Fall 2020 Economics graduate award winners

Kevin Laughren 

Kevin joined SFU in 2016. Kevin's focus is behavioural economics, and he uses a variety of applied microeconomic methods including online experiments, field studies, and machine learning. Having previously worked in capital markets, many of his research questions are inspired by real-world financial mistakes, or are aimed at informing policy to help consumers make better decisions. His dissertation research uses an experiment to test the theory of rational inattention and delineate between several types of attention mistakes, its findings could be relevant to the policies which govern financial asset sales and disclosures to retail investors. He is a member of the SFU Experimental Economics Lab and Economics Graduate Student Society. 

Marieh Azizirad

Marieh Azizirad is a PhD candidate in economics at SFU who joined the program in Fall 2017. Marieh was born and raised in Iran where she completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in economics. Her research interests are macroeconomics with a focus on monetary economics. The awarded working paper, co-authored with associate professor Lucas Herrenbrueck, developed a model where agents have imperfect information to study the trading halts due to information frictions and beliefs. She is currently a sessional instructor at SFU teaching ECON 305: Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory. She enjoys both research and teaching, and is planning to stay in academia after completing her PhD.

Alim Faraji 

Before my graduate studies, my academic life was mostly about computer science and mathematics. I knew I wanted my professional life to be more related to the humanities. Economics seemed like a reasonable choice for me, as I had strong mathematical and quantitative skills.

I appreciate SFU’s trust in my capabilities as I applied to the program without much related background in economics. Thanks to the supportive faculty, I had the chance to enrich my understanding of economics in different areas. After finishing the program, economics was no longer just a reasonable choice for me. It was the right one.

Fatemeh Tehranikia

When I was a bachelor student majoring in Pure Mathematics, I used to search for the applications of all of those theories and theorems in human life. Much as I loved mathematics, I decided to change my major, as everything seemed too abstract in mathematics textbooks to be pertinent to everyday life. When I joined SFU in fall 2019 to pursue a master’s degree in Economics, I was not yet quite sure whether changing major was a sensible decision for me. Now that I have finished my studies at SFU, I can say not only has Economics advanced my understanding of how to apply mathematical tools to everyday life, but it also has taught me how to think thoroughly; how to look at phenomena meticulously; and more importantly, how to rationally deal with irrationalities.

I am grateful to all faculty members and staff working in the Economics Department for providing the students with a positive, welcoming atmosphere in which one can ask, learn, and attain success. I owe a debt of gratitude to Alex Karaivanov for all the great advice he offered to me and for all his support; to Gregory Dow, Arthur Robson, Bertille Antoine, and Kevin Schnepel for supporting my applications for my PhD studies; and to Lisa Agosti for always being there for us. Not least of all, I am also grateful to the great and supportive 2019 cohort, whose companionship was a blessing to me.

Hung Truong

Born and raised in Sai Gon, Vietnam, Hung Truong is a second-year PhD student in economics at SFU. After completing his Bachelor's degree in Economics at Singapore (SIM) and California (UCSD), he joined SFU in 2018 to pursue graduate training in Economics. Hung enjoys exploring outcome of collective behavior of individuals in both computational and experimental environments. His research interests include monetary policy, behavioral economics and evolution of choice. Hung likes to share and exchange economic understanding with his students. Aside from all this, Hung is a novice hiker and tennis player.

Azraf Ahmad

Azraf is a second-year PhD student in economics at SFU. After finishing his Masters at SFU, he decided to pursue further education to study the interaction of politics, culture, institutions, and the economy. Azraf got into Economics in the hope that his work will help understand how to make economic development more inclusive and productive.

Liang Diao 

Liang Diao is a PhD student in Economics at SFU. After obtaining his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, he joined SFU to pursue further study and research in Law and Economics. Liang has a general interest in the rationales and the effects of institutions. He is currently studying Israel kibbutz as defensive institution under external threats.

Minoru Higa 

Minoru moved to Vancouver together with his wife and son to start the Ph.D. in Economics at Simon Fraser University (SFU). He got his B.A. in Economics from Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP), and his Master's in Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara (USA) and Tilburg University (Netherlands). He has been a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). Recently, he teamed up with his wife and won the 2019-2020 SFU Student-Community Engagement Competition to implement social impact projects in Vancouver. Currently, he is conducting research in the field of Environmental Economics.