Econ club to feature Stanford, Princeton, UPenn professors at speaker series

Esteemed economics professors from Stanford, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania highlight an online speaker series event hosted by the economics club on Oct. 10.

According to club president senior Henry Weng, the event, titled “A Survey of Modern Economics,” will focus on contemporary economics used in modern-day research, supplemented by traditional economic concepts like supply and demand.

“We're hoping to expose students to fascinating fields that might not be covered in a traditional economics course,” Weng said. “No matter how familiar you are with economics, you’ll still learn something from coming.”

Attendees will have numerous opportunities to interact with the event’s three guest speakers: Stanford professor Paul Milgrom, Princeton professor Leeat Yariv, and UPenn professor George Mailath. Milgrom will discuss auction theory, Yariv will focus on experimental economics, and Mailath will explore game theory.

“We're super excited to host these world-class economics professors, who have been pushing the boundary in their fields of study,” Weng said.

Weng is especially interested in hearing Milgrom speak.  A professor at Stanford (and previously at Yale and Northwestern), Milgrom has also served as the vice president of the American Economics Association, co-founded multiple companies and was awarded the 2014 Golden Goose Award, which recognizes scientists whose innovations have significantly impacted humanity or society.

Along with heavily advertising across the club’s various social media pages, where the link to sign up can be found, Weng plans to use momentum gained from the club’s first speaker series, “COVID-19 and the Economy,” to propel this event’s success. On May 29, five speakers presented to roughly 50 participants over the course of two hours. For their second speaker series, Weng estimates around 80 participants will attend.

“The economics club’s officers and I have been working extremely hard over the past three months to email hundreds of potential speakers and put this event together,” Weng said. “I think it’s going to be a fantastic speaker conference.”