Five students from the Department of Economics have now advanced to the final round of the Bank of Canada Governor's Challenge on February 16, 2019 in Ottawa, Ontario.
The Governor's Challenge simulates the monetary policy decision-making process by putting students in the role of advisor to the Bank's Governing Council. Participating university teams must analyze and forecast economic developments and recommend whether to raise the Bank's key interest rate, lower it, or leave it unchanged - in order to keep inflation low and stable - in line with the 2% inflation target. https://www.bankofcanada.ca/research/governors-challenge/
Competing against others from across Canada, teams present their analysis and policy recommendation to a panel of expert Bank of Canada judges, where they are evaluated on: the substance of their analysis, the quality of their presentation; and evidence of strong teamwork.
The Dept. of Economics team of Jenny Li, Edgar Medina, Stephen Tearoe, LJ Valencia and Greg Watmough spent countless hours researching, writing and practicing their presentation under the direction of instructors Dr. Malik Shukayev and Dr. Max Sties. All their hard work paid off when it was announced that they had been selected as finalists. The team feels it is a huge honor to participate in this competition and we wish them well as they represent the University of Alberta in Ottawa.