Understanding effects of early-life adversity on decision-making
Ming Hsu, Professor
Business, Haas School
Closed. This professor is continuing with Spring 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Fall 2024.
We are looking for 1-2 student trainees who are interested in understanding the effects of early-life adversity/stress on economic and financial decision-making. Despite the well-documented fact of the impact of early-life adversity on life-outcomes, researchers and policymakers know much less about the specific ways in which early-life adversity influences the type of behaviors (e.g., how much money to save? What type of career options to pursue?) leading to outcomes such as wealth acquisition and education attainment.
This project will seek to improve our understanding of these processes. Results from the study can have important implications for science and policies surrounding early-life experiences. Trainees will be jointly supervised by Prof. Ming Hsu and Prof. Ulrike Malmendier, and can expect extensive collaboration with other students throughout the week depending on the specific task involved.
The project requires that students have interest in learning and engaging with research in the following areas, as well as a good background in one or more:
- Stress: Both physiological and psychological aspects, and especially those occurring prior to adulthood.
- Systems neuroscience: Especially mechanisms underlying memory, affective, stress responses.
- Hormones and behavior
- Human behavior and economic decision-making
Role: The ideal applicant should be interested in interdisciplinary research, collaborative work, and be excited by challenges associated with scientific research.
The specific duties include:
- Conduct literature review: This will focus on linking what is known in the biological literature on stress with the economic literature on long-term effects of past experiences.
- Participate in experimental design and developing research hypotheses: Trainees will learn to apply measures and techniques from laboratory studies on memory and stress to economic research samples and longer-run studies.
- Assist in data collection and analysis: Trainees will assist in the construction of data sets, cleaning of data, as well as basic data analysis.
- Communication and meetings: There will be a weekly meeting where trainees will report to a team of faculty and graduate students.
Qualifications: Required: Must have extensive knowledge of stress/endocrinology. Please include in your application relevant coursework (such as one or more of the following) as well as other relevant research experiences.
- INTEGBI 137 Human Endocrinology
- INTEGBI 138 Comparative Endocrinology
- INTEGBI 139 The Neurobiology of Stress
- PSYCH C116 Hormones and Behavior
Desirable: Some background in human behavior/decision-making is desirable but not required. Please include in your application any relevant coursework (such as one or more of the following) as well as other relevant research experiences.
- PSYCH C115C Neuroethology
- ECON 101a Microeconomics (or ECON 100)
- ECON 141 or other relevant statistics courses
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the research work will be performed remotely.
Related website: http://neuroecon.berkeley.edu
Related website: https://behavioral.berkeley.edu