Duke Team Places in Econometric Game

4 students with judges at the econometric game in Chicago

Duke Economics undergraduate students Ryan Hastings, Richard Lombardo, Wendy Shi and William Zhao took second place in the Econometric Game, hosted by the University of Chicago on April 9 and 10. 

In the competition, each team receives a data set and is tasked with answering an economics-related question. Past questions have covered COVID-19 testing disparities, immigration policy and fracking.  

Over the course of a weekend, teams are tasked with writing a research paper, which is then presented to a panel of judges. This year’s panel included 2000 Nobel Laureate James Heckman. From there, a group of finalists are judged again, and the winners are determined.   

This year’s prompt challenged teams to identify a causal effect of gender on the labor market.  

“It was great fun to meet and compete with peers in other universities passionate about economics,” said participant William Zhao, “and we were very happy to hear Professor Heckman's compliment to us at the end of our presentation: ‘And you did all this in 13 hours!’”  

 Prizes ranged from iPads to wireless Bluetooth speakers and Federal Reserve socks. 

The department is immensely proud of the student’s success at the game.  

“I am thrilled for the students, their success and how well they represented not only themselves but also the department and Duke more generally,” said chair James W. Roberts.  

Congrats to our Duke Econ team!