Wake Forest Department of Economics

Great Jr Faculty Workshop yesterday! 🌟 Prof. Brian Marein shared fascinating research on European immigrants and wealth accumulation in the US. Always inspiring to see our faculty's work in action!

What a fantastic #URECADay2025! Celebrating Prof. Erik Nesson @eriknesson.bsky.social & Prof. Brian Marein alongside their outstanding students who showcased their mentored research on Friday 🌟 So proud of our department's contribution to this celebration of undergraduate scholarship!

Yesterday, we hosted Dr. Gaurav Khanna (UCSD GPS) for his lecture “The Migration of Skills: Brain Drain, Brain Gain, and Innovation.”

The event drew a standing-room-only audience! A big thank you to Dr. Khanna for sparking such thoughtful discussion within our community.

🧠✈️ Join us for our Fall '25 Public Lecture: "The Migration of Skills: Brain Drain, Brain Gain, and Innovation"

📅 Wed 9/24, 4pm @ Kirby B02 with Prof. Gaurav Khanna (UCSD) - leading migration economist exploring how talent flows shape global innovation.

🧠✈️ Join us for our Fall '25 Public Lecture: "The Migration of Skills: Brain Drain, Brain Gain, and Innovation"

📅 Wed 9/24, 4pm @ Kirby B02 with Prof. Gaurav Khanna (UCSD) - leading migration economist exploring how talent flows shape global innovation.

Wake Forest's new tuition policy is economics theory in practice 📊 Eliminating financial barriers expands access, increases human capital formation, and generates positive spillovers for NC's economy. We're excited to welcome the talent this policy will attract! #GoDeacs

Exciting presentations at today's Jr Faculty Workshop!
📊 Alex Yu presented "Smoggy Instruments: A Breath of Bias in Air Pollution Impact Studies" (w/ Z. Wang)
🌍 Andreea Rotarescu examined "All Gain No Pain? Global Rebalancing Without Relative Wage Adjustments" (w/ O. Jeanne)

Great seminar today with Robert Garlick from Duke,
presenting "Flexibility versus Performance: The Determinants of Labor Contracts in Nairobi, Kenya"

Thank you for visiting us, Rob!

Last Wednesday our very own faculty member Prof. Andre Mouton kicked off our internal junior seminar series with his fascinating presentation "Measuring Task-Level Technological Exposure: A Language Model Approach" 🧠💡

Acronyms in the News: RFK, HHS, CDC, and vaccines Vaccines are back in the news, along with some chaos

🏥📊 What's happening at the CDC this week and how does economics factor in?

Prof. Tina Marsh Dalton breaks down the key acronyms making headlines - RFK, HHS, CDC - and explains what's at stake with vaccine policy.

Check out her latest analysis: tinamarshdalton.substack.com/p/acronyms-i...

Happy first day of classes to all our incredible econ majors! 📊✨ Here's to a semester of discovering how economics shapes our world! Go Deacs! #Fall2025 #WakeForest #Deaconomics @wakeforest.bsky.social

We are thrilled to welcome back our alumna Dr. Caroline Tompson as she teaches her very first class at Wake! Pictured here alongside Dr. Megan Manassah, a true celebration of faculty connections and mentorship in the Department of Economics 💛🖤

Are professional economists truly objective when forecasting GDP? Maybe not. New research from Wake Forest University suggests a subtle yet powerful influence of political affiliation on GDP growth predictions. Economist Aeimit Lakdawala, an associate professor and expert in monetary policy, found that political bias can systematically influence economic forecasts, shaping

Are professional economists truly objective when forecasting economic projections? New research from Wake Forest University suggests otherwise, revealing a subtle yet powerful influence of political affiliation on predictions of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. #WFUResearch

🧠📊 Go Deacs! Gary Guo('25), ECN major and URECA Research fellow, guided by his advisor, Prof. Leah Lakdawala, explores the link between economic status and dementia diagnoses among older adults. Amazing work tackling critical health disparities! #WFUResearch @wakeforest.bsky.social

📢 Incoming Deacs! Join us for the ECN Open House 🎓
📅 Friday, Aug 22 | ⏰ 9:00–11:15 AM
Come meet our Economics faculty, connect with classmates, and learn more about our ECN degrees & opportunities. 💡📊

Welcome to our new Econ Deacs!

