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Hendrix College will host the fourth-annual Meta-Analysis of Economics Research Network Colloquium, an international economics seminar, Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 at its Conway campus. 

More than 30 international researchers are expected to attend.

An introductory public lecture, "International Transfers and Economic Growth," will be given by Dr. Chris Doucouliagos of Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, on Thursday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Lecture Room A of the Mills Center for Social Sciences.

"Meta-analysis is the statistical analysis of previously reported empirical research," explained Dr. Tom Stanley, the Bill and Connie Bowen Odyssey Professor of Economics and Business at Hendrix and Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. "It seeks to summarize and explain the disparate empirical findings routinely reported in nearly any area of economics. Meta-analysis provides the statistical methods that can sort through the mountains of empirical research in a systematic and rigorous manner, uncovering the central empirical realities and policy implications."  

Meta-analytic techniques have been applied for decades in health and medical research, and meta-analyses of economic policy have increased exponentially over the past 20 years, Stanley said.

Dr. Stanley received a $40,000 grant from the United Kingdom's Department for International Development's (DFID) to host the 2011 MAER-Net Colloquium at the University of Cambridge and present a meta-analysis workshop at the DFID's London offices.

For further information and to view the entire program, visit http://www.hendrix.edu/maer-network.