IUP undergraduates are hungry.  No, not just for food!  They study economics from September to May under our tutelage in the classrooms of Keith and McElhaney Halls, and then they voluntarily travel to the Pennsylvania Economic Association (PEA) annual conference.  For the last three years, the two Drs. Jozefowicz have taken students to the PEA meetings at the end of May.  While many other students pale at the prospect of presenting a project in the classroom setting, these students have made us very proud as they have attended and presented their own research at these professional meetings.

Each year, one or more undergraduate students who have taken Introduction to Econometrics have submitted proposals to present their work at the PEA conference and have been accepted. In 2000, Emily Knowles presented her paper, “National Hockey League Single-Game Attendance Determinants.” In 2001, Emily returned to PEA to present an expanded version of the paper, “Cold Ice, Hot Seats: A Panel Data Study of NHL Attendance,” co-authored with Dr. Jim Jozefowicz. However, in 2001 Emily was not alone. Students, Michael Keenan, Melissa Erb, and Jessica Kalivoda, also presented papers. Mike presented “Pay and Offensive Performance in Major League Baseball,” Melissa presented “College Enrollment Determinants,” and Jessica presented “Factors Determining the Election of the President of the United States.” A fifth student just finishing his freshman year attended sessions just to attend!  Kenny McDermott, the very first Donald A. Walker Scholarship recipient, attended the conference to support his peers and learn more about our discipline. Kenny is already poised to take Introduction to Econometrics the next time it’s offered!

In May 2002, three students traveled to Edinboro to attend PEA.  Even though for overall scheduling reasons the decision had been made to delay offering econometrics until the Fall 2002 semester, Anya Sheftel convinced Jim to work with her in an individualized instruction setting to cover course content.  The fruit of their labor was a paper entitled, “Trust:  An Economic Perspective.”  An ex-officio PEA Board Member commented that Anya’s presentation of her paper was the best one by an undergraduate that he had ever seen!  Additionally, two other students, Bob Viegas and Micah Savidge, went to attend sessions and to attempt to satisfy their hunger for more economic knowledge.