At UofT trying new things and taking smart risks leads to interesting and unique student experiences. For four economics undergraduates, one of those unique experiences meant forming a team and travelling to Ottawa to compete in the finals of the Bank of Canada Governor’s Challenge. January 31st saw the University of Toronto team featuring economics students Zeynep Selen Akpinar of Victoria College, Jayant Yadav of New College, Sam Hoogsteen and Jacob Rudolph of Trinity College, and Faculty Advisor, Assistant Professor of Economics Joao Ritto go up against four other teams from the University of British Columbia, Acadia University, Université du Québec à Montréal, and University of Ottawa.
“As a team, we prepared an economic analysis in order to provide a monetary policy recommendation, which we then presented to economists at the Bank,” explained Sam Hoogsteen. “We made it to the finals after a regional round consisting of more than 25 teams across Canada.”
The Challenge, now in its 11th year, presents students at Canadian universities with an opportunity to apply what they are learning in lecture halls and seminars to real world conditions.
The goal is to engage students in the monetary policy decision-making process. Student teams act as mock advisors to the BoC’s Governing Council, offering their analysis and forecasting of economic developments on the horizon while recommending whether the key interest rate needs to be raised, lowered it, or left unchanged.
“We approached the challenge by first analyzing the state of the Canadian economy and then understanding how macroeconomic variables might shift based on long term trends in the economy and recent shocks such as the US tariffs,” said Jayant Yadav. “There were standard concepts from econ classes to apply. Supply and demand was the key framework we used to analyze the impact of any shock on both GDP and inflation. We also made use of the time series forecasting skills taught in ECO374 to discipline our predictions with quantitative models. The special topics course in Monetary Policy also provides a useful familiarity with the issues that central bankers care most about.”
The BoC hosted the finals during a weekend long sweet spot just when start-of-term stress is ending, but before mid-term stress begins. The timing made the experience one the team would recommend to others.
“I would certainly recommend students to participate in the Challenge,” said Zeynep Selen Akpinar. “It is a chance to keep a pulse on the Canadian economy, apply the skills you learn in class, and gain experience presenting in a professional environment. Assessing channels of inflationary risks for the Challenge and taking Professor Ritto’s monetary policy course were near-perfect complements.”
The University of British Columbia team won the challenge this year, however everyone agreed that the experience was worthwhile and interesting for all the participants.
“This was my first time serving as a faculty advisor in the Governor’s Challenge,” said team faculty advisor Professor Joao Ritto. “It was exciting to guide such a highly motivated and talented group of students. Their progress throughout the semester was clear, and they fully deserved their place in the final National Round.”
Return to the Department of Economics website.
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