Liberty over lunch: Economist Abigail Cormier
On October 6th, the Liberty Over Lunch class was honored to host Abigail Cormier. Currently a third-year economics Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia, Cormier presented her working paper on the labor market effects of becoming a parent of a child with special health care needs. Cormier’s work is at the forefront of research on female labor force participation rate in developed countries. She also provided students with insights on how to navigate the graduate school application process and how to be successful in graduate school.
Liberty over lunch: Economist Scott Baier
Liberty over lunch: Economist Shishir Shakya
Attended the International Conference and Annual Meeting of AACSB
Thanks to the support of AJ Grube and the Western Carolina University College of Business, I was able to attend the International AACSB conference in Chicago. It was a pleasure meeting business deans, directors, and faculty from across the globe and renewing long time friendships. Much was learned from the sessions and informal conversations. I particularly enjoyed learning more about the challenges faced by smaller institutions and the creative ways many smaller schools and programs address these hurdles.
Libby Weitkamp Presents Her Research at the Eastern Economic Association Meetings
In March, Libby Weitkamp gave an excellent presentation of her paper, “If you’re not into yoga: yoga interest and deadly falls,” at the Issues in Political Economy Undergraduate Research Sessions of the Eastern Economic Association meetings in New York City. Her preliminary results suggest that states that are more interested in yoga have lower incidences of deadly falls by those 65 years of age and older. She ably fielded questions and received helpful guidance and feedback. Her work was supported by the Barnes Family Foundation of North Carolina through the CSFE.
Exploring Liberty, Community, and Prosperity
On February 3rd and 4th, 2023, with support from the Barnes Family Foundation, the CSFE hosted a two-day weekend seminar on listening, learning, and community building. The Liberty, Community, and Prosperity Weekend Seminar was led by three talented guest faculty:
Anthony Gill | Department of Political Science | University of Washington
Professor Gill gave two presentations: “Culture and Political Economy: The Critical Role of Civil Society in Preserving Market Freedom.” & “The Dynamic Efficiency of Gifting”
Audrey Redford | Department of Economics | Hampden-Sydney College
Professor Redford presented: “Private and Public Choice” & “Malnovation, Drug Prohibition, and the Opioid Crisis”
Marcus Witcher | Huntingdon College
Professor Witcher gave talks on: “How Government Restricted African American Flourishing” & “Black Liberation through the Marketplace”
The weekend seminar was a success! Over 50 individual students attended one or more presentations, with a total attendance of over 100 for the weekend. Our guest faculty continued the discussions with students over meals and into the evening socials. Many students have continued to send questions about additional readings and future academic enrichment opportunities.
Meet Adam Mottershead
Our content marketing specialist, Allie Todd, sat down with Adam Mottershead to talk about his recent work on water rights with newly appointed Center for the Study of Free Enterprise (CSFE) Director, Sean Mulholland, and Adam’s future aspirations in the field.
Adam recently graduated from Western Carolina University (WCU) with a degree in natural resource management and a cultivated passion for natural resource economics after taking a class with Professor Sean Mulholland.
Growing up involved in Boys Scouts and an Eagle Scout himself, Adam loved the outdoors. WCU became the place for him to fuel his passions for academia, the outdoors, and economics.
Now a graduate, Adam is still in the area, taking additional mathematics and economics classes at WCU in preparation for graduate school in the field of natural resource economics. Adam is also assisting Sean Mulholland on further research on stream restoration and banking.
During his time at WCU, Adam became interested in water use in North Carolina. After a bit of digging, he discovered that most watersheds had excess water available. But, a few watersheds, particularly the Upper Neuse, home to Raleigh and Durham, were in deficit. His findings, “Budgeting North Carolina Water through Watershed Trading Quotas,” were published in the latest issue of the Issues in Political Economy journal.
This research focuses on the watersheds in North Carolina and how adopting a new policy of percentage-based trading quotas could potentially ensure an adequate amount of water for all residents. This new policy would differ from other policies throughout the United States, especially on the West Coast, as this would reassess the water availability every five years. This would mean the percent allotted would stay the same for residents, but the gallons per percent would shift upon reevaluation. The voluntary trading model of this policy would largely leave current daily water use unaffected while at the same time, encouraging water conservation through trading.
The implementation of this policy, or a policy of this nature, would allow for both trading and conservation across the state, while allowing for the watersheds in a deficit to achieve dynamic equilibrium by purchasing from watersheds in surplus.
The water rights allocation would provide users a water right claim that they could use, lease, or sale. “The hope is that through this market, people will have a method of trading. This incentivizes conservation of water through residents finding ways to reduce their water use and sell a surplus,” Adam said, continuing, “Another added benefit that we think would happen from this system is the development of a water infrastructure grid throughout the state. So just like electricity where you can buy and sell energy back into the grid, you could buy and sell water back into the grid.”
This detailed, thoughtful research led Adam to presenting his paper at the undergraduate research sessions of the Issues in Political Economy Conference in New York City in February of this year. This conference allowed him to gain valuable feedback to propel his research forward. He also presented his findings at the SoCon Undergraduate Research Forum this fall.
Adam is currently serving as a research assistant for the CSFE and is investigating stream restoration, banking, and water quality across the United States. We are very excited to welcome Adam Mottershead into the CSFE community and to continue to witness the impact his continued research has on not only the immediate community, but North Carolina as a whole.
Thanks to Adam for making his work a part of CSFE.
Meet Betsy Butner
Continuing with highlighting our 2021-22 Faculty, Student, and Graduate Affiliates, we are happy to introduce one of our Graduate Affiliates, Betsy Butner.
