Professor Presents at Conference in New Orleans

Dr. David Cushman, Westminster College professor of economics and chair of the Economics and Business Department, was a presenter at the Southern Economic Association conference held Nov. 18-21 in New Orleans.

His paper, "VAR Estimation of a Simple Portfolio Balance Model for the Canadian-U.S. Exchange Rate," extended his recent publication in the Review of Financial Economics.

"A line of work I have been pursuing for several years involves the effects of U.S. and Canadian national and international debt on the Canadian-U.S dollar exchange rate, and my recently published paper represents one version of this work," Cushman said. "But the premise of the conference paper is that a simpler model may actually perform better over time, as economies change, than the more complicated model in the Review of Financial Economics paper."

The approach in the conference paper bears out this premise, according to Cushman, because it explains exchange rate behavior better over a longer period of time than the earlier paper did. The conference paper indicates that recent declines in Canadian debt have played a more important role than recent increases in U.S. debt in the current fall of the U.S. dollar against the Canadian dollar.

Cushman, who holds the Captain William McKee Chair of Economics and Business, has been with Westminster since 2005. He earned an undergraduate degree from Stetson University and a master's and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.

Before coming to Westminster, he taught at the University of New Orleans, the University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt University, the University of South Florida, and the University of Saskatchewan (Canada).

Contact Cushman at (724) 946-7169 or e-mail cushmado@westminster.edu for additional information. 

Dr. David Cushman