Research Grants
FALL 2024 Call
The Center offers research grants to students to travel and present their research projects. Particpants can win up to $2,000 for their work!
Deadline September 13, 2024
Student Grant Application Fall 2024
Winner Fall 2024
And the winner is…
Shannon Dougherty, SeniorWinner Fall 2023
And the winner is…
Reid Mclain, JuniorThird Place at APEE 2023
Our student Luis Jiménez wins third place at APEE 2023. Massive achievement for him and the CSEL.
Winners Spring 2023
And the winners are…
Thomas Hughes, Senior
Zachary Thomas, Senior
Luis Jiménez, SeniorSOBIE 2022
Our Fall 2021 grantee, Allison Whitehead, presented her work at SOBIE 2022 in Destin, Florida.
Andrés Marroquin, Allison Whitehead and Antonio Saravia at SOBIE 2022.
Winner Spring 2022
And the winner is…
Robert Zell, Senior“In Bryan Caplan’s book `The Myth of the Rational Voter,’ he argues that the democratic process allows for flashy, but bad policies to prevail over sound ones. This is because political support of certain policies with strong backing from economists such as free trade, abolishing the minimum wage, and eliminating corporate taxes could have negative consequences when it comes time for reelection. However, countries such as Norway, Switzerland, and Australia have demonstrated incredible frugality and discipline in certain aspects of economic policy despite having open and democratic societies. I believe that variables such as institutional trust, low corruption, and government effectiveness play a much greater role in deciding whether citizens can trust the experts or not. By investigating institutional and cultural factors of such countries, we can gain a better insight as to how political and economic freedoms can exist without coming at the expense of one another.”
Here is Robert with his poster at APEE 2022 in Las Vegas, NV:
Southern Economic Association 2021
Here is the CSEL’s team at the SEA 2021 Meeting. Our undergrad student Kalman Demott (left) did a fantastic job presenting his paper How Economic Freedom is Associated with Poverty and Inequality at the Metropolitan Level. Also in the picture professors Antonio Saravia and Andrés Marroquín.
Winner Fall 2021
And the winner is…
“Beliefs about equal opportunity for women dominate modern economic and political discourse. Social perceptions of gender can either limit or empower a woman’s economic success in the labor market. However, the effect of an individual’s economic and political beliefs on their perceptions of women’s productivity in the workplace remains largely unstudied. In this project, I will test if more politically left-leaning individuals and more economically anti-market individuals tend to think that women are as productive as men in the workplace. My preliminary research indicates the contrary.”
Third Prize at the 2021 APEE meeting
Colin is second from the left
Our student and CSEL grant recipient, Colin Lynch, won third prize at the 2021 Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) undergraduate research competition. The conference took place in Ft. Lauderdale on April 2021. The selection comes with a $1,000 prize offered by APEE!
Colin’s research looks at the Chinese economic miracle of the last decades and asks if the observed positive performance was the result of liberalizing reforms (those that increase economic freedom) or if China was bound to achieve that success even if those reforms were never implemented. He uses a sophisticated econometric methodology (synthetic control) to produce his results.
Congratulations!
Winners Spring 2021
And the winners are…
Colin Lynch, Junior
Shreeya Singh, Senior
Ben Brubaker, SeniorWinners Fall 2020
And the winners are…
Kalman Demott, Senior
Thomas Perez, Senior
Luke Sadd, Senior
Winners Spring 2020
And the winners are…
Gopiben Patel, Senior
Sahan Vangala and Natalie Coolidge, Sophomore and Junior
Kalp Patel, Senior
Winners Fall 2019
And the winners are…