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BYU Macroeconomics and Computational Lab

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The BYU Macroeconomics and Computational Lab (MCL) is mentored student research team located in the Brigham Young University Department of Economics. The MCL matches undergraduate students with economics department faculty to collaborate on coauthored research projects that are intended for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals. The MCL runs a 7-week computational boot camp during from late April through mid-May where selected students are led through an intensive curriculum of applied mathematics, dynamic general equilibrium theory, and computer programming. During the university's summer term from mid-June through mid-August, student researchers work up to 40 hours per week on a chosen project under the supervision of their faculty mentor. This research continues throughout the remained of the academic year with students working up to 20 hours per week.

The BYU MCL also sponsors a yearly conference on computational public economics in Park City, Utah during the month of December. Timely papers on the conference theme are presented by world-class scholars. There are normally 7 to 8 papers presented, including a keynote presentation. Undergraduate MCL students attend this conference and provide support to presenters. Occasionally, their co-authored work is included in the conference, though it is presented by a senior coauthor.

Since its inception in 2012 the BYU MCL has graduated 17 students and placed them at Ph.D. programs in economics or finance such as M.I.T, the University of Chicago, New York University, and Carnegie-Mellon University[1] as well as in economics consulting firms.

Objectives

The BYU MCL operates on the following set of premises:[2]

  1. Bright, motivated undergraduate students can make significant contributions to macroeconomic research.
  2. To do so, they need appropriate training in numerical tools and economic theory.
  3. They also need guidance from faculty dedicated to undergraduate mentoring.

The primary objective is to train and mentor undergraduate students so that they are able to contribute to a peer-reviewed academic publication in the fields of economics, finance or applied mathematics. A secondary objective is to place these students in the top Ph.D. programs in the world in economics and finance or to place them in well-paying consulting jobs where they can effectively utilize the tools and skills they have acquired.

History

The program began in 2011 as a Mentoring Environments Grant (MEG) from the BYU Office Research and Creative Activities (ORCA) [3]. It was known initially as the "Macro Lab". Initial funding was for three research assistants and was begun early in 2012. Two graduates of the BYU Mathematics Department's IMPACT program, Bryan Perry and Ben Tengelsen, were hired as research assistants at this time. They worked with the three co-investigators for the original MEG grant, Richard W. Evans, Kerk L. Phillips and David E. Spencer.

At the same time the BYU Mathematics Department began the phaseout of their IMPACT program,[4] in favor of a new applied math major. Funding from an anonymous donor allowed the IMPACT boot camp to continue under the auspices of the Macro Lab with a heavy emphasis on computational macroeconomics. At this time the name was changed to the "Macroeconomics and Computational Lab". The initial MCL boot camp had eight students attending both the math and economics classes, with one additional student each in the Math and Economics classes only.

During 2011 funding was secured by the College of Family Home and Social Sciences to conduct a conference dealing with some aspect of economics. These funds were earmarked by the Department of Economics for a macroeconomics conference. By pooling funds and with the help of Hoover Institution computational economist, Kenneth Judd, the MCL was able to host the initial Computational Public Economics Conference (CPEC) in Park City, Utah in December 2012. The keynote speaker was Nobel laureate, Thomas Sargent, of New York University.[5]

In his historical fiction novel, 1356: A Novel (p. 355), Bernard Cornwell describes Edward, the Prince of Wales, as motivating his commander in the Battle of Poitiers by exclaiming, “Go with God,... and fight like the devil.” Eric Eide, the Department Chairman of the BYU Department of Economics, suggested the following adaptation of that quote for the BYU-MCL. “Go with God, and compute like the devil.” Latinized, this becomes: Vade cum Deo, et computare similis diabolo.[6] The original logo for the MCL was drawn up by Kerk Phillips and Rick Evans as a play on words. It featured a labrador retriever seated and looking through a telescope. The labrador, of course, representing the "lab" and the telescope representing the "macro" part of the group name. With the addition of the computational boot camp a logo of a laptop with the BYU "Y" on the screen was added. This logo was originally designed for the inaugural CPEC. In 2013 the latinized motto was added as well.

