ECON Students Advance in National Competition

On November 21, 2019, the Economics undergraduate students from the University of Calgary put all their hard work into a presentation for the Bank of Canada Governor's Challenge, a semester-long group research competition involving numerous universities across Canada—and for the first time since the inception of the competition, our students passed the first round and are on their way to Ottawa in February for the second and final round.

As the Project Coordinator Jordan Bartsch puts it:

The Bank of Canada's Governor's Challenge asks economic undergraduate students from 31 different Canadian universities to conduct a broad macroeconomic analysis to determine the appropriate policy rate decision and present that analysis to the Bank of Canada in real-time. In essence, the students play the role of central banker. The top performing team from each bracket receives an all-expenses-paid trip to Ottawa for the second round, which involves an additional presentation given directly to the Governor of the Bank of Canada himself.

This year, the University of Calgary team was successful in advancing to the second round for the first time since the Governor’s Challenge began. The entire team worked together as a cohesive unit that was able to deliver a well-thought and creative policy rate recommendation. The supporting members were valuable in providing critical insight and analysis that guided the presenting group to the appropriate talking points. The entire team is incredibly excited for this unique opportunity to represent the U of C for the first time in Ottawa.

This year, the UCalgary Economics team had Dr. Apostolos Serletis as their faculty advisor as well as Cosmas Dery as their PhD advisor.

The team consisted of all undergraduate Economics students:

• Jordan Bartsch: Project Coordinator, presenter
• Korbin Ducharme: presenter
• Brandon Hodge: presenter
• Tyrell Jacques: presenter
• Ryan Sartori: presenter and back-up
• Jacob Jones: team lead
• Jacob Graham: team lead
• Alex Shepherd: team lead

Congratulations and best of luck in the second round!!

Check out The Bank of Governor's Challenge website for more information.