Newsletter - February 2023

Words of the Chair

I am Valentina Galvani, the new Chair of the Economics Department.
Welcome to our newly revamped newsletter, which will now be updated throughout the year to showcase our latest achievements.

You can follow us on Twitter @UofA_Econ and LinkedIn.

Faculty

Our faculty members published very well this year. Many of these studies appear in prestigious Economics journals, for example Journal of Monetary Economics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, International Economic Review, and Journal of Human Resources. Such a great output speaks of our Department's commitment to quality research You can find a complete list of publications here.
The future of research and policy work in the department also looks promising, with the addition of two highly talented faculty members to our faculty team. We welcome Dr. Brendon Andrews (Health Economics and Economic History) and Dr. Andrew Leach, a household name in Energy Economics, cross-appointed with the University of Alberta Law School.

Brendon Andrews

Andrew Leach
The Economics Department hosted a series of seminars featuring renowned economists, including Carlos de Resende, Francesca Loria, Ryan Rhole, Edda Claus, William Branch, Raquel Fonseca, Remzi Kaygusuz, Chaoran Chen, Andrew Fieldhouse, Alok Johri, Luba Petersen, Ron Alquist, Gaurav Chiplunkar, Julian Kozlowski, Jevan Cherniwchan, Terri Kneeland, Michael Gilraine, Anthony Fowler, and Nicolas Petrosky. We thank them for their presentations.
The 2022 Eric J. Hanson Memorial Lecture organized by the IPE was delivered by Paul Ferraro. Professor Ferraro specializes in Behavioral Sciences at John Hopkins University. A video of the presentation can be found here.
Associate Professor Dana Andersen was honoured with the EAERE Award for Outstanding Publication for his article "Default Risk, Productivity, and the Environment: Theory and Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing."

Undergraduate Students

We are proud to announce that our Economics Team has won the Bank of Canada Governor's Challenge for the second time in three years (2021, 2023). Our team finished in the first runner-up spot in 2022, and this year the cup is returning to Edmonton. The team consisted of Selam Abraham, James Davison, Vivek Gala, Kayla Stephanson, and Aishwarya Tyagi. The Department is extremely grateful to the faculty members coaching the team, Dr. Malik Shukayev and Dr. Max Sties.

A picture of our team with Tiff Macklem, Bank of Canada Governor.

Graduate Students

Five PhD students successfully defended their PhD thesis in 2022: Samprita Chakraborty, Scott Auriat, Liang Ma, Francis Chiparawasha, and Kwabena Bediako Boateng. Congratulations and we wish you all the best as you begin your careers!
In June 2022, seven of our PhD students shared their research in a Policy Pints event hosted by the Economics Society of Northern Alberta. We look forward to this annual event and hope that it can be enjoyed in person this year.
Four of our graduate students had the opportunity to intern with a local financial institution, working on projects related to credit risk. We thank Dr. Sebastian Fossati and Dr. Valentina Galvani for their efforts in securing funding and supervising projects.
Kwabena Bediako, graduate student of our department, published "Stability of international fisheries agreements under stock growth uncertainty" at Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. The paper is coauthored with Bruno Nkuiya.

Acknowledgments

Our last Chair Professor Rick Szostak stepped down in July 2022, after five years of amazing service to the Department and the University. The Department is very thankful for his indefatigable advocacy. Fortunately, Rick has decided to stick around for a few more years, so there will be more occasions to enjoy his brilliant conversation. As a new Chair and formerly Associate Chair, I found his counsel invaluable.

Service to the Community

Professor Stuart Landon created a Personal Finance Calculator. It's free, has no ads, and does not collect users' data. The goal is to help individuals make informed credit card and mortgage decisions, while understanding how inflation affects their purchasing power. The calculator is completely customizable and easy to use. If you have a Mac or iPhone, you can download it here.

We are excited to announce that we are once again active on social media and we would like to invite you to follow us on Twitter @UofA_Econ and LinkedIn.
Through social media, you will have the opportunity to connect with us and stay informed about our projects, events, and initiatives. Additionally, you will also be able to connect with other alumni, and share your own experiences and updates. We also want to create a space for our alumni to connect with each other, and we invite you to participate in the #uofaeconalumni hashtag on both platforms. This is an opportunity to share your memories and achievements with the wider alumni community and stay connected with each other. We look forward to staying in touch with you through our social media platforms!