Research in Behavioral Economics and Behavioral Finance
Ulrike Malmendier, Professor
Economics
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
We are looking for highly motivated apprentices interested in behavioral economics or behavioral finance research for the 2025 fall semester. You will find below the list of open projects.
Expectations:
- Undergraduates will be required to complete assignments weekly. They will also be required to fill out weekly reports detailing the work they completed for the week and their next to-dos.
- Undergraduates will be required to attend a weekly 1-hour meeting with members of their project team to discuss the finer details of the project and organize weekly work tasks. Students should come to the meeting prepared to present updates. Project leads will provide guidance and, together with students, decide next steps. While Prof. Malmendier will be aware of discussions during these meetings, undergraduates should not expect her to be in attendance.
- Undergraduates will also be required to attend a weekly 30-minute meeting with members of all project teams and Prof. Malmendier when available. Each week, one project team will present big-picture updates on their work and receive feedback to help drive the project forward.
- Undergraduates must have a self-motivated, can-do attitude. They should also have excellent communication and organization skills.
Interested students should write, in 400 words or less, a statement of interest and qualifications. Please state/rank which projects you would like to work on in your application. Qualified applicants will then be given a short data collection task and interview at a later date.
List of Projects:
PROJECT 1 - Title: Employment and Mental Health in Kenya
In this project, we are interested in better understanding the role of mental health in the job market and workplace. Do mental health conditions, particularly anxiety and depression, present barriers to effective job search and performance? How? And if so, what type of intervention could alleviate these issues? We will investigate these questions by studying the labor market behavior of young jobseekers facing mental health issues in Nairobi, Kenya. For the semester, we need undergraduates who can:
- Assist in preparation for an upcoming randomized control trial (RCT), including but not limited to literature reviews, data collection/assembly, and software programming.
- Clean and analyze preliminary data from a pilot version of the RCT.
This project is suitable for students also interested in labor, development, and/or experimental economics. Key skills required include data cleaning and programming skills in R or Python. Experience with STATA, Latex, and Qualtrics/SurveyCTO is also preferred but not required.
PROJECT 2 - Title: Gender Differences in Non-Promotable Tasks: Clinical Note-Taking and Patient Outcomes
In this project, we study how men and women use Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and what this means for patient care and physician careers. Do women spend more time on non-promotable tasks like editing notes? Does richer documentation change next-day care? Does it affect publications, grants, or pay? We will investigate these questions using detailed EMR audit logs from a large teaching hospital. We will also compare patterns across specialties, training levels, and shift times to see when and why any gaps emerge. For the semester, undergraduates will:
- Clean and merge EMR/audit logs with external sources.
- Replicate and extend OLS and IV/Wald models; produce tables/figures on hourly patterns and outcomes.
- Run robustness checks and write short memos interpreting results.
Key skills required include careful data processing in Python/R (SQL a plus), experience with causal inference, and strong attention to detail; familiarity with health-care data is helpful but not required. The project is suitable for students with an interest in health and labor economics in addition to behavioral economics.
PROJECT 3 - Title: Seemingly Anchored Inflation Expectations
In this project, we are interested in better understanding why long-run inflation expectations often appear “anchored” (i.e., staying near a benchmark such as a 2% target and showing little movement when new information arrives). Are five-year expectations truly anchored, or do people overweight their own lifetime inflation experiences? How does recent inflation shape expectations across age groups? And if expectations look stable to “news” (i.e., information such as recent inflation releases, policy announcements, or forecast updates that respondents are exposed to), would repeated inflation waves still shift them? We will investigate these questions by extending experience-based learning models to post-COVID data and five-year horizons, combining survey microdata with inflation series, and running simulations of alternative inflation paths. For the semester, undergraduates will:
- Assemble and clean survey microdata (e.g., Michigan Survey) and inflation series; build cohort-level panels.
- Implement experience-based learning estimators and compute news-sensitivity measures for short- and long-run expectations.
- Conduct literature reviews and draft write-ups about results.
Preferred, but not necessary, skills are time-series/econometrics. Proficiency in R or Python (Stata optional) is strongly preferred. Familiarity with monetary economics is a plus. This project is suited to students who have an interest in macro and macro-finance.
PROJECT 4 - Title: The Experience Effects Book
Professor Malmendier’s upcoming book combines all the insights she has gained through her extensive research on “experience effects” in economics. Experience effects refer to the ways in which our past experiences affect our economic and financial decision-making. For this project, we need undergraduates who can:
- Brainstorm and identify modern and historical examples of experience effects.
- Conduct literature reviews on evidence from a variety of fields (economics, sociology, and psychology) as well as non-academic articles (news articles/videos, non-fiction books, etc.).
- Outline and write passages discussing experience effects using the collected research evidence.
- Read over Prof. Malmendier’s drafts for the book, suggesting areas for improvement in research quality, clarity/brevity, and general flow.
This project is primarily suitable for students who enjoy reading and creative writing. Key skills include creative thinking with respect to research, experience with literature reviews on academic and non-academic articles, creative writing skills, and a good grasp of the revision process.
Qualifications: Required:
- Excellent grades overall, but especially in relevant courses for our projects (see next).
- Experience with coursework in micro/macroeconomics and econometrics (i.e. ECON 100A/101A, ECON 100B/101B, ECON 140/141, or an equivalent course in each field).
- Basic knowledge in conducting data analysis in R, Python, and/or STATA.
- Excellent work ethic, attention to detail, and strong intellectual curiosity.
Preferred:
- Experience in coursework in statistics, data science, and/or data management courses (e.g. DATA C100, DATA C102, STAT 135, STAT 151A, and STAT 156).
- High proficiency in a programming language, including those not listed above. Other languages we prefer working knowledge of include Julia, MATLAB, Qualtrics, and SurveyCTO.
- Experience working with data and handling research tasks, especially in economics.
- Students interested in graduate school in economics, finance, or a related field are especially encouraged to apply.
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Social Sciences