Joaquín Urrego (AP) whose research is in urban economics, development, and economics of crime & real estate.

Caroline Tompson (VPA) WFU alumna specializing in non-market valuation, survey methods, and economics of education.

We’re so excited to have them join us! 💛🖤

Snapshots from our Economics study abroad program in Hong Kong - led by our amazing faculty, Tommy Leung!

📍Guest lecture by Byron Tsang (VT) on the linked exchange rate
🥟Group dim sum feast in Sha Tin
🌏Site visit to Sheung Shui

Are professional economists truly objective when forecasting GDP? Maybe not. New research from Wake Forest University suggests a subtle yet powerful influence of political affiliation on GDP growth predictions. Economist Aeimit Lakdawala, an associate professor and expert in m...

New research by Wake Forest economist @aeimit.bsky.social suggests even professional forecasters aren’t fully objective. Under Republican presidents, GOP-leaning economists predict up to 0.4% higher GDP growth than their peers.

Fascinating insights here:
news.wfu.edu/2025/08/05/a...

This week, our faculty members @eriknesson.bsky.social, @falbav.bsky.social and our newest hire Prof. Joaquin Urrego participated in the @nber.org Summer Institute in Cambridge, MA. Thanks to our friend Matthew Johnson from Duke for capturing the moment!

How does unreliable urban transport disproportionately limit women’s access to higher education—and can infrastructure fixes close the gap? @falbav.bsky.social , @wakeforest.bsky.social , discusses: faculti.net/transport-ba...
#economics

🚍 Our very own Dr. Alba-Vivar is shedding light on how limited access to public transportation affects commuter students in Peru. Important insights on mobility and educational equity! @wakeforest.bsky.social

It's a beautiful day to be a Deac! Welcome to the Forest, #WFU29. 🎩 💛

The Effect of E-Cigarette Flavor Bans on Tobacco Use Advocates for sales restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes argue that flavors appeal to young people and lead them down a path to nicotine addiction. U…

🚨 New Publication Alert! 🚨

Congrats to our faculty member Erik Nesson @eriknesson.bsky.social ! His latest paper, "The Effect of E-Cigarette Flavor Bans on Tobacco Use," is now available in the Journal of Health Economics 🎉

📖 Read here:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Yesterday we hosted Hannah Postel @hpostel.bsky.social (Duke) for our junior workshop—thank you for visiting us!

She presented “Subgroup Disparities in Automated Census Record Linkage” (with Abramitzky, Boustan & Eriksson), sparking a rich discussion on historical data and migration!

Last week we hosted Zhenxuan Wang (NC State) for our junior workshop—thank you for visiting us! 🙌

He presented “Steering Adaptation: Heat, Driver Performance, and Cost-Sharing in the Heavy-Duty Transportation Industry”, sparking a great conversation🌡️🚛📈.

Congrats to our honors students on presenting their thesis work last Wednesday! 🎓📚

We're so proud of the thoughtfulness, rigor, and creativity you brought to your research. It was a great afternoon of ideas, questions, and celebration. Here's to all your hard work! 👏✨

Big kudos to the youngest members of the audience who are already mastering their first economics seminars ! 🌟📚

Huge thanks to Paulo Lins (Clemson) for joining us at Wake Forest today for the junior workshop! 👏

He presented “Consumption's Response to Permanent Income: The Role of Consumption Commitments”. We really enjoyed the visit and conversation!

Thank you to Francesco Bianchi (Johns Hopkins) for visiting Wake Forest and presenting “Smooth Diagnostic Expectations” (with Cosmin Ilut & Hikaru Saijo) this past Tuesday!

We appreciate all your advice and the engaging discussions with our faculty!

Huge thanks to Mike Dinerstein @mikedinerstein.bsky.social (Duke) for visiting Wake Forest last Friday and presenting his paper "Student Loan Forgiveness" (with Earnest, Koustas & Yannelis). A super insightful talk — it was great to have you with us!