Welcome to my humble internet abode.
My Academic Life.
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I received my PhD in Economics from MIT in February 2012. I am also a proud alumna of UC Berkeley. In 2006, I received a BA in Applied Mathematics and a BS in Environmental Economics and Policy from Cal. My research interests are in the fields of Environmental Economics, Public Finance, and Behavioral Economics. All my working papers can be found in the "Research" section.
Highlights of Work in Progress.
Currently, I am working on a project assessing the potential of building codes to reduce the amount of ex-post disaster aid provided by the federal government. I also have two projects on the beauty premium with Olga Shurchkov. In one of them, we test for the beauty premium in undergraduate education. In another, we are able to separately measure appearance-related statistical discrimination, taste-based discrimination, and biased beliefs. Finally, I'm working with Barrett Kirwan on a project that attempts to identify and quantify "charity hazard", a type of moral hazard where the expectations of government aid reduces insurance coverage or increases risk-taking behavior.
About me.
I was born in Kiev, Ukraine, back when it was part of the USSR. At age 12, I came to California with my family and have been here ever since. In my spare time, I like to share my thoughts about the world on the Center for Business and Public Policy blog (for the big picture ideas) and in the blog section of my website (for all my other ideas).