Research in Behavioral Economics and Behavioral Finance
Ulrike Malmendier, Professor
Economics
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
We are looking for highly motivated apprentices interested in behavioral economics or behavioral finance research for the 2024 Fall semester. You will find below the list of projects open for URAP positions. PLEASE state/rank which projects you would like to work on in your application.
Expectations:
- Attend one 1-hour meeting per week only with members of their project team. These meetings will be an opportunity to discuss the smaller details of a project with the project lead.
- Attend one 30-minute meeting per week with all members of Prof. Malmendier’s team. Each week, one project team will present their work and receive feedback from other members to help move the project forward.
- Fill out weekly reports detailing the work they completed for the week as well as their to-dos for the next one.
- Have a self-motivated, can-do attitude and excellent communication and organization skills.
Interested students should write, in 400 words or less, a statement of interest and qualifications. Qualified applicants will then be given a short data collection task and interview at a later date.
List of Projects:
PROJECT 1 - Title: Understanding the impact of different types of trauma on human capital, economic outcomes, and antisocial behavior
This early-stage project combines insights from neuroscience and biology with behavioral economics in order to study the effects of stressors and adverse experiences (e.g., maltreatment, exposure to violence, terrorism and natural disasters, etc.) on an array of medium and long term outcomes such as human capital formation, employment, earnings, financial decisions, family formation, mental health, and antisocial behavior. We are interested in understanding sources of heterogeneity in the impacts of trauma along dimensions such as age, gender, race, as well as whether different traumas lead to differential effects and paths of resilience. The project builds on the psychology literature evaluating the impact of mental health on economic outcomes, as well as on research on “experience effects.”
- The first phase of this work will be dedicated to laying the foundation of the research project. The URAP team will work closely with principal investigators to create a comprehensive mapping of relevant research, data, and institutional details necessary to achieve valid identification strategies for one of two papers that may emerge from the exploratory efforts.
- The second phase will see the URAP team being involved in data assembly, data cleaning, and statistical analysis, most featuring large and complex data sets.
The URAPs will be an integral part of a fast-paced and dynamic research environment and learn frontier econometric techniques including machine learning for causal inference. Experience in data science (e.g, Econ 148, Data 102), data management, causal analysis, as well as understanding impact evaluation methods (e.g., Econ 143 or Econ 174) are a requirement for this project.
PROJECT 2 - Title: Longevity and Occupational Choice
In this project, we examine the relationship between occupational choices and life expectancy using administrative vital records. This project aims to uncover a new dimension of inequality above beyond disparities induced by income, race, or gender. For this project, we need undergraduates who can:
- Analyze extensive obituary data to extract relevant occupational and employer information.
- Clean additional vital records data, including education, death codes, and bad habit indicators.
- Hand-collect specific data points, such as information on twins.
Key required skills include a good grasp in data processing and programming (in Python) and attention to detail. Please refer to these slides for more information on the project: https://conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f205161.slides.pdf
PROJECT 3 - 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