neymotin is cultivating the next crop of entrepreneurs, researchers, and experts. And the relationships hold mutual benefits, she says.

“I enjoy it when I go to an MBA class and they ask me: ‘Well what’s the point of this and how do I use this on my work?’” she said. “I say ‘Great, let’s talk about it.’ I think that’s an opportunity for me to also expand my horizons and grow. Many students follow up with me afterward\ and tell me how I’ve helped them in their careers and in their businesses.”

Posted 06/19/22