Graduate Student News
Congrong Pan's Paper Published in Regional Science and Urban Economics
Congratulations to first year doctoral student, Congrong Pan, for having his paper, “Can Credit Collections on Traffic Violations Save Lives? Evidence from Chinese Vehicle Insurance Market” (joint work with Ying Liu, Lihua Qin, and Fangjie Zhang) published in Regional Science and Urban Economics.
Congratulations to Congrong!
Jafet Baca's Paper Published in IMF Economic Review
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Jafet Baca, for having his paper, "Wage Erosion with Incomplete Markets: A Quantitative Analysis of the Costs of Inflation" (joint work with Andrés Blanco and Andrés Drenik) published in IMF Economic Review.
Congratulations to Jafet!
Shabnam Shahrezaei's Paper Published in Cliometrica
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Shabnam Shahrezaei, for having her paper, "The Spatial Origins of Venture Capital: Human Capital and Financial Innovation in the Postwar United States," (joint work with Caroline Fohlin) published in Cliometrica.
Congratulations to Shabnam!
Zhihao Xu's Paper Published in the Journal of Economic Theory
Congratulations to first year doctoral student, Zhihao Xu, for having his paper, "Optimal Monetary Policy in Production Networks with Distortions," published in the Journal of Economic Theory.
Congratulations to Zhihao!
Rachel Clohan's Paper Published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Congratulations to fourth year doctoral candidate, Rachel Clohan, for having her paper, "State Minimum Wage and Food Insecurity among US Households with Children" published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Co-authors include Megan Winkler, Kelli Komro, and M. Doug Livingston, and Sara Markowitz. This work was funded by Healthy Eating Research (HER), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), under Award No. 81357 (PI: Winkler).
Congratulations to Rachel!
Rachel Clohan's Paper Published in JAMA Network Open
Congratulations to fourth year doctoral candidate, Rachel Clohan, for having her paper, "State Minimum Wage and Food Insecurity among US Households with Children" published in JAMA Network Open (Impact Factor 10.5). Co-authors include Megan Winkler, Kelli Komro, M. Doug Livingston, and Sara Markowitz. This work was supported by Healthy Eating Research (HER), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), under Award No. 81357 (PI: Winkler).
Congratulations to Rachel!
Jafet Baca Invited to Present Paper at 2027 ASSA Meetings
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Jafet Baca, who was invited to present his job market paper, "Grease or Sand in the Wheels? The Distributional Costs of Large Devaluations" at the American Economic Association's 2027 ASSA Annual Meetings in Washington. D.C., January 4, 2027.
Congratulations to Jafet!
Doctoral Students Invited to Present Papers at SEA 96th Annual Meeting
Congratulations to the following doctoral candidates who were invited to present their papers at the Southern Economic Association’s [SEA] 96th Annual Meeting in Houston, TX, November 21-23, 2026.
- Fifth-year doctoral candidate, Jafet Baca will present his paper, "Climate Policy and Sovereign Default Risk"
- Fifth-year doctoral candidate, Qianqian Tang will present her paper, "Inequality, Electric Vehicles, and Energy Transition"
Jafet Baca to Present Paper at the I-85 Macroeconomics Workshop
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Jafet Baca, who will present his paper, "Climate Policy and Sovereign Default Risk" at the I-85 Macroeconomics Workshop at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, October 30, 2026.
Congratulations to Jafet!
Zhihao Xu Presents Paper at the 2026 European Summer Meeting of the Econometrics Society (EEA-ESEM 2026)
Congratulations to first-year doctoral student, Zhihao Xu, who presented his paper, "The Network Origins of Inflation Stances in a Currency Union" at the 2026 European Summer Meeting of the Econometrics Society (EEA-ESEM 2026), in Dublin, Ireland, August 17-21, 2026.
Congratulations to Zhihao!
Benjamin Harrison Presents Paper at Two European Conferences: International Association for Applied Econometrics Conference and the 31st International Panel Data Conference
Congratulations to third-year doctoral student, Benjamin Harrison, who presented his paper, "The Multiway Mundlak Estimator in Unbalanced Panels" in a regular session at the 2026 Conference of the International Association for Applied Econometrics (IAAE Portugal 2026). The IAAE 2026 Conference was held at the Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE) located in Carcavelos, Portugal, June 23-25, 2026.
Benjamin also presented his paper at the 31st International Panel Data Conference (IPDC) hosted by the University of Exeter, U.K. on July 6-7, 2026.
Congratulations to Benjamin!
Jillian Wilkins Presents Paper at the Annual Conference of the American Society of Health Economists
Congratulations to third-year doctoral student, Jillian Wilkins, who presented her paper, “Hospital Responses to Provider Taxes” at the Annual Conference of the American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon), in Minneapolis, MN, June 7-10, 2026.
Congratulations to Jillian!
