LED Spotlight: Economics Department Awards Undergraduate Research Prizes

The Department of Economics in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University is happy to announce the winners of the fall 2025 Undergraduate Research Prizes.

The Department awards The Peter Sinclair Undergraduate Research Prize for research papers, typically those submitted to EC481, our capstone research project course.

This year’s Peter Sinclair Undergraduate Research Prize is awarded to Kyle Arndt. In his paper “Canadian Monetary Policy with Demand and Supply-Driven Inflation” Arndt analyses how the Bank of Canada responds to demand driven versus supply driven inflation. Results show a stronger monetary policy response to demand compared to supply driven inflation. Arndt estimates a series of component specific Phillips curves where inflation expectations are found to be more firmly anchored during supply-driven episodes. This helps to explain the weaker policy responses.

This year’s Runners-up for the Peter Sinclair Undergraduate Research Prize are Aishleen Bassi and Colton Phillips. Bassi’s paper “From Likes to Purchases: Measuring the Economic Impact of Online Engagement in Canada” examines how online engagement impacts consumer spending behaviour in Canada. Phillips’ paper ‘Designing the Race Card: Empirical Evidence of Wagering Drivers at Woodbine Racetrack’ investigates how characteristics of thoroughbred horse races affect the wagering revenue generated by a race.

“On behalf of the Economics Department, we would like to congratulate Kyle, Aishleen and Colton 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.

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