Professor Kajal Lahiri and Former Student Team Win 2026 NABE Mennis Award for Business Economics Research

The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) has named “Temporal Variation in the Breakeven Point of PMI and Their Forecasting Implications” the winner of the prestigious 2026 Edmund A. Mennis Contributed Paper Award.

The award-winning paper was co-authored by Distinguished Professor Kajal Lahiri, Ph.D. candidate Karan Bhasin, and Alexander Pechacek, who graduated from the department’s M.A. Forecasting program in 2024. Notably, the study originated from Pechacek’s master’s thesis, demonstrating how student research can evolve into nationally recognized scholarship through dedicated faculty mentorship and collaboration. The resulting paper examines the changing relationship between the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) and economic activity and explores the implications of those changes for economic forecasting.

The Edmund A. Mennis Contributed Paper Award honors outstanding original research in business economics. The accolade comes with a $1,000 cash prize, a commemorative plaque, and publication in an upcoming issue of NABE’s peer-reviewed journal, Business Economics.

The authors will present their research during a dedicated session at the 2026 NABE Annual Meeting, to be held October 11–13 in Cleveland, Ohio. The session featuring the winning paper is currently scheduled for October 11, and the authors will be recognized during the conference luncheon on October 12.