Department of Mathematics & Statistics

Check out Big Math Network, an online resource that promotes careers in Business, Industry and Government to students and departments of the mathematical sciences.

Game Night for Mathemematics & Statistics and Computer Science majors, Tuesdays at 6:00 PM in Jepson Hall 212C during fall and spring semesters.

If you are a first year student interested in mathematics, mathematical economics, statistics, or data science, and would like to be added to our email list serv, send a request to Kathy Rothert, krothert@richmond.edu. 

November 6 at 1:30 PM

Location: Jepson Faculty Lounge on the first floor of Jepson Hall

Speaker: M. Saif Mehkari, Associate Professor of Economics and Paul Clikeman Teaching Fellow, University of Richmond

Title: Converting Local Consumption Responses to an Aggregate Fiscal Multiplier

Abstract: Economists use mathematics in many different ways. In this colloquium I will discuss one of my recently accepted papers on calculating the aggregate fiscal multiplier. Using data, we estimate that a $1 increase in county-level government spending increases local non-durable consumer spending by $0.29. The starting point for the talk will be the intuition (economic, mathematical, and practical) for our interest in the multiplier. We then translate this to an aggregate multiplier using a Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian model. We further use this calibrated mathematical model to understand the mechanisms that link a local multiplier to an aggregate multiplier. Through the discussion of this paper and its results I will explain the process economists use to perform such calculations and highlight how mathematics acts as a foundation for economic analysis. The paper uses techniques and ideas from statistics, calculus, differential equations, and numerical analysis