Economists, political scientists converging on campus

Economics and political science professors, undergraduate and graduate students from about 25 colleges and universities will converge at Heidelberg Sept. 15-16 as the School of Business, Computer Science and Information Technology hosts the Ohio Association of Economists and Political Scientists annual conference. The conference brings together professional economists and political scientists as well as undergraduate and graduate students from across Ohio and surrounding states who work to produce and disseminate useful research on subjects related to Ohio’s economic and political climate.

Dr. Diane Monaco is the conference coordinator and vice president of the OAEPS. All of the sessions are free and open to the community.

Kicking off the conference Friday night will be a 7 p.m. panel discussion on a topic that has garnered a great deal of media attention in northwest and northern Ohio: Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms. The panel discussion will be titled The Science, Economics and Politics of Solving the Harmful Algal Bloom Problem in Lake Erie. Panelists include Dr. Kevin Egan, an environmental economist from the University of Toledo; Dr. Christopher Winslow, director of the Ohio Sea Grant from The Ohio State University; Dr. Gerald Matisoff, professor emeritus of the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Case Western Reserve University; and Heidelberg’s Dr. David Baker, director emeritus and founder of the National Center for Water Quality Research; and Dr. Remegio Confesor, senior research scientist at the NCWQR. Dr. Ken Krieger and Dr. Amy Berger will serve as moderators.

A series of panels is planned for Saturday on the topics of Changing Political Environments, Finance, Legislative Service and Electoral Database of Members of the Ohio General Assembly, 1951-2014, Undergraduate Research, Econometric Estimation, Public Policy Analysis, Public Administration Issues, Economic and Political Thought and International Topics.

Panelists, presenters and moderators are from a wide range of public and private universities in Ohio and surrounding states, including Baldwin Wallace University, Northern Kentucky University, Kent State University, the University of Findlay, Xavier University, Ashland University, Ohio University, Wright State University, Bowling Green State University, Cleveland State University, Denison University, the University of Cincinnati, Shepherd University, Capital University Oberlin College, Walsh University, Ball State University and Ohio Northern University.

Two ‘Berg students – Jerrod Lyon, a senior business administration and economics major, and Alex Hampton, a senior history and political science major  – will serve as panelists. Jerrod will be one of three panelists speaking about finance with his research on Irrational Exuberance in the Collapse of the U.S. Housing Market and Economy. Alex will be part of a panel titled Changing Political Environments,” with his research on Protecting Their Privilege: The Issues with Modern Feminism and the Necessity of Intersectionality.

Participating Heidelberg faculty are Dr. Marc O’Reilly, Dr. John Bing, Christopher Wimer, Dr. Traci Sittason Stark, Dr. Peter Martini, Dr. Haseeb Ahmed and Dr. Maef Woods.

The conference concludes with lunch and the OAEPS annual business meeting, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Elizabeth Perry-Sizemore, former president of the Virginia Economic Association and currently professor of economics at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va. Her topic will be Service, Scaffolds and Spillovers: Experiences with and Outcomes of Mentored Student Research on Housing Renewal and Community Development.