Graduating from the Master of Social Work Program in May, Betsy is rounding out her collegiate career that began when she graduated from Salem College with her bachelor’s in Biology and Spanish. After graduating, she worked in a BioTech company for four years, along with independently using her license in massage and bodywork therapy.
Last April, we introduced the CSFE community to Faculty Affiliate Emma Miller, MSW, LCSW. Emma is an Assistant Professor of Social Work and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program for Professionals (BWHET) Project Coordinator. She has been working with CSFE, focusing her research on posttraumatic growth in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The shared traumatic event that is the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that our lives are operating on a daily basis and it has caused various other aspects of society to shift along with that. Emma’s research considered experiences in Western North Carolina as a way to extrapolate a helpful perspective for societies on a global scale.
Now, Betsy has joined this research initiative, aligning her beliefs and education into one.
“We are working towards developing the curriculum and making sure it stands with the positive psychology but maintaining a level that is not engulfed in academia,” said Betsy, continuing, “We want to be able to share this with any community member, for everyone to have access to the same tools.”
From this research, Betsy aims to influence human connection and provide the tools to bring together community, “This whole experience [the COVID-19 pandemic] has shown people different perspectives of community and what it offers,” said Betsy.
Throughout the process of posttraumatic growth post-COVID-19, the greatest strength lies in the ability to grow as a community while continuing to develop using the tools we have at our disposal.
After graduating in May, Betsy hopes to continue with this research as a mentor for the graduate student who takes her place along with her own line of scholarship as well, with the expectation of making monumental impacts on her community.
We are happy to introduce Betsy to the CSFE community and are excited to watch her along her journey.
Meet Libby Weitkamp
Last week, our content marketing specialist, Allie Todd, sat down with CSFE’s newest Student Affiliate, Libby Weitkamp, to talk to her about her academic career at WCU and work with CSFE Director, Edward Lopez.
From Wake Forest, North Carolina, Libby graduated from Heritage High School, where her love for research began. Apart from the importance of research, her heart also lies in the community. Community is one of the many reasons that she chose to come to WCU. She wanted to be able to combine her research goals with her love for helping her community.
Now a sophomore at WCU, Libby is majoring in Innovation Leadership & Entrepreneurship with a minor in Economics. Her first economics class at WCU is where her interest in economics began, specifically, the concept of moral hazard. Libby stated that “the ability to explain behaviors in an analytical way was incredibly interesting to me.”
Thus began her path to becoming a CSFE Student Affiliate and assisting Dr. Lopez on his research endeavors this semester.
Earlier this February, CSFE published “Is now a good time to be optimistic?” which Libby was an integral part of.
“Optimism research was fascinating, it was very interesting to learn about optimism as a characteristic and how that impacts the economy, the workforce, and other variables of everyday life,” said Libby.
This study focused on building onto what we already view economic progress to be, how we can shape discussion based on what the collective view of progress is, and how optimism coincides with many measurements of human betterment.
“Our research is directly related to our community and our way of trying to understand better how they [our community] view economic progress,” said Libby. She continued by saying, “that way, we can build the foundation on which there can be further discussion between the community, economic developers, urban developers, and economists; and how we can pursue economic development in a way that is more unified and supported.”
This semester, Libby is also working on designing a survey to gather and understand peoples’ attitudes regarding economic development and growth, which is a part of CSFE’s Human Progress Research Initiative.
We are very excited to welcome Libby Weitkamp as a Student affiliate and to witness the impact of her research throughout her WCU academic career and beyond. Libby is also a member of the Brinson Honors College Board of Directors, co-chair for the Community Service Committee, a yoga instructor, and very involved in her sorority Delta Zeta.
On the horizon, Libby would like to attend graduate school for behavioral economics, and potentially receive her doctorate and teach economics at the collegiate level.
Thanks to Libby for making her work a part of CSFE.
Meet Heidi Dent
Heidi is an assistant professor of marketing in WCU’s College of Business. Prior to arriving at Western, she worked in industry for 25 years. In April 2020, she finished her Doctorate in Business Administration from Jacksonville University after selling the company she owned with her husband. Her research interests include marketing technology, artificial intelligence in marketing, and online consumer behavior.
Blending her passion for artificial intelligence and online consumer behavior with her industry expertise, Heidi is working with a local resort retailer to build and use an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to measure applicant experience and engagement.
“Western North Carolina has a unique combination of retirement, tourism, and students and employers are struggling to try to find people,” Heidi said. “If we can utilize tactics to better engage prospective employees, as well as overcome any potential suppressing obstacles, we may be able to engage a larger prospective applicant audience.”
Heidi is also very interested in understanding how people engage with technology and thus creating an experience that is more positive rather than negative. “We want to create experiences that are more engaging than not, as well as open doors for individuals who may have not been considered otherwise,” said Heidi. Focusing on Western North Carolina, leveraging technology has the potential to impact economic distribution through our region.
In addition, Heidi has also been working with one of our other Faculty Affiliates, Martin Tanaka, to analyze industry/academic collaborations and what factors might show potential for successful collaborations. Collaborations between industry and academia benefit students, faculty, organizations, and ultimately the economic region. Look out for Martin’s discussion of this research in a CSFE Issue Brief coming up later this year.
Technology is already a part of our daily lives, and by continuing to monitor how we interact with it and how it could be best utilized, there is huge potential to directly impact our society.
“Awareness is the first step to building the future that we want to see,” said Heidi.
We are excited to see Heidi’s research and work with her this year. Welcome aboard!
He also shared stories about his work on the Council of Economic Advisors from 2007-2008.