IWU Seniors Present at Prestigious Conference on International Economics

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Four Illinois Wesleyan senior economics majors were among a distinguished group of 28 seniors from the nation’s most selective colleges and universities who participated in the 2002 Carroll Round at Georgetown University on April 5-7.

Sponsored by The Sallie Mae Fund, and supported by Georgetown’s John Carroll Scholars Program and Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Carroll Round is an undergraduate conference focusing on contemporary international economic research and policy.

The Illinois Wesleyan students were Katia Hristova, a senior economics and computer science double major from Bulgaria; Anisha Madan, a senior economics and management accounting major from Bombay, India; Jeremy Sandford, a senior economics and Spanish major from Elk Grove Village; and Deborah Slezak, a senior economics and Spanish major from Orland Park.

Joining the IWU students were representatives of Columbia, Stanford, the University of Virginia, Duke, Lehigh, Yale, Brown, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown, and Oberlin.

In addition to presenting papers, the participants were guests at a lecture delivered by Lawrence B. Lindsey, assistant to the President for Economic Policy and director of the National Economic Council and also took a tour of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors where they met with both Vice chairman Roger W. Ferguson Jr. and Donald Kohn, advisor to the board for monetary policy.

The Carroll Round is designed to offer the most promising undergraduate students in economics unique opportunities to present original economic research and to discuss contemporary policy issues.

"Our students totally enjoyed the experience, and that their papers and our program received favorable comments from other student participants," said Michael Seeborg, professor of economics. "The overall experience was great.

Students had a chance to interact with peers from top universities, to seminar with outstanding economists and to visit the Federal Reserve Bank and meet with Vice Chair Ferguson at the "big table."

Hristova’s presentation was titled "Czech Voucher Privatization: A Case of Decision Making Under Uncertainty."

Sandford presented a paper titled "English Language Proficiency and the Wage Rates of Mexican Immigrants."

Slezak’s paper was "The Cellular Divide: A Comparative Analysis of Mobile Phone Usage in the United States and Spain."

Madan discussed "Relationship between Economic Freedom and Socio-economic Development: A Cross-Country Study."