Congratulations to Laurier Economics Graduating Students and Undergraduate Research Prize winners

Last week, Wilfrid Laurier University held Convocation ceremonies to celebrate its 2024 graduates. And as part of those ceremonies, the Economics Department welcomed its newest alumni - 70 students receiving their Bachelors or Honours degrees, and 12 students graduating with their MA in Business Economics. Convocation is a momentous occasion and many of our Economics faculty were on hand to celebrate with our graduates and their family and friends. We’re excited to see what their futures bring!

Among our recent graduates were David Griffin and Rhea Sen, winners of our Peter Sinclair undergraduate research paper awards.   

David and Rhea are joint winners of the Peter Sinclair Undergraduate Research Prize for Winter/Spring 2024. The prize is awarded to the papers judged as the best student submissions, and have typically been written as part of our capstone Honours Research Paper and seminar course.

In his paper “Housing Prices Responding to Oil Prices and Macroeconomic Variables”, Griffin builds on existing research to estimate the impact of oil price changes on housing prices in Calgary, Alberta. He finds that for every $1 rise in real oil prices, housing prices increase by about $30. In addition, Griffin finds asymmetric effects of oil price changes if oil prices are above $60 per barrel.  David is currently studying towards a Master of Data Science and Analysis degree at the University of Calgary. He is also working as a graduate researcher at the Charbonneau Cancer Institute with the Evict Radon National Study evaluating radon reduction techniques in homes and their impact on lung cancer costs.

Sen’s paper, “Are Returns to Post-Secondary Education Different Between Immigrant and Native-Born Workers in Canada?” uses 2016 Canadian census data and demonstrates that immigrants with a non-Canadian post-secondary degree earn less than both immigrants and Canadians with a Canadian post-secondary degree.  She is currently working towards her MA in Economics at the University of Waterloo, and is looking forward to future research opportunities in the field of labour economics.

Congratulations also go to Alexander Bond for his paper “Modern Monetary Policy: Transmission to the U.S. Equity Market”, which was selected as the runner-up for the Peter Sinclair Prize.  He was also a winner in 2022, a testament to his economic research and writing skills.

“On behalf of the Economics Department, we would like to congratulate David, Rhea and Alexander on their excellent research papers and we wish them every success in their careers,” said Associate Chair of the Department, Edda Claus.  “As in previous years, we received many high quality submissions and, even though they may not have won the prize, the Economics Department congratulates all of our students who submitted papers on their excellent research,” said Claus.