Laurier Economics Department's CEA 2026 Roundup

Laurier Economics was well-represented at the 60^th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Economics Association (CEAs), hosted by Simon Fraser University in Vancouver this past May. The annual conference attracts economists from universities across Canada and is a highlight of the academic year for many.

Department chair Christine Neill spent a lot of time talking with conference organizers and attendees to prepare for next year, when Laurier will host the CEAs. “We are looking forward to welcoming somewhere around 800 economists from Canada and around the world to Waterloo on May 27-29, 2027”, says Neill.

Dr. Neill also spent time organizing and chairing sessions for the Canadian Economics Diversity Committee’s Best Practices Sub-Committee along with co-chair Doriane Intungane, as well as getting caught up with some of Laurier’s economics alums, including Mingze Li, John Baker, Matt Webb and Zemar Hakim.  

Several faculty presented their original research. Jahangir Alam organized six sessions on generative AI in macroeconomic forecasting. Alam, along with Laurier colleagues Stephen Snudden and Monica Jain presented AI-focused research. Jain’s research showcased the use of generative AI to create a novel data series on firm expectations using conversations with Canada companies. According to Jain, “this data series will provide richer insights into how firms make decisions than traditional survey data.” Beyond her many activities with CWEC, Jain said she also enjoyed “the opportunity to chat about research and balancing family and career life with this year’s Purvis Luncheon speaker, Emi Nakamura (UC Berkeley), a world renowned Canadian-American macroeconomist.”

Ridwan Karim presented his paper (joint with Mehrab Bakhtiar from IFPRI) on “Threshold Effects of Extreme Heat on Schooling and Child Labor in Rural Bangladesh”. The paper examines whether there are critical temperature thresholds beyond which extreme heat begins to have disproportionately large effects on children's educational outcomes and labour participation, using detailed weather and household data from Bangladesh. The finding is that yes, there is a threshold – around 36°C outcomes begin to deteriorate rapidly. According to Karim, one of his personal highlights was attending a presentation by Jeremy Magruder, whose work is highly relevant to his own research interests on climate, education, and development.

Tammy Schirle participated in one of the CEA’s online sessions, presenting “Who are the people in your neighbourhood?”, coauthored with Kevin Milligan from the University of British Columbia. This work-in-progress uses tax files since 1982 to figure out why low-income individuals live longer if they live in richer rather than poorer neighbourhoods. According to Schirle, “I expected that exposure to high life-expectancy neighbours might influence healthy behaviour, leading to higher life expectancy but it turns out that who the people are in your neighbourhood doesn’t really matter.”  She says attendees offered some great suggestions and comments’; the authors will continue to investigate.  

Other faculty research presentations included:

• Jeff Chan, “The Effects of Telecommunications on Production: Evidence from the US Electric Telegraph Rollout”;
• Zijian Wang, "Bubbles with Fraud in Asset Markets”;
• William Morrison, “Air Passenger Willingness to Purchase Carbon Offsets: An Incentivized Experiment" (session organized by the Canadian Experimental and Behavioural Research Group (CEBERG));
• Azim Essaji, “Lands Reclaimed: Additions to Reserve and Indigenous Economic Development”, joint research with Jeff Chan and Rob Gillezeau;
• Juan Morales, who organized and presented in a special session titled “Political Economy: Information, Influence, and Public Welfare”; and,
• Nikolai Cook, "Is Artificial Intelligence Good for the Environment? Evidence from a Randomized Information Experiment", joint with Abel Brodeur (University of Ottawa) and PhD student David Valenta.

Faculty were involved in other activities, such as mentoring events and sessions supporting EDI initiatives. Jeff Chan, as co-chair of the mentoring committee of Canadian Women Economists Committee (CWEC) and the Canadian Economics Diversity Committee (CEDC), organized events with mentors from various schools, institutions, and companies across Canada answering questions in small-group discussions. Both Juan Morales and Zijian Wang participated in these sessions as mentors. Ke Pang, as a panelist and former Co-Chair of the Best Practices Committee of the CEDC, presented the Best Practices Report, highlighting the committee’s activities from 2022 to 2025 and key findings from surveys on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives across Canadian economics departments. Nikolai Cook organized the  12^th Canadian PhD and Early Career Workshop in Environmental Economics, held at Simon Fraser the day after the CEAs concluded.  The workshop gave eight early career researchers from Sherbrooke, Calgary, Montreal, Cornell, UQAM an opportunity to present their research in a dedicated, small networking group.

A definite conference highlight was Laurier undergraduate economics student Kyle Arndt winning Best Poster at the Bank of Canada’s Undergraduate Poster session.  “I'm thankful for another rewarding experience,” Arndt said. “I had the opportunity to present my research to many economists, and I am happy to be the first Laurier student to bring this award back to the university.” He added that he was grateful to Jahangir Alam for his guidance and support in preparing his award-winning poster, which was based on the research paper "Canadian Monetary Policy with Demand and Supply-Driven Inflation."

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