Research in Empirical Industrial Organization
FACULTY SUPERVISOR(S):
Kosuke Uetake and Soheil Ghili
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The pre-doctoral fellow will be supervised by Yale SOM professors Kosuke Uetake and Soheil Ghili. The fellow will work with unique datasets and on challenging and impactful projects.
One potential project examines innovation and competition in the U.S. craft brewery industry. We aim to understand the development of consumer demand for a new category, the introduction of new products, and the incentives for mergers and acquisitions using dynamic equilibrium models. Another potential project studies the WIC program in the U.S., which supports infants from low-income households by providing rebates for formula. We are interested in how manufacturers compete in the WIC procurement auctions and their implications on consumers.
Another potential project will empirically examine optimal contract design in the U.S. health insurance market to ensure protection of consumers. A third project will study market design in an online job-posting platform where employers bid for workers to fill part time roles. The research question is how to balance between (i) awarding the highest-bidder employers with the matches in order to maximize short-term revenue, and (ii) keeping less strong bidders who more often lose still interested in the platform in order to maintain market thickness for the long run.
REQUISITE SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS:
The ideal candidate will have a strong background in programming languages such as R, Matlab, or python. A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in economics, mathematics, statistics, or computer science is preferred. Work experience in economic consulting would be a plus (but not a requirement). Ideally, the candidate is looking to apply (upon the completion of the pre-doc period) to doctoral programs in economics or related fields. The ideal candidate is passionate about analyzing data and implementing models that would help uncover the economic insights hidden in the data.
SPECIAL APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:
Please email soheil.ghili@yale.edu and kosuke.uetake@yale.edu. Include your CV and the name of at least one reference.