Virginia Tech Economics

08/13/2026

We'll be in Richmond tonight at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery! We hope to see you there!

Alumni and friends in Richmond, we're coming to you!

After several great years hosting our DC event, we've heard from our Richmond community that you'd like to be involved. So we're hosting our first-ever Alumni & Friends Social in Richmond this August!

Join us for an evening of good food, good company, and updates on everything happening in the department back in Blacksburg. We've done some incredible things over the past year, and we'd love to tell you all about it!

📅 Wednesday, August 13, 2026
🕕 6:00–8:00 PM
📍 Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
🎟️ $10 (includes heavy appetizers and a drink ticket)

🔗 Register here: https://aimsbbis.vt.edu/econrva26

07/22/2026

Congratulations to Ross Spoon, our latest PhD graduate!

Ross's dissertation uses laboratory experiments to study what drives asset market instability, from the borrowing constraints that fuel bubbles and short squeezes to the physiological stress responses that separate high earners from low earners when markets turn. He has also developed an open-source platform that makes it easier for other researchers to run these kinds of experiments.

Dr. Spoon will return to campus this fall to continue teaching with VT Economics and Virginia Tech College of Science.

07/16/2026

Congratulations to Priyambada Bandyopadhyay, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation this week. She joins a long and accomplished line of doctoral graduates.

Priya's research sits at the intersection of behavioral economics and finance, examining how responses to risk and uncertainty shape financial decision-making at both the individual and institutional levels. Her work explores how behavioral traits influence personal financial choices and how perceptions of risk affect the allocation of foreign capital to domestic investments.

This fall, Priya will take her expertise to the South Carolina Governor's School for Science & Mathematics, where she'll join the faculty as an instructor. Her students are lucky to have her.

Congratulations, Dr. Bandyopadhyay!

07/16/2026

When The New York Times needed an economist to make sense of the U.S.-Iran agreement and its implications for Iran's economic future, it called on Djavad Salehi-Isfahani.

Lifting oil sanctions will obviously have a significant economic impact on the country, but Professor Salehi-Isfahani is most optimistic about the removal of financial sanctions. Oil revenues flow to the government, but financial freedom flows to ordinary Iranians. That creates the conditions for real businesses and real jobs.

Read the full article at the link below:

The country has long faced some of the world’s heaviest sanctions. The lifting of restrictions could open new vistas on trade and financial access.

07/09/2026

Alumni and friends in Richmond, we're coming to you!

After several great years hosting our DC event, we've heard from our Richmond community that you'd like to be involved. So we're hosting our first-ever Alumni & Friends Social in Richmond this August!

Join us for an evening of good food, good company, and updates on everything happening in the department back in Blacksburg. We've done some incredible things over the past year, and we'd love to tell you all about it!

📅 Wednesday, August 13, 2026
🕕 6:00–8:00 PM
📍 Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
🎟️ $10 (includes heavy appetizers and a drink ticket)

🔗 Register here: https://aimsbbis.vt.edu/econrva26

06/22/2026

More information doesn't always mean better decisions, and one of our PhD graduates proved it. Nandini Das spent three years studying agricultural training programs on Bhola Island in Bangladesh. Her finding? Giving farmers too much information at once can actually get in the way of progress.

Her research led to a redesigned training program that narrowed its focus and added season-long support. The result: pesticide use dropped 30 to 50 percent and yields went up.

Full story:

Nandini Das’ doctoral research in Bangladesh shows how focused, sustained support can help farmers adopt more sustainable agricultural practices.

06/03/2026

The Chair's Excellence Award recognizes excellence in every sense of the word. For Adilynn Walker, that means something a little different than most of our students experience.

Adilynn graduated with her Economics degree and minors in Political Science and Naval Leadership. She has recently been commissioned into the U.S. Navy, where she will train to become a Surface Warfare Officer. During the Fall 2025 semester, she served as Regimental Commander for the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. This is the highest-ranking cadet in the Corps, responsible for leadership training, daily operations, and public representation of the entire regiment.

Through it all, she found something in economics that stayed with her. In her own words, her favorite part of the program has been "getting to collaborate with peers to better understand the world around us and how our economy impacts it." Her favorite course was American Economic History with Dr. Miller.

Adilynn brought a unique perspective to VT Econ, and we're so proud to call her an Econ Hokie. Congratulations, and thank you for your service.

06/03/2026

The Chair's Excellence Award recognizes students whose contributions go far beyond the classroom. This year, we're proud to present one of those awards to Pascale Kuo.

Pascale graduated in Fall 2025 with her Economics degree and a minor in Data & Decisions. She currently works at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. While at Virginia Tech, she served as President of the Economics Club and represented the department through the Virginia Tech College of Science Student Ambassador program. She also found time to be an undergraduate researcher and a peer mentor for the FYE program. Of all that, her favorite experience was competing in The Econ Games in Cincinnati. Her favorite course? Economics of Crime with Dr. Wooten.

Pascale has helped shape the VT Economics program in ways we can't begin to describe. Congratulations on a well-deserved honor!

06/03/2026

Nick Fleischman did what most students spend four years trying to do, but he did it in three. After completing his Economics degree with a MEDS option in just three years, Nick will be back on campus this fall to finish his Accelerated MA in Economics, putting him on track to finish his master's degree before most of his incoming cohort finishes their bachelor's.

But what makes Nick's story special isn't just the pace. Rather, it's everything he made time for along the way. He was active in the Economics Club and a member of the Economics Fellows program. He served as a peer mentor for the FYE course and spent a summer abroad in our Economics of Tourism program with Dr. T. His favorite experience in the program wasn't any single thing, but the full array of opportunities he had, from interning with Virginia Tech Athletics to the variety of classes he completed. His favorite? Game Theory with Dr. Bahel.

This summer, he's interning at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond before returning to campus in the fall to wrap up his MA. Congratulations, Nick!

06/03/2026

Sophia DellaPenna graduated with an Economics degree and minors in both Finance and Data & Decisions. It's no surprise her resume reads like she's already been working in the industry for years.

During her time at VT, Sophia served as an undergraduate research assistant, department tutor, teaching assistant, and Virginia Tech College of Science Ambassador. She interned with Mastercard for the past two summers and has joined them full-time in Product Management. Her favorite experiences in the program were her internship with Virginia Tech Athletics and her time as a TA for a principles of economics course with 600 students enrolled! Her favorite class? Sports Economics with Dr. Jadrian Wooten.

We are so thankful to Sophia for all that she has done for the department over the past few years. Congratulations, Sophia. Mastercard is lucky to have you.