Lena Song is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at New York University. Her research examines the effect of technological change and innovation on firm performance, consumer welfare, and inequality. Her dissertation studies the emergence of Black-focused radio stations and discrimination in the media market in the United States. She received her B.Math. from the University of Waterloo, her B.B.A. from Wilfrid Laurier University, and her M.Phil. from the University of Oxford.
Expert Type: Grantee
Pedro Juarros
Pedro Juarros is an economist at the International Monetary Fund. He received is Ph.D. in economics from Georgetown University. His research focuses on the impact of the firm size distribution and firms’ borrowing constraints on the transmission mechanism of fiscal stimulus in the United States. He also studies the heterogeneous impact of social spending on output across developed and developing countries, and how local fiscal stimulus can boost innovation across cities in the United States. He is most interested in both the short-run and long-run effects of aggregate demand shocks on economic activity. Juarros earned his B.A. in economics from Universidad Nacional de La Plata and his M.A. in economics from Universidad de San Andrés in Argentina. Before beginning doctoral studies at Georgetown, he worked as a research assistant in the Research Department of the World Bank.
Daniel Valderrama
Daniel Valderrama is an economist consultant at the World Bank. He was previously a junior professional associate in the Poverty Global Practice at the World Bank. His research interests are focused on the intersection of political economy and public economics. Valderrama holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Georgetown University, as well as a Master of economics from the Universidad del Rosario and a Bachelor of economics from the Universidad de Antioquia.
Janet Xu
Janet Xu is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Inequality in America Initiative. She earned her Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University, where she was also affiliated with the Office of Population Research. Her research interests include economic sociology and organizations, race/ethnicity, inequality, and public opinion.
Derek Wu
Derek Wu is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. His research interests lie in labor and public economics, focusing on poverty and inequality, the effects of government programs, and the economics of education. His current research assesses how administrative burdens affect the take-up and targeting of welfare programs, as well as the short- and long-run effects of welfare cuts on economic well-being. Prior to graduate school, Wu worked at Ithaka S+R and the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and he has served as a member of the Maryland State Board of Education. He received a B.A. in public and international affairs from Princeton University.
Glen Kwende
Glen Kwende is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at American University. His research interests are in macroeconomics, labor economics, and development economics. Kwende’s dissertation focuses on labor search and matching models, investigating the microfoundations for wage rigidity in these models. His research also looks at workers’ bargaining power in these models, providing a pathway to estimating a time series of bargaining power in the United States in the context of these models. He earned his B.S. degrees in finance and economics and a M.S. in economics at the University of Wyoming.
Jonathan Garita
Jonathan Garita is a research economist at the Central Bank of Costa Rica and lecturer at the University of Costa Rica. His research interests lie in the intersection between macroeconomics, labor, and industrial organization. His recent work investigates the effect of minimum wage policies on firms. Garita completed his BSc. in economics from the University of Costa Rica, and his MSc. and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin.
Michele Cadigan
Michele Cadigan is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Washington. Cadigan’s work brings together theoretical frameworks from economic sociology, law and society, and criminal justice research to understand the complex relationship between markets and the criminal justice system, paying particular attention to how these relationships both shape and are shaped by race and ethnicity. Her current work, “Cannabis-infused dreams: A market at the crossroads of criminal and conventional,” draws on both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to understand how racial equity is constructed in legalized recreational cannabis markets. Specifically, she takes an in-depth look into state-sanctioned recreational cannabis markets in three U.S. cities to examine how different approaches to racial equity transform market spaces and market actors’ experiences to either reinforce or disrupt economic inequality. She received her M.A. in sociology from the University of Washington and her B.S. in sociology and Chicanx and Latinx studies from California State University, Long Beach.
Joanna Venator
Joanna Venator is an assistant professor at Boston College. She earned her Ph.D. in economics at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on how gender and family structure interact with human capital formation and labor market outcomes. Venator’s dissertation focuses on how married couples make decisions about where to work and live, the gender differences in post-move labor market outcomes, and the role that social welfare programs, such as Unemployment Insurance, play in dual-earner households’ migration decisions. In addition to her work on dual-earner migration, Venator has published papers exploring the impacts of pollution on educational outcomes, the effects of abortion clinic closures on fertility outcomes, and gender differences in college major choice. She is a graduate student affiliate of UW-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty, the Center for Demography and Ecology, and the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity. She earned her B.A. in economics and psychology from Swarthmore College.
Geoffrey Schnorr
Geoffrey Schnorr is a postdoctoral scholar in economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of California, Davis in September 2021. His primary research areas are empirical public finance and labor economics, where he studies safety net and social insurance programs. His work aims to understand the complex effects of social program design on recipient behavior, improve the implementation of these programs, and help program recipients avoid or escape poverty. Schnorr also studies topics in health economics, with a focus on health behaviors. He earned his M.A. in economics from Hunter College, City University of New York, and his B.S. in healthcare management and policy at Georgetown University.