Lazaridis School Economists organize 'AWSOME' workshop

Laurier Economics Department (LED) macroeconomists Edda Claus and Zijian Wang (pictured below), along with student volunteer Carson Boettinger, organized the 5th Annual Workshop of Southern Ontario Macro Economists - the AWSOME workshop - this past April. AWSOME is an annual event that brings together leading economists from universities across southern Ontario to discuss research on the latest developments in the field of macroeconomics.

This year's workshop, sponsored by the Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis (LCERPA) and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant, attracted economists from eight universities, including the University of Toronto, Western University, McMaster University and the University of Guelph. Speakers presented on diverse topics, such as economic risk and entrepreneurship, news and asset pricing, and labour markets in an aging society. Simon Fraser University's Luba Petersen, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and external advisor to the Bank of Canada spoke on communicating inflation uncertainty, while York University's Tasso Adamopoulos discussed trade risk and food security. The workshop also featured junior researchers and included several student participants. 

For the first time in the workshop's history, an innovative undergraduate poster session was added to showcase some of the best work of Laurier's undergraduate economics students. These works focused on important issues to the Canadian economy, such as the rising cost of living, housing shortages, and immigration. The session provided students with great opportunities to obtain feedback from established researchers.

"Presenting my group's research on forecasting monetary policy rates at the AWSOME conference was an academically enriching experience. It allowed me to engage with professors inside and outside of Laurier on a wide array of topics surrounding macroeconomics. This experience provided valuable feedback on our research methodology and findings. The conference served as a platform to showcase our hard work and dedication, and I would recommend any economics students to attend in the future," said Boettinger (pictured at left). 

Congratulations to all on the workshop's success!