For two young George Mason University economists who sit at critical junctures in their promising academic careers, the fall semester began with an incredible experience.
Xiaofei Pan, an economics PhD student, and David Eil, a new economics faculty member, traveled to the Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau, Germany, for the organization’s fourth meeting in economic sciences. The invitation-only meetings, which were held from Aug. 23-27, featured the world’s greatest economics scholars and 373 young economists from 65 countries.
The young scholars took in an opening speech by Christian Wulff, President of Germany, and got to hear 17 Nobel Laureates from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Israel and Cyprus share their ideas.
Dan Houser, chair of the Department of Economics and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science at Mason, said the Lindau meetings give young academics an excellent opportunity to interact with other top-flight scholars in their field.
“The Lindau Meetings allow scholars to foster new friendships, share ideas and interact with the best and brightest: the Nobel Laureates,” he said. “The younger generation gets the opportunity to experience the passion and excitement these senior scholars have for their field.”
While invitation to the meetings is a prestigious honor, Mason’s two attendees are highly qualified, top-flight economists themselves.
Xiaofei Pan earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2006. She then joined Mason for her graduate studies, and is now working on a dissertation titled, “Cooperation Without Sanctions: Theory and Experiments.” She has won a number of awards and grants for her research, and co-authored two research reports with Houser; one about cooperation and reward-focused competition and the other about mating strategies and gender differences in prosociality. She has a number of papers and research projects in progress.
Pan, who studies behavioral economics, applied microeconomics, experimental economics and behavioral game theory, said the Lindau event was an important career step.
“The Lindau meetings broadened my vision of my own area of work,” she said. “I met a lot of people from across the world, and it was good for my career to introduce my work to those in other fields.”
Meanwhile, David Eil sits on the recently hired end of the job market. Before joining Mason, Eil earned his bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics and international relations from Tufts University. He obtained his PhD from the University of California, San Diego, and authored a dissertation, titled, “Essays in Applied Behavioral Economics.” He has more six years of teaching experience, and he co-authored a publication about self-perception that appeared in the American Economics Journal. Like Pan, he has presented research, and has a number of projects in the pipeline.
Eil, who like Pan studies microeconomics, behavioral economics, game theory and experimental economics, said attending the meetings was an honor.
“Overall, it was a great experience, and really valuable,” he said. “I got to meet many famous economists, and they each gave half-hour talks, and afterward, they would conduct larger discussion groups. There were important discussions taking place there that were more policy-oriented than at a typical conference.”
Houser said the selection of Pan and Eil highlights both their excellent individual work and the quality of their programs.
“Among such a small group of people worldwide, we have two that were selected,” Houser said. “To achieve this level of prominence requires dedication to your academic endeavors, a great degree of academic ability, raw natural talent, energy and a set of projects that have generated consistent attention.”
He added, “This sort of prestigious selection goes to people who are absolutely the most promising young scholars.”