Mentor Areas
Public Finance, Corporate Finance, Public Economics, Industrial Organization, Capital Markets, Taxation
Description:
Cities, towns, counties, school districts, water districts, and other local public entities in the US are responsible for most infrastructure investment today. In order to finance much of this investment, they borrow over $400 billion per year in public capital markets by issuing municipal bonds. This is also the market where most climate adaption among US cities is being financed, so it's functioning and health are important to study.
This project seeks to understand newly emerging phenomenon and issues in the public finance markets in the US and abroad. We are currently looking into the phenomenon of issuing "green bonds" in the US, where funds are earmarked for use either in climate adaption or green house gas emission reduction. We are trying to understand (1) who issues such bonds and why and (2) what such market innovations do to the allocation of public investment and assets.
I'm happy to work with undergraduates broadly interested in public debt and investment in public infrastructure, especially if we can create data products that are useful across more than one project.
Preferred Qualifications
I am primarily interested in working with undergraduates who have an interest in a social science research career. Publishing research in finance and economics is extremely slow and projects often span several years, so I am primarily interested in working with students who want to build up some level of expertise in public finance/quantitative social science methods as the startup costs are high.
I don't have specific requirements for existing knowledge, but students should have:
- Interest in learning how to work with statistical packages/languages including python, Stata, and R.
- Comfort with quantitative problems (calculus and linear algebra at a minimum).
- Clear written communication.
Project Website
Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here. https://danggarrett.com/
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring, Summer
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.