Research Symposium
Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Economics
Since 2009 the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics and the Economics Department at Colorado State University have held an annual Graduate Research Symposium. Started and produced by students, the symposium provides graduate students an opportunity to showcase their research with graduate students and faculty in both departments. All graduate students are encouraged to participate regardless of what stage they are in with their research. Topics may be anything related to Economics. Students will gain experience in presenting and are provided an opportunity to receive feedback on their research. Students can compete in one of three categories based on the progress of their work; proposal, in-progress, and near completion (See below for description of categories). Faculty members from both departments volunteer to judge the competition.
There is no registration fee, and the symposium includes access to all sessions for the duration of the day.
Students interested in participating in this year’s will respond to a call for papers and participation made by a committee made up of graduate students from both departments. To be considered, students will submit an abstract of no more than 200 words by a stated deadline that is usually a few weeks before the symposium. After a deadline has past, the committee will review abstracts and notify their results in a week.
Categories for 2018 are:
Long presentations
Ignite (short-presentations)
Winners of the Long Presentations will be awarded a travel grant.
This year students from the University of Wyoming were invited to participate.
Description of categories as of 2017:
Research Sketch: (7 minute presentation, 3 minutes for questions/ comments) The research sketch is ideal for presenting research in its nascent stages. The focus of these presentations should be developing and motivating a research question you are interested in pursuing and talking about the methods you might use to answer that research question. Research sketches are not the forum for presenting work that is nearing completion and has 15 regression results tables that need to be explained. Research sketch presentation are a great way for graduate students that are just starting on research projects to get feedback on their ideas.
Research Presentations: (15 minutes, 5 minutes for questions/ comments) Research presentations are ideal for presenting work that is nearing completion. Research presentations should outline the research question, highlight where your work fits in the literature, demonstrate the methods you use to address that research question and then show your results. It’s a great way to practice presenting work in case you are presenting at a conference this summer.
Description of categories as of 2015:
The Research Development Proposal category will not be a competition but rather a way to get feedback on research in its preliminary stages. It is intended that after each presentation there will be time for feedback and dialogue between the presenter, faculty and other attendees. The goal is to provide a low stakes environment to get practice presenting your ideas, and to get feedback at the early stage of research.
The Conference Preparation Presentations will be a competition. There will be one winner from each department who presents in the Conference Preparation Presentation section. The two winners will receive funding from their respective departments to present research at a conference. In addition to providing you with an opportunity to practice presenting your research, this category is also intended to provide you with feedback on your presentation techniques, areas that may need improvement for a conference presentation, and other questions that may arise.
Description of competition categories Prior to 2015:
Proposal stage projects are those upon which a literature review has been conducted and all research questions and hypotheses have been documented
In Progress projects are those which satisfy all of the requirements of the Proposal stage, but in addition have had data collected (if necessary) and preliminary models and results documented.
Near Completion projects are those which satisfy all of the requirements of the In-progress stage but in addition have had final models run and results and tentative conclusions documented. Near Completion projects should be nearly ready for submission to a peer-reviewed journal or as a final report.
Department Winners from the 2018 Symposium
Long Presentations:
1st Place – Salvador Lurbe ($500 travel award)
2nd Place – Matthew Flyr ($300 travel award)
Ignite Presentations
1st Place – Angelique Giraud
2nd Place tie – Kelvin Mulungu and Miles Rollison
Department Winners from the 2015 Symposium
Conference Preparation Presentation Category
Agglomeration economies: measuring the impact of information spillovers arising from entrepreneurial activity across densities, Michael Yeadon, Department of Economics.
