On two consecutive Friday afternoons in September, the department hosted Wall Street firm Training the Street to conduct workshops on financial statement analysis and corporate valuations for students interested in careers in financial services and consulting.

In September, the department’s Research Seminar Series began with three presentations. On Sept. 1, Minjie Deng, PhD, from Simon Fraser University, presented her paper, “Sovereign Risk and Intangible Investment.” On Sept. 15, Tariq Thachil, PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania, presented his paper, “Why Citizens Don’t Hold Politicians Accountable For Air Pollution.” At the end of the month, Cleo O’Brien-Udry, PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania, presented her paper, “The Political Economy of Greening Foreign Aid.”

On the weekend of Sept. 16 and 17, department faculty welcomed prospective students to campus and spoke to them about majoring in Economics through CLAS and VSB.

On Oct. 20, the department’s research seminar series continued with a presentation by Mary Eschelbach Hansen, PhD, from American University, on “Care and Work for Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in the US: Links between Past Policy and Current Outcomes.” A week later, Juan Carlos Angulo, PhD, from the University of Maryland, presented his paper on “Green Gold: Avocado Production and Conflict in Mexico.”

On the evening of Oct. 19, Villanova alum and Democratic Majority Leader in the Pennsylvania State House, Matt Bradford ’02 CWSL, ’97 CLAS, spoke to students about his extensive experience as a public servant, as well as the priorities of the new House majority in areas such as K-12 education and economic development. 

On Oct. 24, students enrolled in Intro to Microeconomics, approximately 500 students in total, gathered in the Villanova Room of the Connelly Center to hear from Elaine Buckberg, PhD, senior fellow of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, and former chief economist of General Motors. In a Q&A session with Mary Kelly, PhD, followed by questions from the audience, Dr. Buckberg spoke about the transition away from internal combustible engine vehicles to hybrid and electric vehicles in the US and elsewhere.

In late October, Rahul Rao ’01 CLAS, deputy director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition, visited campus to speak to students in Dr. Kelly’s Industrial Organization course about the application of US antitrust laws in mergers and acquisitions and market dominance cases.

On Nov. 10, Alexander Zentefis, PhD, from Yale University, presented his paper on “Bank Branch Access: Evidence from Geolocation Data.”

Under the guidance of Sarah Burke, PhD, and Professor Paul Suckow Villanova competed in the College Fed Challenge Competition, an academic competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve System. Over 100 participating schools submitted presentations on the current state of the economy that included monetary policy recommendations. Erin Clayton ’25 VSB, Lilly Lichtenberger ’25 VSB, Jack Matthews ’24 VSB, Eric Tribel ’24 VSB, Jonathan Trongone ’24 VSB, Luke Arsenault ’24 VSB, and Ekua Essel ’26 VSB represented Villanova. Teams were scored on content and analysis, responses to questions, teamwork and presentation skills. Harvard College won the 2023 competition.

In speaking about the value of participating in the Fed Challenge, the Federal Reserve board chair, Jerome Powell, said "...there is more interest than ever from students who want to learn about the Federal Open Market Committee and the important decisions entrusted to us. You can get these lessons from a textbook, but I think participating in a Fed Challenge more fully conveys the human dimension of the FOMC's job, the argumentation, persuasion and compromise necessary to reach a consensus among a group of people." 

The last research seminar series presentation for 2023 was on Dec. 8 by Barbara Biasi, PhD, from Yale University on “Effectiveness and Efficiency of School Capital Investments Across the US.” 

The first research seminar series presentation for the new year was given by Jaroslaw Pietras, PhD, former director general of the European Council of the European Union and current visiting professor at the College of Europe. His presentation was on “European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and Its Implications for EU-US Trade.” Research presentations continued in February with ones given by James Raymond Vreeland, PhD, of Princeton University, on “The Foreign Policy Implications of China’s Bilateral Swap Agreements,” Daniel Hammermesh, PhD, from University of Texas Austin, on “The Economic Impact of the Heritable Physical Traits: Hot Parents, Rich Kid?,” and Margaret Leighton, PhD, of the University of St. Andrews, on “The Kids Aren’t Like They Used to Be: 40 Years of Evidence of Selection in College Major.”

In February, Erasmus Kersting, PhD, and Sarah Burke, PhD, joined students from the 2023 Fed Challenge Competition Team to visit the Federal Reserve in Washington DC and attend an open house on the competition. One of the highlights of the trip was the opportunity to meet Chair Powell.

The speaker for the March research seminar series was Paul Ko, PhD, from Swarthmore College, who presented his paper on “Trade, Gender Wage Gap and Female Labor Force Participation.”

