Spotlighted Economics Student: Antonia Meyers '20

Anna (Antonia) Meyers ’20 grew up in Dutchess County, New York, and attended Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY. She knew she wanted to continue her education at a liberal arts college where she could continue playing lacrosse. The summer before her high school senior year, Anna was recruited by Haverford’s former lacrosse coach, Lauren Wray.

After doing an overnight visit with the Women’s lacrosse team, where she was surrounded by the quaint and beautiful campus, she realized she loved the players, the Haverford community, and Haverford’s philosophies and principles, and shortly decided to apply Early Decision.

Entering her freshman year at Haverford she didn’t have a sense of what her major would be but she took Introduction to Economics with Professor Saleha Jilani. The course material was so inviting and engaging that by the end of the semester she was relatively sure that she would be majoring in economics. Appreciating economics’ real-world application and its inherently analytical framework, she took more economics classes, with the added benefit of blending her love for mathematics and statistics. Anna will graduate with a Major in Economics and a Minor in Statistics.

From both a historical and an empirical approach, Professor Timothy Lambie-Hanson’s class, Crises, stands out. The class zoned in on and covered, a variety of worldwide crises, including real estate and housing markets. Doing research for that class prompted her thesis topic.

In her words, “Coastal real estate markets offer an interesting paradox to consider. While coastal communities are among the most desirable, and therefore expensive, places to live, they are also at the greatest risk for environmental hazards and flooding caused by hurricanes and tropical storms. Understanding the tradeoff between the coastal amenities and flood hazard risk is even more pressing today as the coastal population and real estate development are increasing at the same time that global warming concerns are rising and have led to a higher frequency of catastrophic events in coastal communities. Given the high-risk nature, increasing population, and the high density of these areas, there is a need for empirical analysis to show how regulations in general, and more specifically flood zone regulations in coastal communities, impact the value and safety of homes in these areas to accurately evaluate the costs and benefits of such policies. [Her] thesis investigates the effect that coastal environmental hazards have on single-family homes. Specifically, [she will] evaluate the impact that two recent reforms of the National Flood Insurance Program- the Biggert Waters Flood Insurance Reform of 2012 and the Homeowner’s Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 - have on single-family home values in high-flood risk areas in Florida. [She] also investigate[s] the effect of coastal proximity by observing the differences between high-risk flood zone homes in coastal and non-coastal counties to better understand the tradeoff between the benefits of living near the coast and the increased risk of environmental hazards such as flooding. [She] also investigates the differences between primary and secondary residences to highlight how the transitory nature of coastal real estate markets play a role in risk valuation and the reform-specific policy implications for these two groups. [Her] thesis will demonstrate the unique effects that reforms to the NFIP have on home sales and shed light on the intricacies of coastal housing markets.”

Summer internships have enriched Anna’s college curriculum. The summer after her freshman year she acquired a Florida real estate license in order to better understand the real estate market and to bolster her credentials for future internships.

The following two summers she worked for home builder Mattamy Homes, based in Boynton Beach, Florida. Put to work in the land acquisition, architecture, purchasing, and construction departments, Anna was given a lot of responsibilities. She prepared reports for product development, sourced and pre-qualified subcontractors and vendors, and assisted with Competitive Market Analysis reports. She also shadowed project managers on job sites, just to name a few roles.

In addition to being co-captain and a defender on the lacrosse team, Anna works for Justin Grube in the Haverford Athletics department handling game-day statistics. Anna has also served as Treasurer of the Women's’ Health Club and has been a Teaching Assistant for economics Professors Vladimir Kontorovich and Timothy Lambie-Hanson.

After graduation, Anna will be working as a land acquisition analyst for a home builder in Miami, Florida. Congratulations Anna!