Accounting for well capacity constraints in the economic decision-making of groundwater users, Sam Collie, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Winners from the 2014 Symposium
Proposal Category
1st Place: The Economic Impact of the Dairy Industry on Colorado, Graham Swanepoel, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Runner-up: Analysis of U.S. Beef Cow-Calf Farms, Vine Mutyasira, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
In Progress Category
1st Place: Institutional and Economic Complications of Water Quality Management in Colorado\’s Lower Arkansas River Valley, Misti Sharp, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Runner-up: The Effects of Malpractice risk and obstetrician behavior: Do doctors practice defensive medicine toward specific subgroups of the maternal population? Aanston Frazier, Department of Economics
Near Completion Category
1st Place: Spatial Distribution of Air Emissions and Estimated Damages from Marcellus Oil and Gas Wastewater Transport: Implications for Damage Compensation Allocation, Patrick Behrer, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Runner-up: The Implications Of Invasive Species Policies On The Regional Economy Of The Great Lakes: A Computable General Equilibrium Model, Jenny Johnson, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Winners from the 2013 Symposium
Proposal Category
1st Place: A Hierarchical Bayesian Model of Quality Expectations and Reputations in Markets for Experience Goods, Allie Gunter, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Runner-up: Harvest plan: Assessing the financial viability and potential economic contribution from a western slope regional food hub for Volunteers of America (VOA), Eyosiyas Tegegne, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
In Progress Category
1st Place: An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Public Expenditures and Gender Disaggregated Employment, Tabitha Knight, Department of Economics
Runner-up: The Effects of Information on Consumer Demand under Alternative Pricing Schemes: An experimental analysis, Liesel Hans, Department of Economics
Near Completion Category
1st Place: The Impact of Demographic Change on Economies of Scale in Household Expenditures and CO2 Emissions, Tony Underwood, Department of Economics
Runner-up: Towards Optimizing the Health and Well-Being of Retired Thoroughbred Racehorses, Michelle Kibler, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Winners from the 2012 Symposium
Proposal Category
1st Place (tie): Estimating the Economic and Social Impacts of the Drought in Southern Colorado, Allison Gunter, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
1st Place (tie): Effects of Cooperatives Working Together: Herd Reduction (Buyout) Program on the Dairy Industry, Madilynne McGuire, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
Runner-up: Making Information More Informative: An Experiment on Behavior Under Uncertainty, Liesel Hans, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
In Progress Category
1st Place: U.S. Carbon Intensity of Consumption: The Importance of Age Structure and Life-Cycle Consumption in Climate Policy Incidence, Anthony Underwood, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
Runner-up: An Analysis of Consumer Surplus from Agritourism: Utilizing a Multi-Destination Travel Cost Model of Demand by Region for Colorado Agritourism, Rebecca Goldbach, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
Near Completion Category
1st Place: Cointegration Test and Long-Run Purchasing Power Parity Theory: An Empirical Investigation of Tanzania and its Selected Trading Partners, Anthony Mveyange, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
Runner-up: Hypothetical Bias and Explicit Contract, Maryam Tabatabaei, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
Winners from the 2011 Symposium
Proposal Category
1st Place: Peer Effects and Obesity: Do Migrants Adopt the Health Lifestyles of Their Destinations, Ian Breunig, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
2nd Place: Environmental Impact of a Product as Product Differentiation Strategy, Oana Deselnicu, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
3rd Place: U.S. Carbon Intensity of Consumption: Income Inequality and Emulation Effects, Anthony Underwood, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
In Progress Category
1st Place: Do Public Outdoor Recreation Opportunities Crowd-Out Private Opportunities? Spatial-Econometric Analysis of the Attraction/Repulsion of Private Recreation Provision to Public Provision, Rebecca Goldbach, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
2nd Place: A Look at Boundary Discontinuity in a Local School District, Larry Chisesi, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
3rd Place (tie): Policies versus Perception: Estimating the Impact of Drought Awareness on Consumer Water Demand, Janine Stone, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
3rd Place (tie): The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard: Impacts from Cellulosic Biofuel Production, Sam Evans, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
Near Completion Category
1st Place: The Economic Significance of Bioeconomic Feedback Loops: Using the Random Utility Model to Inform a Bioeconomic Model of Fish Stocking, Daniel Deisenroth, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
Winners from the 2010 Symposium
Proposal Category
1st Place: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Management for Zebra and Quagga Mussels in Colorado, Cathy Thomas, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
2nd Place: Weeding the Garden: Provision of An Impure Public Good When Space Matters, Michael Verdone, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
3rd Place: Localvore Demand: A Consumer Choice Model for Local Beers, Megan Phillips and Drew Moxon, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
In Progress Category
1st Place: Do Public Outdoor Recreation Opportunities Crowd-Out Private Opportunities? Spatial-Econometric Analysis of the Attraction/Repulsion of Private Recreation Provision to Public Provision, Rebecca Goldbach, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
2nd Place: A Look at Boundary Discontinuity in a Local School District, Larry Chisesi, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
3rd Place (tie): A Time Series Study of the Relationship Between Energy, Employment, & Personal Income at the State Level, Nate Peach, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
3rd Place (tie): Not Your Average Gardening Tool: Managing Invasive Plant Species with Dynamic Programming, Michael Verdone, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
3rd Place (tie): A Bioeconomic Approach to Capturing Both the Economic Value and Economic Contribution of Fish Stocking in Colorado Waters, Daniel Deisenroth, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
Near Completion Category
1st Place: The Linkages between Multiple Equilibrium and Intrinsic Chronic Poverty: The Role of Community and Household Structure, Bret Anderson, Department of Economics, Colorado State University
2nd Place: Revisiting the Endogenous Human Capital Growth Literature, Kuo-Ting Hua (Albert), Department of Economics, Colorado State University
Important Dates
Symposium date: Friday, March 2, 2018
Time: 1-5pm
Place: Room 308, Lory Student Center
Deadline for registration and Title submission: Feb. 23, 2018
Chair Organizers for 2017
Salvador Lurbe
Abby Long
