I earned my B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2015. While at UChicago, I explored topics in industrial organization and constrained optimization methodologies. I spent a summer working at Lustick Consulting, where I studied political science theory and developed agent-based models to predict the likelihood of domestic political crises in various countries. I also worked at Maximus Capital Partners, where I developed valuation models. In my spare time, I enjoy playing soccer and poker, discovering new music, and running.
Current Projects
I am currently working with Professor Sharique Hasan on analyzing the effects of bureaucratic competency and experience on economic prosperity and violence levels in Indian districts and with Professor Victoria Vanasco on exploring the effect of bank learning on lender-borrower relationships and firms’ access to credit.
Shui Hu
Fields of Interest:
Finance
I received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford University, where I also minored in math. As an undergraduate, I focused on artificial intelligence and worked on research in machine learning and deep learning. After earning my master’s degree, I became a software engineer at Palantir and Twitter, where I was a member of the Ads team. As a Research Fellow, I am most interested in questions relating to empirical finance.
Current Projects
My current projects are causal effect estimation using machine learning methods with Professor Guido Imbens and sequential price competition with unknown demand functions with Professor Yonatan Gur.
Zanele Munyikwa
Fields of Interest:
Econometric Methods, Organizational Behavior, Development Economics
I attended Duke University as a Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholar and graduated in 2015 with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Global Health. Throughout my undergraduate career, my academic interests revolved around leveraging data-driven methods to better understand and improve the way complex social systems operate, a field broadly known as computational social science. Over the past four years I’ve pursued this interest in a variety of ways. In summer 2014, as a part of the Consumer Digital Technology Team at Nike, I developed software for tracking and visualizing personal fitness data. Most recently, I pursued this passion through a senior thesis exploring statistical methods for modeling compositionality in natural language. My current research interests have evolved from that project and are focused on computational models of systems such as language, social networks, and government aid distribution.
Current Projects
Currently I am working with Professor Aruna Ranganathan to analyze the effect of RFID monitoring technologies on labor productivity in a factory setting, and with Professor Susan Athey on developing methods and analyzing data about user consumption of news.
Gurpal S. Sran
Fields of Interest:
Finance, Political Economy, Development Economics
Born and raised in New Jersey, I graduated in 2015 from Rutgers University with majors in Economics and Biomathematics. While at Rutgers, I worked as a research assistant on projects in historical economics and finance with Professor Eugene N. White, and I also spent a summer as a public finance investment banking analyst in New York. As a senior, I was named a Henry Rutgers Scholar for my honors thesis on the role of information diffusion in identifying the failure of 19th-century French banks. Over my four years as an undergraduate student, I also took the opportunity to be a contributing member in the Sikh Student Association, the March of Dimes Collegiate Council, and the Fed Challenge.
Current Projects
With Professor Saumitra Jha (Political Economy), I am working on a project studying the relationship between exposure to financial markets and political reform. The contexts for this study range from the Meiji period in Japan to the current Israeli-Palestinian political sphere. With Professor Peter Koudijs (Finance), I am contributing to a project that investigates the impact of bankers’ liability protections on bank risk-taking in 19th-century New England.
Catherine Wright
Fields of Interest:
Development, Health Economics, Econometrics
I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2011 with a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business. The following year, I worked as a research assistant for Professor Ted Miguel at UC Berkeley as well as for the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), an economic development research center comparable to the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT. I then spent two years working at the economic consulting firm Analysis Group, where I gained valuable coding skills and made sure to enjoy the perks of the private sector before returning to academia at Stanford. Currently, I’m most interested in exploring questions related to health care quality and access in the developing world, but I am enjoying working in other research areas during my second year as a Research Fellow.
Current Projects
My projects as a Stanford GSB Research Fellow have been very diverse. With Professor Rebecca Diamond, I am exploring the supply and demand forces which lead poorer households to purchase less nutritious food than wealthier households, as well as working on a separate project examining cost trends in basic services over the past 20 years. I am also working on a project with Professor Josh Rauh that investigates the behavioral response of individuals to changes in marginal tax rates.
Placement: Stanford GSB PhD Program (Political Economy)
2015
"While in the Research Fellows program, I developed technical skills and clarified my research interests, which has helped me smoothly adjust to the rigors of a doctoral program. The GSB is a special intellectual community; every day, I came to campus curious and excited for the challenges of my work."
