News

Congratulations go to University of Guelph Professor Miana Plesca and former PhD student Burc Kayahan (now Assistant Professor at Acadia University). Their paper, "The Impact of Aggregate and Sectoral Fluctuations on Training Decisions" has been selected as one the two finalists for the 2010 Kenneth J Arrow Prize for Junior Economists. Berkeley Electronic Press awards this prize every year for the very best work published in their economics journals. The Arrow Prizes for Junior and Senior Economists are named in honour of Kenneth J.

The Department of Economics & Finance is the new name for the department.  The name change reflects changes that have occurred in recent years in the department to include faculty whose research interests lie in the areas of Financial Economics and Financial Econometrics as well as the growth of our undergraduate Bachelor of Commerce major in Management Economics and Finance.  We continue to offer robust undergraduate programs in Economics (BA Honours) and Environmental Economics and Policy (BSc, Env. Sci) and well-established graduate programs: MA and PhD in Economics.   

Professor Marie-Claire Villeval from the University of Lyon visits the department for the week of April 18 - 22.  She will present a public lecture on Tuesday at 3:00 pm entitled "From Freakonomics to Neuroeconomics: the Role of Incentives" in MacDonald Institute 300 and will present a paper in the visiting speaker series on Thursday at 3:30 entitled "Intermittent Rewards and the Persistence of Effort" in Mack 304.  Professor Villeval is Associate Editor at the Journal of Public Economic Theory and at the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization.

Congratulations go to Mehmet Pinar for successfully defending his doctoral dissertation entitled "Stochastic-Dominance-Efficient Welfare Indices in Development".  Mehmet has accepted a research position in Italy to develop a sustainability index that can be incorporated into Computable General Equilibrium models.  The position is with the highly regarded research institute FEEM (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei) in Venice.  

Professor Kris Inwood was featured in the Vancouver Sun yesterday.  His CFI-funded research project on digitizing the 1891 Canadian Census has produced an accurate picture of the demographic and socio-economic make up of urban and rural Canada at that time.  The city of Vancouver, which was founded in 1886, is celebrating its 125th anniversary and Inwood's findings were of particular interest as part of those celebrations.  

Professor John Maxwell from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University will present his paper entitled "Label Confusion: The Groucho Effect of Uncertain Standards" in Mackinnon 314 on Friday at 3:30. 

Management Economics and Finance students Mike Ackland and Kenneth Bache have organized the CME Trading Simulation.  Teams from more than a dozen universities will compete on Saturday April 2 in a trading simulation designed to provide experience to students and an opportunity to meet industry professionals.  More information about the day-long event can be found on their website.  

The official launch of Professor Adomait's book Cocktail Party Economics will be held on Wednesday March 30 from 5:30 pm to 6:50 pm in Rozhanski Hall 101.  Panelists Evie Adomait, her co-author Richard Maranta and Pearson Publishing Vice-President Gary Bennett will discuss the topic "The Importance of Being Earnest: About Economics, Writing and Book Publishing".  Lee Fridman, a senior student in Management Economics and Finance, will moderate the panel.  

 Professor Ilias Tsiakas received an Outstanding Paper Award from the Journal of Financial Research for his paper entitled "The Economic Gains of Trading Stocks Around the Holidays" which appeared in the Spring 2010 edition.  The award comes with a monetary prize and announcements on the back cover of the Journal and on the Blackwell Publishing web page.   

This week's speaker is Maros Servatka from the University of Canterbury, NZ.  The paper is entitled "Acts of Commission and the Status Quo in Fairness Games".  The time and location are Friday, 3:30 pm in Mack 314.