Emily Vontsolos, a rising senior at Furman University, won the 2014 Adam Smith prize, awarded for the best economics paper submitted each year.<\/p>\n
The award was presented at the Economics Department\u2019s end-of-year picnic recently, said Ken Peterson, Ph.D., John D. Hollingsworth Jr. Professor and chair of the economics department.<\/p>\n
Vontsolos, who is from Winston-Salem, is completing a summer internship with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. She is conducting research, writing, and organizing an online curriculum with the New Economy Working Group.<\/p>\n
The paper, one of about nine submitted, was judged by three economics professors, said Jessica Hennessey, Ph.D., assistant professor and one of the judges. Any paper written on an economics subject can be submitted for the Adam Smith Prize and is judged on guidelines including content, organization, economic sophistication, and argument.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer paper nailed it all. She was able to take all the research and analyze and evaluate it,\u201d Hennessey said. \u201cIt\u2019s usually pretty evident\u201d which paper is the strongest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited\u201d about the prize, Vontsolos said, but \u201cthe gains I had from the paper were the learning. I grew so much in the process of writing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She initially wrote the paper in a class on economic growth and development and refined and edited it during the past year. The idea was to select a country and present its growth narrative, including any unique aspects.<\/p>\n
She selected Singapore. While attending the Asian Pacific Economic Forum in the fall, she met delegates from Singapore and was able to talk with them about the country\u2019s economic narrative, its history, and its policies. She also discussed the country\u2019s improving political freedoms and how that affects the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been interested in Singapore because it had such a dramatic growth narrative,\u201d Vontsolos said, adding that she looked at the small country as a \u201cgadfly\u201d as Socrates, the Greek philosopher, defined them\u2014people or systems that challenged society.<\/p>\n
Her paper looked at Singapore\u2019s history as a British colony and a port city, both of which caused it to be \u201cintegrated in the global economy and open to foreign investment\u201d long before many small countries were.<\/p>\n
Despite the dramatic success of Singapore\u2019s economic growth, \u201cI\u2019m not a proponent on the one-solution-fits-all\u201d when it comes to other countries modeling their economics on that of the small city-state.<\/p>\n
She said she hopes her internship will help her determine the direction of her career when she graduates. She is considering both the non-profit and policy and research fields. \u201cI want experience before I go into a master\u2019s program,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The winner of the Adam Smith award receives $100, a coffee mug, and a certificate. Next year, the award will be renamed the Stanford Prize, in honor of Dick Stanford, Professor Emeritus of economics and his family. Dick is an excellent writer, and renaming the award seems like a fitting way to honor him, said Peterson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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