Research in Behavioral Economics and Behavioral Finance
Ulrike Malmendier, Professor
Economics
Applications for Spring 2025 are closed for this project.
We are looking for highly motivated apprentices interested in behavioral economics or behavioral finance research for the 2025 spring 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: 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 project will leverage large administrative data from multiple data agencies. This upcoming semester, the URAP team will be involved in exploring and assembling relevant datasets for the project. They may also be asked to identify other data sets that can be linked to the main data. Students will also conduct exploratory data analysis and produce relevant summary statistics to verify integrity of datasets. Once data sets are cleaned and assembled, the URAP team will carry out preliminary data analyses with the goal of estimating causal impacts, leveraging quasi-experimental methods.
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: 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 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