Research Opportunities Fall 2019
Registration for Fall RA positions is now closed. Positions for the Spring Semester will be posted beginning in mid January (updated Nov 19, 2019)
The following faculty members and PhD students are looking for research assistants this semester. All of these positions are for credit. Students registered for GU4996 will receive either 1 or 2 college credits and be charged for 1 – 2 credits (relevant only to students who pay by the credit). To participate in a faculty research project at no cost, GS students have the option of registering for GU4995 for 1 credit for which they will not be billed. In both cases, students will receive a letter grade on their transcript indicating that they worked as an RA. However, in the case of GU 4995, the 1 credit may not be used to fulfill the minimum credit limit of a Columbia degree. Research positions typically entail 5-7 hours of work per week. Research credit may not be used as a substitute for elective or seminar requirements in the major.
If interested in a position, please contact the researcher directly at the email address provided. If you are selected as the RA then contact me at se5@columbia.edu. Be sure to cc the person you will be working with on your email to me.
When contacting the researcher regarding a position, you should include a copy of your Columbia transcript (unofficial is ok) and a CV/resume. Additional opportunities will be posted as they arise. Check the wiki page regularly for the latest ads.
Louise Guillouet lg2905@columbia.edu
Food and culture
I am working on two projects: one is about the effect of Whole Foods on low-income population and the other is about (Western) fast-food in developing countries.
I would like someone who is detail-oriented as I’m looking for some precise qualitative answers for a few questions and someone who’s curious about these topics. Ideally knowledgeable about Stata or python.
Sandra Baquie sb3759@columbia.edu
Environment, Health and Development
Various projects are available from agricultural yields and remote sensing in Africa to health national issues (US and Africa) to conflits’ consequences (Africa). Tasks range from data cleaning, editing, GIS, making maps, potentially remote sensing. Better if experienced with Stata or at least willingness to learn. Willingness to learn or knowledge of Arcmap.
Yi Jie Gwee (PhD student) y.gwee@columbia.edu
Understanding land use regulations in the UK
I am currently working on a project that examines the effect of land use regulations in the UK. This position would be a good fit for someone who is enthused by the opportunity to construct new data sets.
Careful data entry skills are needed as the RA will be asked to read UK planning documents and transcribe some of these information into a data set. In addition, the RA would need to be comfortable with cleaning data sets and have working knowledge of Excel as well as Google Maps.
Cameron LaPoint (PhD Candidate) cameron.lapoint@columbia.edu
Corporate Borrowing and Land Values in the 1980s Japanese Asset Price Bubble
Seeking an RA with Japanese language skills to assist with a project examining the link between property values and firm investment behavior during the 1980s real estate bubble in Japan. The goal of this project is to determine whether corporations relocate their production in response to large swings in real estate prices in locations where they currently operate.
Applicants should anticipate devoting an average of 5-7 hours per week to the project, with flexible scheduling. The main tasks involve creating a new dataset by reading financial disclosure documents and recording corporate balance sheet information and branch office locations. Proficiency in reading Japanese is required, and some basic knowledge of Excel is preferred. If interested, please reach out with a brief note explaining your Japanese language skills and any relevant research experience.
Kyle Coombs (PhD student) kgc2127@columbia.edu
School changes after a religious scandal
The project assesses how families move students between schools after (1) learning negative information about a school or a (2) a school closes. The specific mechanism for negative information is any reports of child abuse in the Catholic church. I will utilize a 2SLS approach to back out how enrollment in public schools and other private schools changed. The hope is to see the preferences of parents for school types when their first choice is either unavailable or no longer desirable. Then I hope to figure out how this affects school budget decisions.
RA will collect datasets from all school districts on student-level enrollment data. Similarly, the RA will collect information on priests whereabouts from the database of bishop-accountability.org. I will ask them to clean said data and get into basic data table formats for analysis.
Bhargav Gopal (PhD student) b.gopal@columbia.edu
The effects of non-compete policy on labor market outcomes
I’m a third year economics PhD student, and I’m looking to collaborate with a student looking to gain experience in building a project from the ground level. I’m currently working on a project investigating the effects of non-compete clauses on worker mobility, productivity, and wages. It has been argued that Silicon Valley’s growth has partly been driven by California courts failing to enforce non-compete clauses, and I’d like to investigate if the data backs up this claim.
One of your responsibilities would be to assist in building a comprehensive database that tracks the enforcement of non-compete agreements in the US since 1990. In addition, you will be reading relevant published literature pertaining to labor economics topics, and summarizing the main results. Finally, we will also be collecting and analyzing wage data by state, so statistical programming skills (preferably in R) are very useful. If the project interests you, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at b.gopal@columbia.edu!
Anastasia Burya (PhD student) ab4533@columbia.edu
Bitcoin Bubbles
Sometimes bubbles can be triggered voluntary and, while this is strictly prohibited for other assets, it is still possible for bitcoins. In this project we want to track such bubbles and determine the factors that influence their characteristics. We will want RA to compile the dataset.
