Dr. Rob Gillezeau from the University of Toronto will be presenting his paper Railroads, Land Cessions, and Indigenous Nations: Evidence from Canada (with Jeff Chan and Azim Essaji ) on Friday, April 11 from 12:30-2:00pm in GSB306. Please join us!
Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, it’s no surprise that Mansi Vishwajitsinh Vansia (BBE ’24) developed an interest in business and financial analysis.
As an international student hailing from India, the Business Economics graduate says she was nervous about starting her studies at Brock University, but her co-op term helped her push past her comfort zone and make connections that kickstarted her career.
“My co-op experience contributed hugely to the confidence that I have in myself and my abilities today,” she says. “It taught me how to talk to people, pitch myself, conduct myself in a professional environment and address complex situations using my critical thinking skills.”
During her co-op term, Mansi worked as an Operation Services intern for Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Canada Corporation, where she had the opportunity to apply her course teachings in the workplace, put together ad hoc reports and develop her leadership skills.
According to Mansi, one of the most valuable aspects of her internship was having casual coffee chats with employees and “learning more about their departments and their roles,” which helped her grow her network and gain clarity on her career interests.
“I started becoming more interested in finance, and because of that, I took more finance-focused courses during my third and fourth years,” she says.
When it came to securing a co-op placement, Mansi says the Economics Co-op Professional Preparation course provided her with the tools and resources required to write an effective resume and cover letter, navigate her career interests and identify her transferable skills.
In addition, microeconomics courses offered by Brock’s Department of Economics and Forecasting Using Time Series Data, taught by Associate Professor Jean-François Lamarche, were instrumental in taking her learning beyond the textbooks.
“These courses helped me look at challenges in my workplace through a strategic lens and come up with more creative ideas and solutions,” she says. “The hands-on projects and assignments allowed me to build confidence in my critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which I now apply daily, and supported my professional growth.”
Mansi’s advice for other students searching for a co-op placement is to “have that curiosity always within you to want to know more, learn more,” adding that this is what “really helped me stand out in terms of getting the role.”
Since graduating, Mansi has secured a position with BMW Group Financial Services Canada as a Customer, Brands and Sales System Transformation intern.
“Although I never envisioned myself working in the automotive industry, I was encouraged by our talent coaches to broaden my horizons and explore career opportunities beyond my immediate interests or expertise,” she says. “They emphasized the importance of stepping outside our comfort zones and being open to new possibilities, even in fields we knew little about.”
Mansi says she is happy that she decided to take the leap and see where it led her.
“By embracing opportunities, we may find ourselves in unexpected roles — roles that, while initially outside our radar, could turn out to be incredibly fulfilling,” she says. “Sometimes the paths we don’t plan for can be the most rewarding.”
Dr. Halis Murat Yildiz from TMU will be presenting his paper: On the Design of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (with Martin Richardson and Frank Stahler) on Tuesday, April 1st from 2:00pm to 3:30pm in GSB 306. Please join us!
Dr. Christine Neill from Wilfrid Laurier University will be presenting her paper: Intergenerational Education Transmission: Patterns in Indigenous and Non-Indigenous People in Canada on Tuesday, March 25th, from 2:00pm to 3:30pm in GSB 306. Please join us!
Dr. Tilman Börgers from the University of Michigan will be presenting his paper, Diversity, Disagreement, and Information Aggregation on Tuesday, March 18, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in GSB 306. Please join us!
Whether you want to jump on the fast track to graduation, reduce next year’s course load, satisfy a program requirement or pick up an elective, Brock’s Department of Economics is offering a wide array of Spring courses to help you advance your area of study and explore topics of interest.
ASY – ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE
Do you have an interest in global affairs and a desire to pursue development work in emerging markets? In this course, you’ll examine issues of income inequality, poverty, trade and economic growth from a developing world perspective.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 1P91 and 1P92 but these can be waived. Please send override requests to Indra Hardeen at [email protected]
This course may also be of interest to students in Political Science, LawPlus and Business.
If you’re thinking about switching to ECON, get a head start this spring! All the required second year courses are being offered including ECON 2P21, 2P22, 2P30 and 2P90.
Learn more about our Spring courses.
For more information or to register for Brock’s Spring/Summer courses, visit brocku.ca/springsummer
Dr. Derek Messacar from Memorial University will be presenting his paper, “Telework and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Canada,” co-authored with Tahsin Mehdi and René Morissette, on Tuesday, March 11, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in GSB 306. Please join us!
Professor of Economics David Ong from Jinan University-University of Birmingham Joint Institute will be presenting his paper, “Gender differences in the mating and cross-productivity effects of competitiveness on partner income,” co-authored with Ga Hye (Rosalyn) Jeon, on Tuesday, Feb. 4 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in GSB 206. Please join us!
Assistant Professor Taylor Wright was recently cited in the Economic Report of the President, transmitted to the United States Congress in January 2025 by President Joe Biden before he left office.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, Wright was curious about possible indirect effects of policy changes related to lockdowns. In 2021, with co-authors Abel Brodeur and Nik Cook, he published “On the Effects of COVID-19 Safer-at-Home Policies on Social Distancing, Car Crashes and Pollution,” in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.
In the paper, the authors contrasted counties in the U.S. that used different approaches to public health measures implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic, studying rates of air pollution and car collisions in different locations both during the policy and after measures such as lockdowns were lifted.
“We saw a 25 per cent reduction in car crashes and a 25 per cent reduction in pollution levels, with both pollution and collisions were lower in places that had more remote work,” says Wright. “We also saw that pollution stayed persistently lower than it was before in those areas after lockdowns were lifted, but car collision rebounded a bit after mobility was reintroduced.”
Four years later, the findings were used by The White House to inform future discussions on the shifting labour landscape.
This paper studies the use of mobile crisis teams—a non- uniformed pair consisting of a mental health worker and a medic—as either a substitute or complement to traditional police units responding to 911 calls involving mental illness, homelessness, addiction, and other non-dangerous situations. We evaluate the longest-running mobile crisis response program in the U.S., Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) in Eugene, Oregon. We find that a series of expansions of CAHOOTS into new areas and times reduced the likelihood that a 911 call resulted in an arrest, and had the long-term benefit of reducing the number of follow-up 911 calls from the same address. However, CAHOOTS often responds to the same calls as the police, acting as complement rather than a substitute. The reduction in arrests likely reflects CAHOOTS’ role in de-escalating tense situations and resolving incidents without coercive measures. After the initial expansions, additional CAHOOTS capacity is used mostly for calls that would otherwise go unanswered. We conclude that crisis response teams play an important role as a complement to the police, rather than only acting as substitutes. Further expansions are likely to have only limited effects on reducing police responses
