Sean Elliot has been awarded a spot at the Becker Friedman Institute’s (BFI) Price Theory Summer Camp. He is the only student enrolled at a Canadian university among the 40 PhD students from 27 universities who will make up the 2024 cohort.
A PhD candidate at the Department of Economics, Elliott’s research is rooted in the Economics of the Family and focuses on demographic shifts in how couples now match and, if and how the perceived impact of divorce may influence couples’ considerations in choosing to marry, delay marriage, or forego marriage in favour of cohabitation.
“It’s not entirely clear, if this this delay in the in marriage — people get married at a later age now than they used to — is a genuine delay, or if it is a permanent effect and there are just fewer people getting married than before,” Elliott explained. “I am dealing with the challenges of trying to answer these kinds of questions.”
The week-long program “emphasizes the application of basic economic tools to problems” and offers students like Elliott opportunities to network with likeminded scholars.
“Attending the Price Theory Summer Camp is a great opportunity to meet the faculty and fellow PhD students who are interested in the types of microeconomic issues I am interested in,” Elliott said. “It’s a good chance to discuss my research and hear about what other people are working on in the field.”
The BFI brings together researchers from the Booth School of Business, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, the Harris School of Public Policy, and the Law School all based at the University of Chicago. The annual camp program is led by MacArthur Fellow Professor Emeritus Kevin Murphy and structured around a series of seminars in which faculty present research work in progress. This year 240 PhD students applied to take part in the fully funded program.
Return to the Department of Economics website.
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