23 Graduate Students Win Support for Dissertation Research

The NBER annually supports a number of graduate students who are conducting dissertation research. Twenty-three students will receive support for the 2021–22 academic year.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provides support for five graduate students studying energy economics and three studying behavioral macroeconomics. The energy economics fellows are Sarah Armitage of Harvard University, who is studying technology transitions and the timing of environmental policy; Lauren Beatty of the University of Maryland, who is analyzing public policies that affect methane emissions from oil and gas production; Elise Breshears of Michigan State University, who is studying how redlining in mortgage markets affects the energy efficiency of the housing stock; Nafisa Lohawala of the University of Michigan, who is studying the effects of electric vehicle subsidies on vehicle demand; and Aspen Fryberger Underwood of Clemson University, who is analyzing the factors that affect the adoption and usage of electric vehicles.

The graduate fellows in behavioral macroeconomics are Miguel Acosta of Columbia University, whose dissertation examines the aggregate demand effects of monetary policy; Luisa Cefala of the University of California, Berkeley, who is studying the role of memory in the formation of beliefs and expectations; and Spencer Yongwook Kwon of Harvard, who is studying the macroeconomic implications of learning and information processing by behavioral agents.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, beginning with the 2021-22 academic year, provides support for graduate students studying issues related to gender in the economy. The inaugural cohort of fellows includes Nina Buchman of Stanford University, who is studying the determinants of spousal violence and abuse in Bangladesh; Valerie Michelman of the University of Chicago, who is examining how historical restrictions on the inclusion of women of childbearing potential in clinical trials in the United States affected the pace of development of new drugs targeting women; and Francesca Truffa and Ashley Wong of Northwestern University, who are jointly exploring the impact of female peers on economic and entrepreneurial outcomes in both developing and developed countries

The National Institute on Aging supports a Pre-Doctoral Program in Aging and Health Research that mentors fellows based at the NBER’s Cambridge office. The participants for the 2021–22 academic year are Kevin Connolly, Travis Donahoe, Pragya Kakani, Chika Okafor, and Anthony Yu of Harvard, Aileen Devlin and Anna Russo of MIT, and Sarah Robinson of the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Social Security Administration funds a graduate fellowship program in retirement and disability policy. The three fellows for the 2021–22 academic year are Jonathan Cohen and Martina Uccioli of MIT and Ari Ne’eman of Harvard.

Calls for fellowship applications are posted each fall at:
https://www.nber.org/career-resources/calls-fellowship-applications

Application closing dates are usually in early December. Anyone interested in receiving fellowship announcements can register at that webpage.