Getting Involved

Clubs and Organizations

Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project (EEGLP)

Students who are curious about the interdisciplinary aspect of an economics major may be interested in Lafayette’s Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project (EEGLP). Multidisciplinary teams of students and faculty work together to solve contemporary problems in a variety of places. Currently, the EEGLP team is collaborating with residents and other stakeholders, including the Legislature of Maryland, to develop a plan for the economic revitalization of West Baltimore. Recent collaborations include projects in which the EEGLP team worked with residents in rural Honduran villages, Central Appalachia, New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, and Lafayette’s home city of Easton to facilitate social entrepreneurship and economic sustainability.

Investment Club

The Investment Club is a student-run organization that manages a portfolio of about 30 securities, most of which are stocks, valued at about $956,000. Students learn about investing firsthand by making decisions regarding the purchase and sale of securities, and observing the results of their actions. In addition to managing the portfolio, the club holds workshops to educate members about investing and Wall Street. Members invite speakers and organize trips to meet firms, gain exposure to Wall Street, and network with alumni in the financial world.

WOmen in economics Club

The Women in Economics club strives to foster an empowering environment for women at Lafayette College challenging and often male-dominated undergraduate program. Members should have an interest in economics and promoting equality in the field. The club offers study hours and informal social events to give members opportunities to form relationships with other women in their economics classes. Through meetings and discussions with professors members can learn about career development and research.

Employment Opportunities

Supplemental Instructors

SI Leaders must have completed the course for which they are instructing, received at least an A- in the course, have a minimum GPA of 3.0, hold a Sophomore, Junior or Senior class standing for a given year, and demonstrate excellent communication and interpersonal skills. SI Leaders are responsible for conducting two 60 minute SI sessions a week throughout the semester, providing 2 hours of office hours each week, develop a working relationship with SI course instructor, meet weekly, attend class and take thorough notes on all lectures, complete all homework assignments, and read all assigned materials before the SI session. If you are interested in becoming an SI Leader for one of the courses typically offered, you are encouraged to complete the Academic Resource Hub application. A faculty recommendation from the department you are considering being an SI is requested.

Mentored Study Group Leaders

MSG Leaders facilitate 2 hour study group sessions 2 times per week. They are responsible for completing weekly practice problems, homework assignments in preparation for sessions, developing frameworks through which students can learn challenging topics, offering advice on study strategies, and communicating with the professor. MSGs are facilitated by upper-class students who work closely with course professors to ensure Mentored Study Group leaders are well prepared to explain complex course topics.

Research Opportunities

Excel Scholars

Open to sophomore, junior, and senior full-time Lafayette students in all disciplines who maintain a 3.25 GPA or higher, the prestigious EXCEL Scholars undergraduate research program gives students nominated by a faculty member an opportunity to pursue research alongside a faculty adviser/researcher. These studies open career doors for students, as the work is fully collaborative and involves cutting-edge research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge. The EXCEL Scholars program runs both semesters and during the summer. Students receive hourly wages and are provided housing during the summer session. Several students have co-authored published articles with faculty members based on their EXCEL projects. Feel free to reach out to the department head or any faculty member in the Economics Department about EXCEL research opportunities.

Thesis

Seniors who participate in the department honors program prepare and defend a thesis with close guidance from a professor. Recent honors projects have focused on collusion in major league baseball, the gender wage gap, and the efficiency of the crude oil market.

Areas of Economics

Agriculture, Natural Resources, and the Environment

The economics of farming, fishery, forests, and natural resources with a focus on prices, markets, and changing technologies. Topics include the study of markets for energy (oil, coal, and electricity) and mineral resources, and policies to promote clean air, water, and land.

Professors’ Scholarship:

Liu: “Menu-dependent food choices and food waste”
Ruebeck: “Knowledge Spillover and Positive Environmental Externality in Agricultural Decision Making under Performance-Based Payment Programs”
Stifel: “A Green-Gray Path to Global Water Security and Sustainable Infrastructure.”

Economic Development

The study of why some countries have developed while others have not, with special focus on the world’s less developed countries. How might industrialized countries improve prospects for development around the world? Who gains and who loses under policies to help economies develop?

Professors’ Scholarship:

Hutchinson: “Fiscal Expenditure Policy and EconomicGrowth: Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean”
Stifel: “Market Access, Well-Being, and Nutrition: Evidence from Ethiopia”

Economics of Race and Gender

This area of economics deals with allocation, welfare, and well-being and uses an economics disciplinary perspective to understand hierarchy, power, inequity, discrimination, and injustice. Microeconomics is a fundamentally outward-looking and interdisciplinary field that endeavors to answer this question by being both firmly grounded in economics and also deeply connected to sociology, psychology, political science, and law.

Professors’ Scholarship:

Averett: “Will daughters walk mom’s talk? The effects of maternal communication about sex on the sexual behavior of female adolescents.”
Rizvi: “Community-Based Digital Archives to Support Diversifying Campuses and Enhance Community Involvement”
Ruebeck: “The economics of identity and the endogeneity of race”

Financial Economics

The study of how to value and determine the price of assets with uncertain returns, their derivatives and the markets that trade them; the study of how firms finance their operations and the capital structure of firms.

Professors’ Scholarship:

Swidler: “Do equity-linked certificates of deposit have equity-like returns?”
Kelly: “CDO squareds: the case of subprime mortgagest”

Health and Education Economics

The study of determinants of educational attainment and health outcomes, and the impact of government policies on these outcomes.

Professors’ Scholarship:

Averett: “Residential Noise Exposure and Health: Evidence from Aviation Noise and Birth Outcomes”
Biener: “The impact of obesity on medical care costs and labor market outcomes in the US”
Larsen: “The Effects of the New Orleans Post-Katrina School Reforms on Student Academic Outcomes”

International Trade and Finance

The study of trade among nations and the flow of money and payments across international borders. Topics also include globalization and the balance of payments with other countries.

Professors’ Scholarship:

DeVault: “Economics and the international trade commission”
Ogrokhina: “The role of inflation targeting in international debt denomination in developing countries”

Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics

The study of the national economy and the determinants of national production, unemployment, and inflation. This field also examines the role of the Federal Reserve System, interest rates, and monetary and financial stability policy.

Professors’ Scholarship:

Guisinger: “A state-level analysis of Okun’s law”
Ogrokhina: “The Role of Inflation Targeting in Debt Denomination in Developing Countries”
Smith: “Are the Fed’s inflation forecasts still superior to the private sector’s?”

Mathematical and Quantitative Methods

Econometrics
Develops and uses statistical and mathematical tools to analyze economic issues and policy questions.

Professors’ Scholarship:

Guisinger: “Industrial Connectedness and Business Cycle Comovements”
Ogrokhina: “Can policy shifts explain the forward discount puzzle?”

Experimental economics
Develops and uses experiments, typically with human subjects, to study economic issues and policy questions.

Professors’ Scholarship:

Gómez Miñambres: “Emotional calibration of self-control”

Public Economics

The study of the role of government in the economy including how to evaluate government programs, the design of tax systems, and how the political process makes decisions.

Professors’ Scholarship:

Crain: “On the structure and stability of political markets”
Guisinger: “Economic Forecasting: Comparing the Fed with the Private Sector”
Swidler: “Government hedging: Motivation, implementation, and evaluation”