by Jeremy Horpedahl, Director, Arkansas Center for Research in Economics
Welcome back from summer! We at ACRE are excited for the new academic year to begin at UCA and for all the students to return to campus.
UCA students will have a lot of opportunities through ACRE to learn more about the world of economics and many related areas. Our fall reading groups began this week. One group will learn about “Humanonmics,” or how economics and the humanities can be combined, rather than being opposed. Another group will study several landmark Supreme Court cases, including many that impact businesses and economic freedom. Demand for these reading groups has been very high this year, with more than twice as many applications as we have available spots. Students are excited to read and discuss these important topics!
Alongside our reading groups, students and the broader UCA community will have the chance
to hear from some great speakers as part of our Speaker Series. Our first speaker is David Bernstein from George Mason University Law School, who will also be our keynote speaker for the ACRE Colloquium in October. Both of these events will be related to Bernstein’s latest book, Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America. Emily Hamilton Senior Research Fellow from the Mercatus Center, will join us October 26. She will discuss recent trends in state and local reforms to the regulations standing in the way of of housing construction. Michael Munger from Duke University’s Political Science Department will speak about “Monopoly Power, Political Power, and the Problem of Platforms” in late November.
I’m also very excited to give you a few updates about ACRE’s team. Recently, ACRE promoted Terra Aquia to be our Educational Programs Manager. Terra is a long-time ACRE employee, and has an even longer relationship with us dating back to her days as a UCA undergrad and ACRE Fellow. Terra is now managing many of the ACRE programs I described above, plus others such as our K-12 teacher education program. Congratulations Terra!
ACRE is also excited to welcome two new employees this Fall. Heidi Saliba (Masters of International Business, St. Thomas University) will join ACRE as policy analyst, as well as assisting us with managing our research. Ms. Saliba brings a host of academic skills to ACRE from her background, including a decade of work at the University of Florida in areas such as coordinating research programs, communications, and technical writing. Elise Ormonde (BA in Economics, Hendrix College) will be starting as a Research and Program Coordinator, where she will assist with many of our student programs as well as assisting our researchers, spanning all of the areas ACRE works on. She recently completed her undergraduate degree in economics, and her skills and excitement for learning about economics will bring a lot to our growing team at ACRE.
ACRE said farewell to Analyst Zachary Burt this summer. Zachary began is career with ACRE in 2019 as a program assistant, and eventually led the center’s research and analysis of occupational licensing and property rights. We will miss his contributions, but wish him the best in his next chapter.
We’ve also tried to keep everyone updated throughout the summer through social media of our many recent accomplishments, but here are a few important ones I wanted to highlight.
- ACRE Analyst Zachary Burt, ACRE-Affiliated scholars Dr. Thomas Snyder and ACRE Student Fellow Caleb Vines’ paper, “Do Work Barriers for Justice-Impacted Individuals Incentivize Criminal Behavior?” was recently published in the Journal of Applied Business and Economics.
- The Southwest Business and Economics Journal recently published research by ACRE analysts Dr. Joyce Ajayi and Joseph Johns, ACRE-Affiliated Scholar Dr. Mavuto Kalulu, and co-writer Ashley Phillips. The article, “Developing a Guide for One-Time Influx of COVID-19 Relief Funds in Local Governments: Lessons from Arkansas,” appeared in Vol. 28 of the journal.
- Lastly, if the title “Bootleggers, Baptists and Ballots” interests you, I hope you’ll check out this podcast, “Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” where I speak with Eric Boehm from about the political dynamics that drive Arkansas’ local alcohol legalization elections
One final note: we are very excited that this is ACRE’s ninth year of full operations, but that also means that an important anniversary is just around the corner. For our 10th anniversary in 2024, we are planning some special events for the many students and others that have been involved with ACRE over the years. If you are reading this and are one of those ACRE alums now out there in the world, please send me a note to let me know how you are doing. We’d love to see you again as we celebrate ACRE’s many past successes next year!