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