Hi, I am Bahar, a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics

― My background

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Howard University in Washington D.C. My research areas are Health Economics, Public Policy, and Urban Economics. In my job market paper, I worked on the impact of Medicaid expansion on the health well-being of Social Security beneficiaries using econometrics techniques such as difference-in-difference (link to the paper).

Prior to my Ph.D., I worked as an economic consultant and data analyst for companies in the private sector.

― Skills

Panel Data Econometrics

Casual Inference

Time Series

Applied Statistics

― Education
― Research Experience
Howard University

Ph.D., Economics / 2018 - 2023 (expected)

Azad University, Science and Research Branch

Master’s degree, Agriculture and Resource Economics / 2010 - 2012

― Professional experience
Environmental Economist

Aria Co. / 2012 - 2013

Data Analyst

Bureau of Statistical Centre / 2011 - 2012

Azad University

Bachelor’s degree, Agriculture and Resource Economics / 2005 - 2010

Research Assistant

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Financial Security (CFS) / 2021 - present

Graduate Research Assistant

Howard University / 2018 - present

Internship

Parsian Bank / 2011

Graduate Research Assistant

Azad University, Science and Research Branch / 2010 - 2012

The impact of payday loan use on the financial well-being of OASDI and SSI beneficiaries: +200,000 data points were aggregated and merged from publicly available sources including the Current Population Survey (CPS), Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) (between 2009-2017) for further analysis in STATA using Probit Regression. (link to the paper)

The effect of Alternative Financial Services (AFS) on the health condition of the borrowers in the United States: A panel dataset containing 22,213 sample households was created using the CPS-ASEC data. The analysis was conducted in STATA using Probit Regression to find the demography characteristics such as race, health condition, and sex of the lower-income population who use payday loans, pawnshops, rent-to-own, etc.

Analyzing the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the housing market in the United States: Analyzed proprietary data provided by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C. to understand the effect of the pandemic (between 2020-2021) on the market. The analysis was done in R.

Analyzing law enforcement behavior using data from the Department of Justice (DOJ): This study was aimed at civilian oversight to improve the relationship between civilians and police. Data from 3 major metropolitan areas in the United States were cleaned, compiled, and analyzed in both SPSS and STATA.

Study of main factors in developing and improving the acceptability of overhead irrigation using the Logit model.

Utilizing PMP (Positive Mathematical Programming) method and Maximum Entropy to study the effects of water supply shortage.

― Teaching experience
Principles of Economics I (Course Instructor)

Howard University / 2022

Mathematics for Economists (Teaching Assistant)

Howard University / 2021

Macroeconomic Theory (Teaching Assistant)

Azad University, Science and Research Branch / 2012

Applied Econometrics I (Teaching Assistant)

Azad University, Science and Research Branch / 2011

Mathematical Economics I (Teaching Assistant)

Azad University / 2008

Food and Agricultural Marketing Principles (Teaching Assistant)

Azad University / 2009

Selected Awards

Travel Grant for the 2023 AEA Annual Meeting, Howard University Economics Department Alumni Association (2022)

Travel Grant for the 2022 APDU Annual Conference, Association of Public Data Users (2022)

Recipient of the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021)

Selected for the 2021 Junior Scholar Intensive Training (JSIT), Center of Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021)

Recipient of the Hawthorne Dissertation Research Fellowship, Howard University (2021)

Recipient of the Junior Scholar Intensive Training (JSIT) Research Competition, Center of Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021)

Recipient of the American Economic Association Summer Program Fellowship, American Economic Association (2021)

Recipient of the Ernest E. Just-Percy L. Julian Fellowship, Howard University (2020)

References:

― Omari Swinton, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics and Chair, Howard University

Email: oswinton@howard.edu

― Haydar Kurban, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics, Howard University

Director, Center on Race and Wealth

Email: hkurban@howard.edu

Assistant Professor of Economics, Howard University

Email: amirhossein.aminibe@howard.edu

― Amirhossein Amini, Ph.D

Let's talk