With support from the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI), 18 University of Chicago undergraduate students attended the 2020 American Economic Association’s Annual Meeting in San Diego on Jan. 3-5. The four-day conference featured sessions from many of the field’s foremost economists, including several from the University of Chicago.
“Saying that the AEA has something for everyone is an understatement. I was able to schedule almost three full days of education economics,” fourth-year student and Oeconomica president Teddy Knox said. “The conference reenergized my interest in economics and showed me a ton of interesting research I would not have discovered otherwise.”
The students, members of the University of Chicago’s undergraduate economics research society Oeconomica, attended paper and panel sessions and heard economists from around the world share research and methods shaping the field.
“It was an excellent opportunity to see economists that we may usually only read become animated as they presented their research,” second-year Graydon Cedric Elkouh said. “The highlights for me were sessions on antitrust policy and a paper session where hot-button tax policy questions were explored — both were, perhaps unsurprisingly, sessions at which UChicago economists presented.”
In addition to daily sessions, students attended the Richard T. Ely lecture by Marianne Bertrand, Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, Booth School of Business, on “Gender in the 21st Century.” The lecture was chaired by former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, whom students later met.
“After attending the conference, my interest in economic research has grown further, and my understanding of how it is actually done in practice has significantly developed,” fourth-year Shusheng Zhong said. “The opportunities to meet famous economists that I always dreamed of seeing, and enjoying the beautiful San Diego winter, added to the experience.”