Two Economics Doctoral Students Present Papers at 2026 the North American Summer Meeting of the Econometrics Society (NASMES)
Congratulations to the following doctoral students for being selected to present their papers at the 2026 North American Summer Meeting of the Econometrics Society (NASMES) hosted by Emory University Department of Economics in Atlanta, GA, June 4-7, 2026.
- Fourth-year doctoral candidate, Marcelo Ortiz-Villavicencio, presenting his paper, "Better Understanding Triple Differences Estimators.”
- First-year doctoral student, Zhihao Xu, presenting his paper, "The Network Origins of Inflation Stances in a Currency Union."
Cristhian Rosales Castillo's Paper Accepted for Poster Session at 2026 SBIES NSF/CEME Conference
Congratulations to third-year doctoral student, Cristhian Rosales Castillo, whose paper, "Reinforcement Learning for Estimation of DSGE Models" has been accepted for a poster session at the 2026 NSF/CEME Seminar in Bayesian Inference in Econometrics and Statistics (SBIES). The conference took place at the University of Washington, Seattle, May 1–2, 2026.
Congratulations to Cristhian!
Benjamin Harrison Presents Paper at Camp Econometrics Workshop
Congratulations to third-year doctoral student, Benjamin Harrison, who presented his paper, “Multiway Mundlak Estimators for Unbalanced Panels,” (joint with David Jacho-Chavez, Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza, and Fernando Rios-Avila) at the Camp Econometrics Workshop in Lake Placid, NY, April 24–26, 2026,
Congratulations to Benjamin!
Justin Eloriaga Presents Paper at 2026 Mountain West Economic History Conference
Congratulations to fifth-year doctoral candidate, Justin Eloriaga, who presented his paper, “Breaking Gold’s Grip: Shocks and Monetary Transmission Before and After the Fed” (joint with Caroline Fohlin) at the 2026 Mountain West Economic History Conference at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, February 20-21, 2026.
Congratulations to Justin!
Mohammad Fidakar Awarded Halle Institute Graduate Global Fellowship
Congratulations to rising fourth-year doctoral candidate, Mohammad Fidakar, who was selected to receive the 2026 Halle Institute Graduate Global Fellowship. This fellowhip is a graduate research grant that will support his summer fieldwork in Colombia.
Rachel Clohan's Article Wins Award for Best Paper
Congratulations to 2026 doctoral program graduate, Rachel Clohan, on her article, "State Earned Income Tax Credit and Food Security: Results Among Economically At-Risk Households With Children," (joint with Sara Markowitz) for being selected as a winner for the 2025 IPUMS Research Awards in the category of published research using IPUMS CPS data.
Paper citation: Megan R. Winkler, Rachel Clohan, Kelli A. Komro, Melvin D. Livingston, Sara Markowitz. "State Earned Income Tax Credit and Food Security: Results Among Economically At-Risk Households With Children” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 69, Issue 1, July 2025, 107637
Mohammad Fidakar Wins Best Graduate Poster at the Student Research Fair
The Department of Economics hosted its annual Student Research Fair on April 23, 2026 and congratulates third year graduate student, Mohammad Fidakar, for winning Best Graduate Poster for his research regarding threshold criteria for return migration following forced displacement.
Graduate Students Recognized for Research and Teaching
The Department of Economics recognized the following graduate students at our awards banquet on April 6, 2026.
Economics Graduate Student Research Award of Excellence: Marcelo Ortiz-Villavicencio
This award was established to honor a graduate student who exemplifies superb research abilities and an eagerness to engage in scholarly activities.
The Jack and Lewis Greenhut Graduate Student Teaching Award: Jafet Baca
This award was established to honor a graduate student who exemplifies superb teaching abilities and demonstrates extraordinary dedication to teaching economics.
Congratulations to this year's Graduate Student award winners! Learn more about these annual departmental awards on our Doctoral Student Awards page.
Alessia Scudiero Awarded the LGS Teaching Fellowship for the 2026-27 Academic year
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Alessia Scudiero, who was awarded the Dean’s Teaching Fellowship (DTF) by the Laney Graduate School for the 2026-27 academic year.
The Dean’s Teaching Fellowships support students who demonstrate excellence in teaching and who will complete their doctoral degree in the fellowship year (Spring).
Economics Doctoral Student Selected for the 2025 Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society
Congratulations to third-year doctoral student, Michaela Philip, for being selected by the Laney Graduate School for induction into the 2025 Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at Emory University. Michaela has represented the Department of Economics as a LGS-EDGE* Ambassador since 2023. Out of many qualified applicants, her application stood out as an excellent match for a Society that recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes diversity and excellence in higher education and the professoriate. Michaela will attend the National Yale Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Induction Ceremony on April 4th in New Haven, CT, as part of the Annual Yale Bouchet Conference on Diversity and Graduate Education, April 4-5, 2025.
