Hi, I am a PhD candidate in the Columbia University Economics department. I am interested in applying insights from behavioral economics in various microeconomic contexts, including labor, health, and crime economics. I am on the job market for the 2023-2024 Academic Year.
Judicial discretion allows judges to make nuanced decisions, taking into account details of legal cases that are not directly covered by law. However, judicial discretion can also expose behavioral biases and lead to decision-making based on criteria that are not germane to the legal process. I test for the existence of a particular behavioral bias: age-based left-digit bias. Specifically, I use a regression discontinuity design to test for changes in sentencing decisions occurring on an offenders 20th birthday using data on sentencing decisions from the state of Pennsylvania. I find that an offender sentenced just after his/her 20th birthday is 3.5 percentage points more likely to be sentenced to incarceration than an offender sentenced just before his/her 20th birthday. I test for evidence of conscious mechanisms underlying this effect and find no such evidence, leaving a simple unconscious bias as the best available explanation.
“Racially-charged Events, Stress, and Birth Outcomes” Working Paper (Link)
“Informing or Signaling? Analyzing the Language of US Congresspersons in the Aftermath of Mass Shootings” In Progress
“The Impact of Paid Leave: Evidence from Temporary Disability Insurance in Rhode Island,” with Ian Chin, Eric Chyn and Justine Hastings. NBER Working Paper . (Link)
“The Impact of Disability Insurance: Evidence from Rhode Island,” with Ian Chin, Eric Chyn and Justine Hastings. Working Paper.
“Leveraging Machine Learning for Optimal Policy: Evidence from Reemployment Services,” with Ian Chin, Eric Chyn and Justine Hastings. Working Paper.
Direct Interaction Advertising and Its Effects: A Study of reddit’s Ask Me Anything,” Undergraduate Project.
Fall 2022 – ECON W1105: Principles of Economics (Undergraduate), Columbia University, TA for Professor Miguel Urquiola
Spring 2020 & 2022 – ECON W4840: Behavioral Economics (Undergraduate), Columbia University, TA for Professor Mark Dean
Fall 2021 – ECON G5211: Microeconomic Analysis I (Graduate), Columbia University, TA for Professor Wouter Vergote
Spring 2021 – ECON W4860: Behavioral Finance (Undergraduate), Columbia University, TA for Professor Harrison Hong
Fall 2019 & 2020 – ECON W3211: Intermediate Microeconomics (Undergraduate), Columbia University, TA for Professor Anna Caterina Musatti