Naman Garg (PhD student) ng2646@columbia.edu
Effect of Ethnic Violence on Residential Segregation
Project aims to estimate the effect of ethnic violence on residential segregation in India. Major task needed is to construct a measure of spatial segregation within cities using data from electoral rolls.
Main task will be Data Collection and Cleaning. Some literature review might also be needed at times. Proficiency in Stata and/or R is desirable.
Arpita Saluja (PhD student) as4943@columbia.edu
Polling booth locations and voter turnout
The project looks at the impact of unexpected changes in polling booth locations on voter turnout in India.
Python coding to clean data, web scraping, digitizing pdf records.
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The following positions have been filled (updated Oct. 25). Please do NOT apply to any of the positions below.
Daniel Deibler (PhD student) Position Closed
What’s in a Name? The Effect of Changing Definitions of “Employer” on Worker Outcomes
Independent Contractors have fewer rights than employees, but whether workers can be used as contractors is affected by changes in law. This project examines the effect of changing legal definitions of who is an “employee” on workers’ unionization, wages, and employment. We use opinion text to determine the judges on a panel, the direction of the case, and the set of workers affected. We then exploit the fact that judges are randomly assigned to cases to get random variation in case law.
RAs would be responsible for reading opinions, classifying whether workers were declared “employees” or “contractors”, and determining the occupation affected. RAs may also be asked to perform basic data analysis tasks using R or STATA – previous knowledge is preferred but not required.
Tam Mai (PhD student) Position Closed
Peer Effects: Evidence from China
This project aims to estimate the effects of peer characteristics on young students’ academic achievement, behavior, and social attitudes. The setting is primary and middle schools in the city of Jilin, China. Identification of the peer effects comes from a recent policy that mandates random assignment of students into different classes within each school. The project involves collecting primary data about students and parents through surveys.
1. Handle survey responses in Chinese (Chinese native speaker preferred)
2. Work with data in Stata, e.g., clean data, make simple tables, and perform basic analysis
3. Document the various parts of the project (data collection, survey design, communication with Columbia’s Institutional Review Board, paper drafts) by writing “read me” files and reorganizing subfolders within the project’s parent folder
Reka Juhasz (Professor) Position Closed
1. All aboard: The aggregate effects of port development
This project examines how the location of economic activity has changed across space as a result of of the introduction of containerization in the 1960s.
The RA will assist in collecting, cleaning and analyzing data on the land-intensity of ports throughout the period of interest.
2. The Long Run Productivity Effects of Technology Adoption: Evidence from France
This project examines two well-documented puzzles in the literature: The surprisingly slow adoption of many revolutionary technologies and their relatively modest effect on aggregate productivity. We examine these questions within the context of the First Industrial Revolution in France.
The RA will help find and summarize relevant literature on mechanization in France. High proficiency in French required.
Belinda Archibong (Professor, Barnard) Position Closed
1. Air Pollution, Climate Change and Human Capital Outcomes
Examining the impacts of air pollution and climate change on human capital outcomes.
Familiarity with Excel is needed. Familiarity with R or Stata is needed. Familiarity with GIS (ArcGIS or R) is preferred. The project requires careful data entry and cleaning skills and the ability to do basic exploratory data and statistical analysis.
2. Constructing Capital in the Twentieth Century: Prisons and Labor Coercion in British Colonial West Africa
Using historical datasets to examine the impacts of labor demand shocks on labor coercion and the structure of the labor market.
Familiarity with Excel is needed. Familiarity with R or Stata is needed. Familiarity with GIS (ArcGIS or R) is preferred. The project requires careful data entry and cleaning skills and the ability to do basic exploratory data and statistical analysis.
Haaris Mateen (PhD student) Position Closed
1. Impact of Sinclair Broadcast Group on Broadcast and Print Media
Project investigates the fascinating interplay between changes in broadcast media – in terms of slant and content – and the corresponding response that print media makes when serving the same market.
This project looks to conduct text analysis so prior experience with Python would be good. In addition, knowledge of Stata or R helps. Basic knowledge of econometrics would be a plus. Most importantly, I look for a sense of curiosity in the candidate for exploring new stuff in political economy + media economics + machine learning.
2. IPOs and Housing
The project studies the impact of new enterprises on housing prices using granular neighborhood data and a unique dataset containing housing transactions. We are trying to understand how expectations of prices change during such episodes and how they drive actions by agents which may or may not be rational.
STATA skills are needed as a prerequisite although some basic knowledge is sufficient to learn more as you go along. We will teach you how to use GIS software as well, if needed. Some literature survey help may also be required.
3. Interconnectedness and Contagion in International Finance
This is a macro project that aims to use new granular data to understand the interconnectedness and contagion between different countries. It is an excellent opportunity for anyone who is interested in capital flows, international accounting, and network contagion.
