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The Department of Economics is happy to announce the winners of the Spring 2021 Undergraduate Research Prizes. Each term, the department awards two prizes:
For Spring 2021, the Peter Sinclair Undergraduate Research Prize is awarded to Colin Moran, for his paper, "Predicting Private Donations to Ontario's Elementary Schools." In this paper, Colin evaluated and compares models to predict how much elementary schools raise in private donations using the school's standardized test scores and census data on the neighbourhood surrounding the school. He found that the key predictor of school fundraising is student enrollment, in addition to a school's religious affiliation and the ethnic diversity of the neighbourhood. This information will be very valuable to schools and boards who are looking to understand what determines a school's private fundraising efforts.
Colin is a 2021 graduate of the Economics and Financial Management program. After completing his degree, he started a job in the financial industry in Toronto. It's also Colin's second time winning the prize!
There were four runners-up for the prize:
The Short Undergraduate Paper Prize was shared by two students:
Tristan is a fourth-year student finishing the Economics and Financial Management Program. Next academic year, he will start a Master's program in Economics at Queen's University. Lauren is a fourth-year student in the Honours Economics program with the Legal Studies option. Her plan for the future is to write the LSAT and attend law school in order to pursue a career in corporate law.
There was one runner-up prize:
Congratulations to these students for their outstanding work. It's also important to highlight that while we pick a few specific winners for these prizes, all fo the submissions we receive every term are excellent, and deserv lots of recognition even outside of these prizes.