UNDERGRADUATE PUBLISHES RESEARCH

Last fall, economics student Gwyneth Donahue competed in the International Atlantic Economics Society (IAES) conference and won the competition for Best Undergraduate Paper, resulting in the publication of her work. The junior focused her research on the wage gap existing between immigrant and native workers in the United States. Donahue’s work on the paper actually began as an assignment in professor Dr. Iris Buder’s econometrics course. “Econometrics applies statistical and quantitative methods to analyze business and economic phenomena,” explained Buder. “When Gwyn proposed her research project, I could already see the potential for her idea,” said Buder. “After Gwyn submitted her final research paper for the class, it truly was one of the best undergraduate econometrics papers I had ever read.” Donahue said her motivation for choosing the topic was to explore the underlying cause of the wage gap and whether or not it can be explained by educational or occupational choices or the potential for discrimination. “While education, occupation and other demographic attributes were shown to contribute to the wage gap [between immigrant and native workers in the U.S.],

Photo: Gwyn Donahue

the paper also demonstrates that there remains a portion that is unexplained by these variables, which can likely be attributed to discrimination,” said Donahue. She also found that the wage gap does fade, the longer an immigrant is in the U.S., “though this wage ‘convergence’ is not consistent among every occupation, indicating that immigrants in unskilled occupations have a higher wage gap with natives versus immigrants in skilled occupations.” Throughout the research process, Donahue was able to gain experience using statistical analysis, as well as in communicating results. After participating in the conference, Donahue said that the experience only enhanced her plans to join academia in the future. “The process was an incredible preview of what I want to do in the future.” “Gwyn’s hard work on this research project paid off in a huge way – getting published as an undergraduate is quite a significant achievement,” said Buder. The IAES was established as a means to increase communication between economists worldwide. Numerous Nobel Prize winning economists and leading government officials have participated in the IAES global exchange.