Ph.D., Economics
Eric Koepcke is an Economics PhD candidate at UC Berkeley and a Graduate Research Fellow at the National Science Foundation. His research focuses on understanding self-control and savings issues, using insights gained to develop tools and promote policies that strengthen Americans' financial health. Eric holds a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and previously worked at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Ph.D., Economics
Lyubich is a PhD student in the Economics Department and a Graduate Student Researcher at the Energy Institute at Haas. Her research examines the relationship between inequality, local public goods, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Ph.D., Economics
Hadar Avivi is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at UC Berkeley. Her main research interests are in labor economics and applied econometrics. Specifically, she is working on questions related to gender discrimination, and the effect of childhood location on long-run outcomes.
Project Title: Location Choice and Heterogenous Location Effects
Ph.D., Economics
Harrison Wheeler is a PhD student in Economics. With support from the Opportunity Lab and the Smith Richardson Foundation, he and his research partner Patrick Kennedy are studying the impacts of "Opportunity Zones" created through the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In particular, they are looking into how the targeted tax incentives created through this program have affected local investment, employment, housing prices, and demographics in areas designated as underserved.
Ph.D., Economics
Haegele is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on inequality in modern labor markets. For her dissertation, she has collected a novel dataset of personnel records from a large multinational company to study gender diversity. By combining insights from labor economics with data science tools, she aims to identify policies that can alleviate bottlenecks in women’s career trajectories.
Ph.D., Economics
Manelici is a PhD student in Economics. With support from the Opportunity Lab and the Smith Richardson Foundation, she and her research partner Jose Vasquez are studying the effects of incentive policies designed to attract large multi-national corporations. In their current project, Isabela and Jose are looking into how these kinds of incentives are affecting firm productivity, employment rates, and economic activity in Costa Rica.
Ph.D., Public Policy
Jessica is a PhD candidate in Public Policy. Her research focuses on leveraging insights from behavioral science and using experimental methods to improve social programs and policies.
Ph.D., Economics
Joan Martinez is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at UC Berkeley. Her research interests are at the intersection of labor, education, and applied econometrics. Her project work studies how teachers' gender bias affects adulthood outcomes, such as college attendance, career choices, employment, and wages. She uses panel information from Peruvian students in the Public School system nationwide, university enrollment information, and matched employer-employee records.
Photo Credit: Elizabeth D. Herman
Ph.D., Economics
Holmes is a PhD candidate in economics at UC Berkeley. His research interests lie in examining the causes and consequences of high premiums for health insurance in the United States, and how the cost of employer-sponsored health insurance affects hiring practices.
Ph.D., Economics
Vasquez is a PhD student in Economics. With support from the Opportunity Lab and the Smith Richardson Foundation, he and his research partner Isabela Manelici are studying the effects of incentive policies designed to attract large multi-national corporations. In their current project, Isabela and Jose are looking into how these kinds of incentives are affecting firm productivity, employment rates, and economic activity in Costa Rica.
Ph.D., Public Policy
Danesh is a PhD student in Economics. With support from the Opportunity Lab and the Smith Richardson Foundation, he is studying the effects of federal policies targeted at "Medically Underserved Areas." In particular, he will be examining how incentives to attract doctors and changes to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates have affected the supply of physicians in these areas, spending on healthcare, and the health outcomes of individuals living in these areas.
Ph.D., Economics
Nick is a PhD student in the Economics department at UC Berkeley. His current research focuses on the impact of local labor demand shocks (i.e. large job losses) on the outcomes of children growing up in affected regions, and what kind of policy response achieves desired outcomes.
Ph.D., Economics
Kennedy is a PhD student in Economics at UC Berkeley, a Graduate Research Fellow at the National Science Foundation, and a Research Fellow with the California Policy Lab. He received his BA from Stanford University, and has worked at the Federal Reserve Board and Treasury Department in Washington, DC and at Columbia University in New York City. His research interests focus on the intersection of labor economics, public finance, and economic geography.
Ph.D., Economics
Rocha is a PhD student in the Economics department. Prior to coming to Berkeley, he obtained his master degree at PUC-Rio and a bachelor's degree from University of São Paulo. His research lies at the intersection of labor and development economics, in particular how firms shape labor markets in developing countries.
Photo by Hagit Caspi
Ph.D., Economics
Zarate is a PhD student in Economics. With support from the Opportunity Lab and the Smith Richardson Foundation, he is studying the relationship between public transit investments, commuting times, and labor power in Mexico City.
Ph.D., Economics
Sreeraahul Kancherla is a Ph.D. candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Economics and a Graduate Research Fellow at the National Science Foundation, with broad interests in public and labor economics. In his research, he explores various ways that the US tax and transfer system impacts labor markets.
Ph.D., Economics
Hinrichsen is a UC Berkeley PhD candidate interested in labor, education and health topics. She is currently working on the evaluation of an admission reform to universities and a major reform in terms of access and quality of the health system in Chile.
Ph.D., Economics
Zachary Bleemer is a labor economist and PhD candidate in economics at UC Berkeley. His research examines the long-run labor market and economic mobility consequences of young Americans' educational decisions using 'big' administrative data and transparent quasi-experimental research designs. Zachary is also a Research Associate at UC Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education.
