Two FIR doctoral students invited to present at the upcoming ARES conference

For release:  March 26, 2018

Two doctoral students in the Department of Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate, Minxing Sun and Wei Sun, have been granted financial assistance and have been invited to present their research in the Doctoral Session at the upcoming American Real Estate Society (ARES) conference in April at Bonita Springs, FL. This is an excellent opportunity and honor for these students to represent the University of Memphis Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the conference.

Both of the students' papers use data on the neighborhood blight problem in Memphis and focus on blight prevention and eradication. Minxing's paper is entitled, "Causes, Prevention and Eradication of Neighborhood Blight: A Time-Series, Trend Analysis for the Memphis Blight Conundrum." Wei's paper is entitled, "Neighborhood Blight Indices, Impacts on Property Values and Blight Resolution Alternatives."

Each year ARES invites select Ph.D. students engaged in real estate dissertation topics to be involved in the annual conference Doctoral Session. The invitation and financial support to attend the ARES conference not only offers the chance to present their respective research papers, but also the opportunity to attend other conference sessions and to meet real estate faculty from many universities, the ARES leadership team, and editors of ARES journals.

The ARES membership views these doctoral student assistantships as excellent opportunities to invest in and to assist the next generation of real estate researchers. The James R. Webb ARES Foundation provides up to $1,250 support for each doctoral student's hotel and travel expenses. In addition, meeting registration is waived for each doctoral student and each receives a one-year ARES membership.