RESEARCH AT IOB
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E2C: What readings would you suggest to have an in-depth understanding on the method?
First of all, I can recommend the papers by Alberto Abadie and his collaborators, who pioneered and further developed the SCM. The paper by Nauro Campos et al.( 2014) provides a nice illustration of the method, applying it to estimate the economic growth benefits for countries that have joined the European Union. A simple Google( Scholar) search returns many more interesting papers using synthetic controls. Of course I’ ll be glad to also share the working paper based on my own research with Exchange2Change, once it is ready!
Links to articles / readings( publicly available)
• Abadie, A., and Gardeazabal, J.( 2003). The economic costs of conflict: A case study of the Basque Country. American Economic Review, 93( 1), 113-132. http:// economics. mit. edu / files / 11870
• Abadie, A., Diamond, A., and Hainmueller, J.( 2010). Synthetic control methods for comparative case studies: Estimating the effect of California ' s tobacco control program. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 105( 490), 493-505. http:// economics. mit. edu / files / 11859
• Abadie, A., Diamond, A., and Hainmueller, J.( 2015). Comparative politics and the synthetic control method. American Journal of Political Science, 59( 2), 495-510. http:// economics. mit. edu / files / 11858
• Campos, N. F., Coricelli, F., and Moretti, L.( 2014). Economic growth and political integration: Estimating the benefits from membership in the European Union using the synthetic counterfactuals method. IZA Discussion Paper, No. 8162. http:// anon-ftp. iza. org / dp8162. pdf
• If you are interested in using the synthetic control methodology yourself, the Stata, R and MATLAB codes and a short video are available from: http:// web. stanford. edu /~ jhain / synthpage. html.
Factual information
• Year in which you finished your PhD: September 2015
• Title of your PhD: Essays on developing country vulnerability to external shocks in light of the Great Recession
• Current / previous / favorite teaching duty / duties:‘ Research Methods II, Unit 1: Working with Data’, which I enjoy teaching because it is a very practical, hands-on course; previously I also taught‘ Research Methods I: Introduction to Quantitative Data Analysis’
• Other ongoing / future research activities: My ongoing research covers quite a broad range. Among other things it looks at commercial public debt in Sub-Saharan Africa( both international and domestic bonds) and gender gaps in firm productivity in Ethiopia. I also plan to do more research on IMFrelated issues in the future.
• Leisure activities: I love travelling and I am a huge fan of exotic food. My all-time favorite sport is snowboarding. A few months ago I started a fitness class based on English boxing, which is great to work off those extra pounds!
Exchange to change January 2017