It was announced in March that Christopher Kilby, PhD, was selected as the inaugural James Joo-Jin Kim Endowed Chair in Economics. The Endowed Chair is the first in the department and was made possible by a generous gift from The James and Agnes Kim Foundation. James Joo-Jin Kim is the executive chairman of Amkor Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest independent providers of semiconductor packaging and test services. He founded Amkor in 1968, incorporating in 1970. Before founding Amkor, Kim taught at what is now VSB. In 1990, Kim was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Commercial Science by Villanova University. He also received an honorary PhD in Economics from Chungnam National University, Kwang Ju, Korea, in 1996. Additionally, he received the Korean Presidential Commendation for his contributions to advancing the nation's electronics industries in 1979. In 1998, Kim received the Semiconductor Industry Award as a Pioneer in the Merchant Packaging Industry.

On April 4, the department hosted a virtual watch party of the Women in Economics symposium by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. During breaks in their schedules, faculty and students stopped by the PWC Auditorium to hear presentations on the career paths of women in the field of economics.

On April 17, senior student Katie Jordan ’24 CLAS presented research and won two University-wide awards: the Falvey Scholars Award for her senior thesis research, and the St. Catherine of Siena Peace and Justice Research Award for her Economics capstone paper.  

The annual Adam Smith research competition concluded on April 19 with the three finalists presenting their papers to faculty and guests. The first prize was awarded to Gigi Schimpf ’24 CLAS for her work on “Women in Power: Shaping Foreign Aid for Gender Equality.” The second prize went to Katie Brumbaugh ’25 CLAS for her paper, "Examining Best Practices in Foreign Aid Allocation: The Role of Constitutional Characteristics." Anne Marie Toolan '23 VSB received third place for her work on "Do Consumer Preferences Reflect a Positive Sentiment about ESG Initiatives?" Joining the Economics faculty in judging this year was alum and past Adam Smith prize winner Ryan Zalla, PhD, '17 CLAS, who now works at Vanguard. The prize money of $2,000 for first place, $1,000 for second place, and $500 for honorable mention is funded by a gift from John Haines ’79 CLAS. 

The research seminar series concluded in April with papers presented by Sandra Rozo, PhD, of the World Bank, on “Unraveling the Domino Effect: The Impacts of Mass Migration at Origin,” and Kathleen Segerson, PhD, of the University of Connecticut, on “Collective Approaches and ‘Lending a Helping Hand.’”

In regard to faculty recognitions, Scott Dressler, PhD, was awarded The Daniel J. O’Mara Villanova School of Business Award for outstanding teaching in VSB’s graduate and executive programs. Laura Meinzen-Dick, PhD, was named The Swift Family Assistant Professor. Sarah Reed, PhD, was promoted to associate teaching professor and Sarah Burke, PhD, was promoted to teaching professor. Xiaoxiao Li, PhD, and Zeynep Yom, PhD, were promoted to the rank of associate professor and were granted tenure. Victor Li, PhD, was awarded the VSB Media Relations' Gold Star Award for his numerous media articles and interviews related to the Federal Reserve and U.S. Monetary Policy. Dr. V. Li was also recognized on the occasion of his retirement from Villanova. Prior to joining the department in 2002, he was a professor at Penn State University, visiting professor at Princeton, and Federal Reserve economist.

Finally, several faculty members received summer grants. For teaching, Xiaoxiao Li, PhD, received a VSB Teaching and Innovation grant. For research, Sutirtha Bagchi, PhD, was awarded a university research grant. Dr. Bagchi also received a VSB Summer Research grant, along with Michael Curran, PhD, Scott Dressler, PhD, Chris Jeffords, PhD, Erasmus Kersting, PhD, Christopher Kilby, PhD, Xiaoxiao Li, PhD, Laura Meinzen-Dick, PhD, Maira Emy Reimão, PhD, Zeynep Yom, PhD, and Peter Zaleski, PhD.

Peter Zaleski, PhD, and his co-authors Gerard Olson, Karen Hogan and Jackson Mills, received the Best Paper Award from the International Journal of the Economics of Business for “An Analysis of Cyber Breaches and Effects on Shareholder Wealth.” 

Santi Foncillas ’24 VSB and Christopher Kilby, PhD, presented “Dirty Work and the Domestic Politics of Aid” (joint research with Erasmus Kersting, PhD) at the Political Economy of Aid Society session at the International Conference on European Economics and Politics at ETH Zurich on June 20. Santi’s travel was supported by a grant from the Dean’s office.