*EDGE: Emory Diversifying Graduate Education
Cristhian Rosales-Castillo Selected for IDB Summer Internship
Congratulations to fourth year doctoral student, Cristhian Rosales-Castillo, who will join the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group in Washington, D.C., for their 2026 Summer Internship Program. Serving as an Economic Research Intern, Cristhian will focus on deploying new data tools in the Caribbean.
Alessia Scudiero Selected for Internship at Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Alessia Scudiero, for being selected for a summer internship at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta where she is working on her job market paper “Fiscal Self-Financing Over the Business Cycle”.
Joel Reyes Accepted to Bocconi-StatML Summer School in Advanced Statistics and Probability
Congratulations to third year doctoral student, Joel Reyes, who was accepted into the Bocconi-StatML Summer School in Advanced Statistics and Probability will take place from July 8 to 17, 2026, at Villa del Grumello, on Lake Como. The topic of the 2026 edition is “Causality and Graphical Models” and the main instructor is Aad van der Vaart (TU Delft).
Joaquin Barrutia Attends 5th ACES Political Economy Summer School and 2026 Data-Intensive Research Conference Workshop
Congratulations to third year doctoral student, Joaquín Barrutia, who attended the 5th ACES Political Economy Summer School in Kathmandu, Nepal, August 12-14, 2026.
Joaquín also attended the 2026 Data-Intensive Research Conference Workshop organized by IPUMS and NDIRA at the University of Minnesota, July 20-21, 2026.
Atta Domson Accepted to Econometric Society Summer School in Dynamic Structural Econometrics
Congratulations to third year doctoral student, Atta Domson, who was accepted into the Econometric Society Summer School in Dynamic Structural Econometrics, at the University of Michigan, August 3-8, 2026.
The DSE summer school equips early and mid-stage PhD students with tools for formulating, solving, and estimating dynamic structural econometric models, with a focus on applications in corporate finance, personal finance, and banking.
Qianqian Tang to Attend JIE Summer School in International Economics
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Qianqian Tang, for being selected to attend the Journal of International Economics (JIE) 4th Summer School in International Economics, organized by Bocconi University Department of Economics in collaboration with the Research Centers BAFFI and IGIER in Milan, Italy, July 6-8, 2026.
Shabnam Shahrezaei Selected for IMF Summer Internship
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Shabnam Shahrezaei, for being selected for a summer internship with the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. Taking a leading role in shaping her research project, Shabnam will apply her specific expertise in quantitative macroeconomic modeling of household behavior and public policy.
Sarah Smyly to Attend Wage Determination Summer School Course at BSE Barcelona
Congratulations to third-year doctoral student, Sarah Smyly, for being accepted to attend the Wage Determination Summer School Course at the Barcelona School of Economics, Barcelona, Spain, June 29-July 3, 2026.
Justin Eloriaga Appointed Associate Editor of the DLSU Business and Economic Review
Congratulations to doctoral candidate, Justin Eloriaga, for being appointed Associate Editor of the De La Salle University DLSU Business and Economic Review, a high ranking journal in the Philippines in the field of both business and economics.
Atta Domson Selected for the Ethics and Servant Leadership (EASL) Forum
Congratulations to second-year doctoral student, Atta Domson, for being selected to be among a cohort of about 16 students selected from across Emory University to participate in the 2025-2026 Academic Year Ethics and Servant Leadership (EASL) Forum organized by the Center for Ethics at Emory University.
The EASL Forum is a weekly, interdisciplinary forum focused on service, community building, and leadership development. The Forum consists of a group of students who learn and serve together over the course of 22 weeks from September to April. The shared journey focuses on four areas: integrity, personal growth, bridge building, and community engagement.
Rachel McGhee Attends Causal Inference Summer School in Bertinoro, Italy
Congratulations to third-year doctoral student, Rachel McGhee, who attended in the Causal Inference in Program Evaluation: Methods and Applications Summer School in Bertinoro, Italy, July 21-26, 2025.
Jafet Baca Attends 3rd Summer School in International Economics in Munich, Germany
Congratulations to fourth-year doctoral student, Jafet Baca, who attended the 3rd Summer School in International Economics hosted by CESifo and the Journal of International Economics in Munich, Germany, July 16 -18, 2025.
Niall Peat Attends Econometric Society Summer School in Dynamic Structural Econometrics 2025
Congratulations to third-year doctoral student, Niall Peat, who attended the Econometric Society Summer School in Dynamic Structural Econometrics 2025 at University College London, June 30 - July 6, 2025.
Michelle Tao Attends PhD Summer School on Finance and Product Markets at USI Lugano
Congratulations to fourth-year doctoral student, Michelle Tao, who attended the PhD Summer School on Finance and Product Markets at USI Lugano, Switzerland, June 30 - July 4, 2025.