Dr. Michael Davis, associate professor of economics, is preparing to help host the upcoming Missouri Valley Economic Association’s (MVEA) 61st annual conference Oct. 24-26 in Kansas City, Missouri. Davis serves as the current president of the association’s executive committee.

Davis says that the organization has recently been working to extend its research in economics by focusing on its yearly conference and its journal, the Journal of Economic Insight. 

“The organization has really grown as an option for undergraduate and graduate students to present their research,” says Davis. “We give an award for best graduate student paper each year and the association really succeeds as a conference that provides collegiality.  As a young professor, I started going because I felt more welcome there than at some of the other regional economic conferences that exist.”

The association’s network extends through the Missouri River valley region and draws attendees from throughout the country and even as far as Europe.

MVEA was founded in 1963 to encourage the development of economics as a theoretical as well as applied discipline, to foster communication among scholars in those fields, and to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge. The MVEA encourages the presentation at the annual conference of papers in all stages of development from seminal ideas to journal-ready quality.