Wake Forest Department of Economics

📢 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!

Last Friday, we had the pleasure of hosting Ana María Herrera (University of Kentucky) for our Econ seminar, where she presented "Nonparametric Local Projections"

Huge thanks to Ana for visiting our department and sharing her insights! 📊📚

¡Grande Joaquín! And congrats to @wfueconomics.bsky.social on this outstanding hire!

Amazing news!! Can’t wait to have Joaquin with us this Fall 🤩

Joaquin A. Urrego Joaquin A. Urrego Postdoctoral Scholar at UC - Berkeley Welcome! I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California—Berkeley in the Haas School of Business. I obtained my Ph.D. in Economics ...

Can't wait until the fall to hear more about Prof. Urrego's research? Learn more here: www.jaurrego.com

📢 We keep growing! 🎉 Another great year of hiring at Wake!

We’re excited to welcome Joaquin Urrego (UC Berkeley) as an Assistant Professor of Economics. He joins our applied micro group, bringing expertise in Urban, Crime, and Real Estate.

Let's welcome our new Deaconomist💛🖤 👏

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of hosting Enghin Atalay from the philadelphiafed.bsky.social , who presented "Micro- and Macroeconomic Impacts of a Place-Based Industrial Policy." Great discussion and insights—thank you Enghin for your visit!

Last Friday, we had the wonderful visit of Andrew Dustan
(William & Mary), who presented his work "Public-Private Partnerships in Education: Experimental Evidence from Colombia" (with Felipe Barrera-Osorio & Luis Carvajal-Osorio). Thanks, Andrew, for a great day with us!

Check out this article featuring the research of our very own @eriknesson.bsky.social! 🎉

Sharing the latest article on @voxdev.bsky.social by my brilliant colleague and mentor at @wfueconomics.bsky.social & @wakeforest.bsky.social Leah Lakdwala. Check it out! 📚🔥

"Does legalizing child labor reduce or increase it? Our wonderful faculty member Leah Lakdawala examines Bolivia’s experiment and its unintended consequences. Key insights for policymakers on tackling child labor effectively. Read more on @voxdev.bsky.social : voxdev.org/topic/labour...

Prof. Koleman Strumpf spoke at a packed at the Freakonomics Radio Live event during the ASSA meetings! 🎙️ Joined by SF Mayor London Breed, 1,500+ attended at the Sydney Goldstein Theater as he shared insights on cannabis industry research. 🍃

Listen here: freakonomics.com/podcast/cann... 📻"

Is news bias fueled by journalists supplying slanted views or readers’ demanding them? An economist weighs in Liberal-leaning stories tend to stay longer on The New York Times’ homepage, even when controlling for popularity. We found the same thing of conservative stories in The Wall Street Journal.

With fewer companies dominating the #media landscape, consolidation could be driving #bias in news coverage. An economist shares insights from analyzing 100,000 articles from NYT and WSJ, and how long they got featured on the homepage https://buff.ly/4giPKxJ (Tin Cheuk Leung @wakeforest.bsky.social)