The current logo can be viewed via the this link.

Boot Camp

Boot Camp is open to all BYU students who have the necessary background including core courses in economics and mathematics. Experience with an object-oriented programming language is strong recommended, but not a strict requirement. Students take six credit hours of courses, three in mathematics and three in economics. Lectures are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:00 a.m. to noon. Computations Labs are held on Tuesday and Thursday during the same time period. Boot Camp takes place during Summer Term, usually for seven weeks from late April through mid-June.

Students use Python as their primary programming language, but MATLAB, Dynare [7] and Mathematica are also used for some economic applications.

Mathematical topics covered include: inner product spaces, spectral theory, convex analysis, constrained and unconstrained linear and nonlinear optimization and dynamic programming.

Economic topics include: overlapping generations modeling, dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) modeling, DSGE numerical methods, curve and distribution fitting, time-series filtering, structural VAR estimation, and parallel programming techniques for DSGE models.

December Conference

Two Computational Public Economics Conferences have been held so far.

  • 2012 - Held at the Shadow Ridge Resort Hotel and Conference Center in Park City, UT December 13 - 14. The keynote speaker was Thomas Sargent (New York University). Additional presenters included: Kent Smetters (University of Pennsylvania), Karl Schmedders (University of Zurich), Juan F. Rubio-Ramirez (Duke University), Kenneth L. Judd (Stanford University), Laurence J. Kotlikoff (Boston University), Sevin Yeltekin (Carnegie-Mellon University) and Jeffrey Humpherys (Brigham Young University).
  • 2013 - Held the Park City Marriott in Park City, UT December 12 - 13. The theme was "Economics Modeling with Help and Aging." The keynote speaker was John Laitner from the University of Michigan. Papers were also presented by Harold L. Cole (University of Pennsylvania), Richard W. Evans (Brigham Young University), Eric French (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago), Daniel Gottlieb (University of Pennsylvania), Ellen R. McGrattan (University of Minnesota) and Stephen Parente (University of Minnesota). A panel discussion on health care issues was moderated by Mark H. Showalter (Brigham Young University) and featured the following panel of experts from the health care industry: Greg Poulsen (Intermountain Healthcare), Gino Tenace (MedSolutions) and Richard A. Collins (United Healthcare and Golden Rule Insurance).

Working Paper Series

The BYU MCL Working Paper Series began in 2012. It includes contributions by the faculty and students of the MCL as well as paper from outside authors including: Kenneth Judd, Serguei and Lilia Maliar, James McDonald and Larry Kotlikoff.[8]

Placement History

  • 2012
  • 2013
  • 2014
    • Christian Baker – University of Chicago (Econonmics Ph.D.)
    • David Beheshti – University of Texas (Econonmics Ph.D.)
    • Ryne Belliston - Charles Rivers Associates in Salt Lake City, UT. (Economics Consulting)
    • Nick Blair - Analysis Group in Dallas, TX. (Economics Consulting)
    • TJ Canann – University of Minnesota (Econonmics Ph.D.)
    • Carla Johnston – University of California at Berkeley (Econonmics Ph.D.)
    • Roy Roth – Stanford (Finance Ph.D.)
    • Ben Snow - Capital One in Richmond, VA. (Economics Consulting)
    • Sara Taylor - MIT Media Lab (Engineering Ph.D.)
    • John VandenBerghe – University of Chicago (Econonmics Ph.D.)

Social Media

The BYU MCL maintains a presence on the following social media:

References

Notes

  1. ^ BYU MCL Student Researchers webpage
  2. ^ BYU MCL homepage
  3. ^ [https://orca.byu.edu/ BYU ORCA website
  4. ^ [http://impact.byu.edu/ BYU IMPACT website
  5. ^ CPEC 2012 website
  6. ^ BYU MCL Boot Camp Introduction by Rick Evans
  7. ^ Dynare website
  8. ^ BYU MCL working paper webpage
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