SFU Economics

👏Please join us in congratulations Mohamed Abubraidaa On his successful PhD thesis defense yesterday!

He is pictured here with his supervisor, professor Ken Kasa (right) and professors Lucas Herrenbrueck and John Knowles (Zoom).

Mohamed's thesis “Essays on Monetary Policy and Wealth Inequality: Household Heterogeneity, Fiscal-Monetary Coordination, and Profit-Loss Sharing” explores several central determinants of policy effectiveness and wealth distribution.

Congratulations on this milestone achievement! 🎉

Faculty of Graduate Studies

🎉Please join us in congratulating Zeinab Atarzadeh Chaleshtari on the successful defence of her MA thesis this morning. 

Her thesis compares the performance of three estimation strategies under a variety of conditions , including when the instrument is more or less relevant. Importantly, these methods vary in how they exploit the validity of the instrument.

👏Congratulations Zeinab!!  

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Congratulations to these SFU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences researchers, including SFU economics professor Fernando Aragon Sanchez.

His research on the long-term economic impacts of oil development - looking at who benefits, and for how long - offers a longitudinal look at earnings, employment, and mobility.

The project’s key contribution is to provide the first long-term, individual-level evidence on the true and lasting impacts of oil development—separating real improvements in well-being from temporary gains driven by migration—and to inform more inclusive and sustainable policy decisions.

Seven FASS researchers launch new projects with SSHRC Insight Development Grants The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is pleased to share that the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has awarded Insight Development Grants to seven FASS researchers. 

🏆Please join us in congratulating PhD student Richmond Tetteh, winner of this year's Terry Heaps Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award!

As a teaching assistant for six years at SFU, Richmond believes that the most impactful teaching helps students develop confidence in their own ability to solve problems.

His favourite part of teaching? "Witnessing the moment when students move beyond rote learning and begin to think critically and independently about economic problems and policy issues."

Congratulations Richmond! 🎉

🎓 Today's SFU economics Convocation Reception was an incredible opportunity to congratulate our students on their remarkable achievement.

Thank you for celebrating with us. We can't wait to see what's next for you so please keep in touch! 🎉

Led by her interest in development and how government policies impact individual lives, graduand Harvi Shah found her second home in economics. ✨

🏆This year, she represented SFU at the International Economics Olympiad in Germany, placing 9th globally among participants from 23 countries, and earned a Best Paper Award at a symposium at Gujarat University for her research on the Make in India Initiative.

Her economics program taught her to solve complex problems. “You are looking at huge data sets, and you have to determine how you can create a report and run the regression models to find an efficient way for people to access the data.”

The skills she learned in her economics courses – from data analysis to programming languages to data visualization – prepared her to take on these new challenges.

Shah also dedicated time to volunteering and building her community at SFU.

From her first days as an international student to presenting at the Canadian Economics Association Conference, Harvi's journey is an example of determination, curiosity, and a commitment to learning.

As she graduates with a major in economics, a concentration in economic data analysis, and a statistics minor, we celebrate her accomplishments and look forward to seeing what’s next!

🔗Read Harvi’s full story here: https://www.sfu.ca/economics/community/news/2026/06/one-economics-student-s-journey-from-uncertainty-to-internationa.html

@ simonfraseru

We're pleased to announce that Economics professor Minjie Deng will be one of the experts in conversation at the upcoming Parasiuk Dean's Symposium on May 12. The Parasiuk Symposium aims to address the questions raised by Mark Carney’s recent speech at Davos about the “rules-based international order” and what it means for Canada.

Get your free tickets:

Parasiuk Dean’s Symposium: Whither the Rules-Based International Order Addressing the questions raised by Mark Carney’s Davos speech about a “rules-based international order" and what it means for Canada.