1) Replication of existing work to understand reliability of new datasets requires STATA experience.
2) If project proceeds at intended pace, some knowledge of Matlab to solve models will also be needed.
Silvio Ravaioli (PhD student) Position Closed
Choice over sources of information
Information collection is an important stage of the decision process. Final decisions are effected by implicit and explicit costs required to collect useful information. When information seeking is an active process, it can suffer from different biases. We explore choice over sources of information and how these biases are influenced by the choice context.
The RA will run simulations about how different agents would collect information and act in different scenarios, and analyze experimental data about choice over sources of information. Applicants with programming skills (preferably Matlab or Python) and interest in behavioral economics will receive priority.
Ye Zhang (PhD student) Position Closed
Entrepreneurship, venture capital and local economy
There are multiple projects ongoing related to entrepreneurship, venture capital and how it affects the local economy. These projects involve a wide range of skills, from data cleaning, survey construction, coding using STATA, python or R, data analysis and algorithms design. If you are interested in this topic or have any related background, welcome to contact me at yz2865@columbia and we can schedule a brief meeting to discuss more details.
It is not required that you need to have all the skills listed below. We will offer training to you if needed. The only requirement is that you are interested in the topic and are responsible for the task assigned. We will only assign one or two tasks to you, using one of the following skills listed below: 1) coding using Python, R or STATA 2) familiar with Javascript or HTML 3) good communication skills with investors or entrepreneurs 4) data analysis 5) data cleaning and literature review Being creative and reliable is a huge plus. Considering the limited quota we have to offer credits, it is strongly recommended to contact me as early as possible. if you want credits for your RA work.
Qingmin Liu (Professor) Position Closed
Proofreading and literature review
(1) proofreading research articles (2) reviewing literature on topics related to game theory
Intermediate Micro (some knowledge of latex based typewriting programs is preferred)
Nathaniel Mark (PhD student) Position Closed
Increasing Access to Healthcare
I study healthcare policy and industrial organization. This research evaluates which policies are most effective at increasing access to healthcare in the US and Canada.
I am looking for a student who is interested in health economics and health policy. The student would help with literature reviews, policy research, institutional research, data collection, and data cleaning. I would prefer a student who has some research experience (not necessarily in economics) and is familiar with R and LaTeX. However, programming skills are not requisite — motivation is more important. Preferred Job Skills: 1. Ability to use common academic databases and properly organize annotated bibliographies. 2. Ability to communicate with government agencies to attain information via phone and email. 3. Familiarity with or willingness to learn R and/or LaTeX.
Jeffrey Shrader (Professor, SIPA) Position Closed
Institutional constraints to climate adaptation
The degree to which economic agents can adapt to reduce damages from changing environmental conditions is important for predicting the future effects of climate change. Previous work has shown that firms in some settings are highly effective at adapting to a changing climate. Little is known, however, about the extent to which this result generalizes to other settings. This project will estimate adaptation potential in multiple settings and explore potential limits to adaptation using data on firms subject to a variety of different institutional and physical environments.
The RA will be responsible for cleaning and processing data on climactic conditions, climate forecasts, and firm-level production. The RA will use the data to analyze the effects of institutional constraints on adaptation. The analysis will involve quasi-experimental techniques including propensity score matching and regression discontinuity. The analysis can be conducted in Stata or R depending on RA preference. Knowledge of Spanish is a plus.
Maggie Shi (PhD student) Position Closed
Relationship between judge workload and decision making
Over 9 million individuals receive disability benefits in the United States. Individuals must apply for and be deemed eligible in order to receive these benefits. This project studies the decision making of administrative law judges (ALJs), who decide on disability benefit eligibility for individuals who are initially denied. There is considerable unexplained variation in allowance rates across ALJs. At the same time there is an increasing backlog of hearings. The objective of this project is to consider whether an ALJ’s workload affects his or her decision making.
I am looking for an RA to assist in data collection, exploratory data analysis, and policy analysis.
Miguel Acosta (PhD student) Position Closed
The Regressive Nature of the U.S. Tariff Code: Origins and Implications
This project involves historical analysis of US tariff policy, in an effort to understand the origins of a regressive pattern that exists in modern day tariffs: tariffs are higher on lower-end versions of the same good. The pattern appears to have existed for a long time, and may have arisen because of structure of how tariffs have been negotiated, with powerful countries that produce higher-end goods granting each other tariff reductions. Further analysis of historical data is needed to understand the origin of the pattern, however.
The work involves cleaning and analyzing previously unstudied tariffs going back to the 1930s. Some prior programming experience is preferred but not necessary—we can work together to develop the programming skills needed.
Serena Ng (Professor) Position Closed
To assist in several projects joined with Professor Jushan Bai.
The work will involve doing literature search, collecting data for analysis in Matlab and R, preparing tables and figures in LaTeX.
