Last summer, Maksim Likho divided his time between studying advanced topics in math at the Summer Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics Accelerator held at the University of Chicago and writing a research paper on “The Economic Impact of the U.S. and U.N. Sanctions.” The senior was recently named one of four finalists to receive the Best Undergraduate Paper Award from the International Atlantic Economic Society (IAES) for his research.

“I had just returned to campus from the summer program when the IAES announced the results. I was thrilled to discover that my paper had been recognized,” said Likho, a Russian native, double majoring in economics and mathematics.

Economics professor Timothy Hamilton said that Likho is believed to be the first UR student to have his work recognized by the worldwide society.

A summary of his paper recently appeared in the Atlantic Economic Journal, and he presented his research at an online IAES conference in October. The organization honored him with a plaque.

 “I’ve known Max since he started here through the Business School Endeavor program. He’s always been a great student, but he mostly stands out because he is incredibly curious,” Hamilton said. “He asks great questions and is often one step ahead. The project was a great outlet for him to explore more.”

Hamilton’s Advanced Econometrics course in Fall 2023 provided Likho with the skills and tools necessary to conduct the research under the professor’s mentorship, which the student said was “invaluable.” Likho received funding through the Robins School of Business Research Fellowship and in early summer, he began his research, gathering data and performing regression, a statistical method used to analyze the relationship between two or more variables.

“Sanctions remain one of the key tools in international politics today, sparking debates across the spectrum about their effectiveness in achieving intended outcomes,” said Likho. “My aim was to approach this issue from an economic perspective, focusing on how sanctions influence the economic development of targeted countries.”

The findings aligned with his expectations that sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the U.N. effectively weaken the economic performance of those nations. He used real GDP growth as a key economic indicator and found that U.N. sanctions have a stronger effect compared to the U.S.-imposed sanctions, a drop in real GDP growth of 2.67 compared to 1.21 percentage points.

“What surprised me, however, was the inconclusive part of the results: the regression outcomes did not clearly show whether the effects of sanctions diminish, remain constant, or intensify over time. This opens a potential avenue for further research,” Likho said, something he plans to do.

But it’s not all about the numbers for Likho. He admits that outside of his major, Civic Journalism and Social Justice with professor Tom Mullen was his favorite class.

“It was my first class at Richmond, and it definitely helped me become more educated about social justice issues,” he said.

His extracurricular activities have ranged from hosting campus tours and working as a teaching assistant to singing at open mic nights and creating TikTok videos for the Office of Admission. As an international student assistant in that office, he’s conducted more than 175 interviews with prospective Spiders and led many informational sessions for high school students.