The Pepperdine Economic Forum (PEF) is an undergraduate-focused initiative designed to create a sustained intellectual community around economics, public policy, markets, institutions, and the ideas that support free and flourishing societies. The program gives students opportunities to move beyond the classroom by conducting research, engaging directly with scholars and policy professionals, and developing the confidence to discuss important economic and social questions with seriousness and intellectual openness.

At the center of the Forum are two complementary forms of engagement: the Brown Bag Research Forum and the Guest Speaker Series. Together, they connect student research and faculty mentorship with broader intellectual exchange. Students are encouraged not simply to attend events, but to ask questions, test arguments, receive feedback, and develop their own ideas.

Through these activities, the Forum supports Pepperdine’s mission of preparing students for lives of purpose, service, and leadership. It seeks to equip students with the intellectual tools to think independently, participate constructively in disagreement, communicate their ideas clearly, and connect their academic work to the economic and institutional challenges facing free and just societies.