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Economics Faculty Members Honored with Phil Saunders Award for Best Research Paper

Faculty members from the UNL College of Business Administration department of economics were recognized with the Phil Saunders Award for Best Research Paper at the 2011 National Association of Economic Educators annual meeting in Chicago. The award recognizes the paper that best contributes to research in economic education.

Drs. Roger Butters, Carlos Asarta and Eric Thompson all worked on the paper entitled, "The Gender Question in Economic Education: Is it the Teacher or is it the Test?" The paper focused on significant and persistent differences in economic education test scores between male and female students.

"We are honored to be recognized by the National Association of Economic Educators for our efforts to identify how we can best deliver economic literacy to students throughout the nation,” Butters said.
 
Although explanations for the “Gender Gap” are well documented in research literature, the team’s paper examined whether differences in test scores were the result of gender role-model effects, or whether they could be the result of biased testing materials. The team used a large sample of test scores from Test of Economic Literacy (TEL), to determine their results.

Ultimately, the team concluded that neither the test instruments nor the instructors of the material were biased in terms of influencing gender differences on test scores.

"Our research sheds light on a long standing issue in economic education and demonstrates that there are no simple explanations for the differences we observe in student test scores,” Butters explained.
 
The research was funded by a $25,000 grant from the US Department of Education through an Excellence in Economic Education Grant.
Published: December 5, 2011