Research Assistant Position

Hi, I’m Colette Brand, a senior majoring in Economics with a minor in Statistics. I work with Dr. Chen and Dr. Yu on a behavioral economics study. In this role, I assist with planning and preparing experiments, and conducting data collection and analysis. This research experience is broadening my understanding of the behavioral side of economics while also providing me with hands-on opportunities to strengthen my technical and analytical skills.

I am a sophomore majoring in Economics and History on the pre-law track. I work with Professor Marein, assisting him and Professor Nesson in creating a homicide record database for the twentieth century. This database is designed to analyze fluctuations in homicide rates throughout the century and to explore potential explanations for these trends.

I am a junior majoring in Economics and Mathematics. Since May 2025, I have been collaborating with Dr. Chen and Dr. Yu on an experiment designed to investigate the relationship between mindfulness and altruism. Although I am studying abroad in Venice, Italy, for the fall semester, I look forward to rejoining the team in January. Along with the other Research Assistant, I am responsible for drafting various aspects of our experiment procedures, such as treatment scripts, surveys, and literature reviews.

I’m Micaela, I’m a senior double majoring in Economics and Sociology with a Business in Society concentration. I’m currently working on a research team with Dr. Fabiola Alba-Vivar investigating whether international femicides influence human capital investment decisions among women in Latin America. This project is among the first of its kind, assessing the legal framework of femicides, and the causal social and economic consequences. My interests lie in development economics as a means of mitigating inequality, and I’m so excited to work alongside Dr. Alba-Vivar and this project’s talented research team!

My research primarily involves gathering, cleaning, and visualizing data for various research and teaching projects. Later in the term, the focus will shift to tasks related to a book project on creative destruction. I am working with Dr. John Dalton.

I’m a sophomore majoring in finance with a minor in philosophy. I work with Professor Curtis on research focused on green jobs—examining how they are defined, the skills they require, how they are created, their impact on the labor market, and their equity implications. Recently, our research has expanded to assess the quality of newly emerging green jobs, exploring their risk of automation, long-term sustainability, and whether they genuinely provide good opportunities for workers and the economy

My name is Minxing Liu, and you can also call me Mike. I am a senior student from Beijing, China, and I am currently majoring in economics and mathematics with a minor in statistics. Starting from the fall 2025 semester, I will work with Dr. Nesson on a project evaluating the fairness of fouls called in NCAA college men’s basketball games. My primary responsibility is to evaluate research papers and develop a Python program that compiles a dataset for college men’s basketball players with their associated fouls. This research experience is very rewarding to me, and I really enjoy working as a research assistant.

I am Nick Mauro, a senior majoring in Mathematical Economics with a minor in History. I work with Professors Lakdawala and Alba-Vivar on projects examining political outcomes in Peru related to COVID-19 mortality and higher education licensing. My contributions to these projects include designing Stata code to build and clean datasets, conduct regressions, and produce outputs such as LaTeX tables, time series graphs, and maps. My research interests include public, development, and labor economics, and I have valued the opportunity to continue strengthening my analytical and technical skills as a Research Assistant.

I am Jimmy, double majoring Economics and Mathematics with a minor in Statistics. I work as a RA for Dr. Nikolaishvili. Recently, I have been working on obtaining a large dataset of 8 relevant journals for a time series econometrics project. I also worked on gathering and cleaning data from US bank call reports for another project. It is a privilege to work with a professor whose research perfectly aligns with my interests. The valuable experience enhances my skills in building datasets.

My name is Zaina Singh, and I am a junior double-majoring in Finance and Economics. I am currently working with Professor Strumpf on research examining government subsidies in the U.S. film industry. In this role, I collect, clean, and organize data on filming locations, production dates, and production companies from multiple sources. This analysis helps reveal how incentive programs influence production decisions and shape local economic outcomes. The broader goal of our research is to evaluate the effectiveness of these subsidies and their impact on regional development and industry practices.

My name is Sasha Skinner, and I am a senior double-majoring in Mathematical Economics and Spanish. I have been working with Dr. Nesson for the past year researching the connection between the effects of the Acid Rain Program and bird populations. I have an interest in environmental economics and how policy changes affect populations. Through this research, I have become comfortable with using Stata and R for data analysis. I look forward to seeing the results of my future research and learning more during that process!

I am Mark, a junior majoring in Economics. I am currently working with Professor Koleman Strumpf on a project related to Networks, Advertisers, and their potential promotion effects. My role primarily involves cleaning, merging, and analyzing data to quantify and visualize outcomes with the help of R and Python. Working for Professor Strumpf has been an incredibly rewarding experience, providing me with valuable skills in data wrangling, coding in various languages, and gaining insights into research projects in Economics.

Hi! I am a junior majoring in Math Economics. I work with Dr. Marein on his Dominican immigration project, assisting in cleaning and analyzing historical immigration data. My work includes correcting arrival years, categorizing immigrant professions, documenting residency permit forms, and interpreting tax and classification information. This project has helped me develop skills in data management and analysis while contributing to research on immigration patterns and labor history.

Hi, I’m Ives Xue, a senior double majoring in Statistics and Economics. I’ve been working as a Research Assistant for Dr. Alex Yu, and my work is mainly processing environmental related data sets. Recently, I am working on projects related to EMS (Emergency Medical Services) data in New York City. My work includes developing alternative ways to classify disadvantaged communities using ACS demographic data, reconstructing EMS dispatch zones based on historical data, and analyzing how service patterns vary across zip codes—especially between DAC and non-DAC areas. I’ve also compared healthcare outcomes like emergency room costs and hospital stays, built web scrapers to collect hospital information, and supported the project with data cleaning, visualization, and LaTeX documentation. This experience has taught me how to work with real-world data, uncover patterns, and present findings clearly. I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this meaningful work.