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Research
大象传媒 Economics public policy research contributions recognized
Members of 大象传媒's Department of Economics were awarded major prizes at the recent (CEA) conference. A research paper on the effects COVID-19 on the mental health of adolescents in British Columbia earned 大象传媒 professors Jane Friesen and Brian Krauth the Vanderkamp Prize for best paper published in Canadian Public Policy.
大象传媒 economics honours student Anya Petek won Best Undergraduate Paper and alumnus Olena Kotyshyna won the Doug Purvis Memorial Prize. Congratulations to all of the winners.
Vanderkamp Prize
The Vanderkamp prize is presented annually by Canadian Public Policy for the best article published in the journal in the previous year. Congratulations to authors Jane Friesen, Brian Krauth, and Brett Wilmer (Government of British Columbia) for their paper "", vol 50(2) pages 256 - 276, June 2024.
Their paper used individual-level data on school enrollment, physician services received and prescription medications to measure the effect of COVID-19 on adolescent mental health. They found increases in access to mental health supports and medications for girls following the pandemic, but no significant increase in most treatments for boys. Their study was notable in its inclusion of a separate analysis of the mental health of Indigenous students, alongside non-Indigenous students (both English home language and non-English home language).
Doug Purvis Memorial Prize
The Doug Purvis Memorial Prize is awarded annually to the authors of a highly significant, written contribution to Canadian economic policy. Congratulations to the 2025 winners Olena Kostyshyna (大象传媒 economics PhD 2008) and her co-authors Monica Jain and Xu Zhang.
Kostyshyna, Jain and Zhang鈥檚 paper 鈥溾�� was published in the Journal of Monetary Economics. It uses household-level data from the Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations to study wage growth expectations and their link with inflation expectations.
Kostyshyna became interested in modelling expectations and their role in macroeconomics during her PhD studies when she took macroeconomic theory course with the late professor Jasmina Arifovic. She remains connected to the department through her continued research with professor Luba Petersen.
Olena Kostyshyna is a Research Advisor in the Canadian Economic Analysis (CEA) Department at the Bank of Canada. She has worked on the analysis of the Canadian labour market, inflation and consumer expectations. Prior to joining the Bank of Canada, Olena held an academic position at the Portland State University in the USA.
Bank of Canada 鈥� CEA Undergraduate Research Poster Awards
The award for best poster went to Anya Petek for 鈥淐hild Care Affordability and Maternal Labour Force Participation: Evidence from British Columbia." Anya looked at BC鈥檚 2018 child care reform and its impact on mothers鈥� participation in the workforce for her honours thesis with her supervisor, professor Fernando Aragon. This fall Petek will begin her MA in Economics at UBC, with the goal of building a career in public policy.
Congratulations Anya!
