Research on US Housing & Transportation Policy
Faculty Supervisor:
Project and Position Description:
This is a full-time pre-doctoral fellow position under the supervision of Cody Cook in the Department of Economics. The hired pre-doctoral fellow will support empirical research projects studying housing & transportation policy in the US. Potential topics include:
-- The design of mechanisms that governments use to ration their limited supply of subsidized housing units for lower-income households
-- The impacts of place-based government subsidies on local economic conditions, incumbent and new residents, and the long-run outcomes for children growing up in the neighborhood.
-- The design of congestion pricing policies for managing traffic in congested cities
Generally, the hired pre-doctoral fellow will divide their time equally between two main projects and will be involved in all stages of the research process. Specific tasks may include conducting literature reviews, data collection, statistical exploration of new data, cleaning and linking large datasets, and model estimation. The pre-doctoral fellow will also gain experience working with a number of unique datasets, including restricted-access data from the US Census and IRS. The hired pre-doctoral fellow will meet regularly with me and coauthors to discuss progress. Collaboration with other pre-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and faculty at Yale and other institutions will be an important component of the job.
Requisite Skills and Qualifications:
A background in economics is a plus but not required; candidates with strong technical skills who are interested in learning more about economics are encouraged to apply. Successful applicants typically have Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees with substantial coursework in economics, math, and/or computer science.
Most of the projects involve combining and analyzing large datasets (>100 mil observations). Experience with programming languages such as Python, Julia, R, and SQL—especially for working with large datasets—is a big plus.
Priority will be given to applicants who are eligible for Special Sworn Status (SSS), which is a requirement for working with restricted-access government data. To be eligible to apply for SSS, researchers must be a US citizen or foreign national with three of the past five years of residency in the US.