More than 230 economists and PhD students gathered at the new home of the Terry College of Business in mid-May to discuss their research at the Spring 2019 Midwest Macroeconomics Meetings.
Hosted by the University of Georgia’s Department of Economics, the biannual meetings are the premier macroeconomics conference in the United States.
“Despite its regional name, the Midwest Macroeconomics Meetings have evolved into a conference of national and international stature, with academic and government macroeconomists from all over the U.S. and beyond presenting their research,” said William D. Lastrapes, conference co-organizer and the Bernard B. and Eugenia A. Ramsey Chair at Terry. “Hosting such an important conference at UGA enhances the reputation of the Economics Department and the Terry College as a place committed to academic research and scholarly communication.”
The conference lasted three days and included a total of 61 sessions on a range of topics, including economic inequality, the gender wage gap, demonetization, labor market dynamics, climate policy and optimal taxation. The keynote speakers were Fatih Guvenen, the Curtis L. Carlson Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota, and Julia K. Thomas, a professor of economics at The Ohio State University.
“Conferences like this are crucial to advancing macroeconomic thought and the scholarship around it,” said Santanu Chatterjee, a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor at Terry and conference co-organizer. “It was an honor to host a conference of this quality and to showcase our new facilities at the Business Learning Community and welcome economists from all over the world to the University of Georgia.”
Conference co-sponsors included the Ramsey Center for Private Enterprise, the James C. Bonbright Center for the Study of Regulation and the Office of the Provost at UGA.