Honours students receive top accolades at CEA-BoC Undergraduate Student Paper Awards

Congratulations to economics honours students Doina Rusu and Aaron Chen who swept the top prizes at the Undergraduate Student Paper Awards, jointly organized by the Bank of Canada and the Canadian Economics Association (CEA).

Rusu emerged the winner of the "Best Paper" prize while Chen received the "Best Presentation" prize together with Michelle Bronsard from Université de Montréal.  

Chen and Rusu were among the group of ten undergraduate students selected from across Canada to present at the 56th annual CEA conference's undergraduate poster session this past weekend. Their win marks a historic first for Simon Fraser University's Department of Economics and speaks to the quality of the department's honours program. 

Motivated by her interests in how people interact with digital technologies and the current state of the personal data industry, Rusu's paper explores how risk preferences factor into the extent an individual values their digital privacy.

"Presenting my research was a great opportunity to identify the key aspects of my research, as I only had five minutes to convince the audience that the topic is worth exploring," says Rusu. "I particularly enjoyed interacting with the audience during the question period as some of the feedback gave me ideas on how I could potentially enhance my paper."

Chen's paper draws inspiration from his personal observations while growing up in China. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, he examines the relationship between return to university education and career prospects in China.

As Chen reflects on his experience in the honours program and the conference presentation, he has nothing but gratitude. "I really feel that my efforts have been recognized. I have a passion for economics but had never imagined this accomplishment was even possible when I first started university," says Chen. "I appreciate the support from the SFU Economics department and my supervisor Fernando Aragon, who assisted me a lot during this research project."

This fall, both students are headed off to pursue their master's degree in economics, with Rusu continuing her education here at SFU and Chen joining the University of Toronto.