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Our Research Assistants
(RAs) come from diverse academic and professional backgrounds.
Here are profiles of some current RAs.
Research Department | New England Public Policy Center | Supervision, Regulation and Credit
Charu Gupta is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Katharine Bradbury. Originally from Centerville, Ohio, she received an AB in economics and international relations from Brown University in 2007. Her current long-term project at the bank involves using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and various mobility measures to evaluate trends in U.S. family income mobility over the past four decades. She has also worked on research examining labor force participation and on projects related to the New England regional economy for policy meetings. Please feel free to contact Charu with any questions.
Benjamin Levinger is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Joanna Stavins. Hailing from St. Paul, Minnesota, Ben received a BA in economics-mathematics from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in May of 2007. His work at the Bank is mainly focused on consumer payment types. Ben is also involved with data collection for the Beige Book. Feel free to contact Ben with any questions.
Brendan Mackoff is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Robert Triest on topics in macroeconomic theory, labor, and public finance. After attending high school in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Brendan matriculated to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he received a BA in economics and a minor in computer science. Brendan has concurrently done research for projects ranging in topic from labor force participation rates to pension funds to the federal budget. In addition, he has drafted a memo on federal budget forecasting accuracy and prepared a sizable presentation titled “When the Boomers Retire…” on the retirement preparedness of Baby Boomers. Feel free to contact Brendan with any questions.
Ana Patricia Muñoz is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Yolanda Kodrzycki. Originally from Ecuador, she received a BS in economics from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. She spent two years working as an economic advisor for a congressman in the National Parliament of Ecuador. Ana Patricia has a master’s degree in economics with specialization in economics of development and international economics from the Université de Montréal and a master’s degree in public affairs from Brown University. During the past year Ana Patricia has been studying economic and labor force conditions in Springfield, Massachusetts. She has worked on projects related to commercial and residential real estate while participating in a wide range of policy work for pre-FOMC meetings. Please feel free to contact Ana Patricia with questions.
Carl Nadler is an RA to senior economists Mary Burke and Julian Jamison. Raised in Concord, Massachusetts, Carl began work at the bank in 2007 after graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in film/TV production and a double major in economics from the College of Arts and Sciences. He is currently investigating the spatial distribution of foreclosures in Massachusetts and adapting research on student peer effects for a policy discussion paper. He is also assisting in the data analysis of the Women's Income-Generating Support program in northern Uganda. Since joining the bank he has additionally performed research on changes in weight perception over time in the United States and assisted in the analysis of the differences in obesity rates across race and gender groups. Please feel free to contact Carl with any questions.
Aaron Pancost is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Michelle Barnes. Born and raised in the suburbs of Washington, DC, he graduated in 2008 with a BA in economics and a BS in mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park. His current project at the bank involves studying the impact of the current recession on financially constrained firms relative to its impact on other firms and relative to the impact on these firms of other recessions. He has also worked on projects ranging from the determinants of long-run inflation expectations to the use of the liquidity provisions recently enacted by the Federal Reserve. He occasionally works on policy memos and briefings. Please feel free to contact Aaron with any questions.
Jini Rao is an RA to economists Sergei Koulayev and Ali Ozdagli. Originally from India, she recently graduated with a BA in economics and a concentration in cross-cultural studies from Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Jini's research interests are in household economics, development economics, and public policy. Her favorite thing about working at the Boston Fed so far has been the opportunity to learn something new every day. Please feel free to contact Jini with any questions.
Puja Singhal is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Jane Sneddon Little and economist Federico Díez, working on topics related to international trade and macroeconomics. Originally from New Delhi, she graduated in 2008 with an AB in economics and a minor in mathematics from Smith College, where her studies focused on macroeconomics and population economics. At the Boston Fed, her work involves investigating developments in the international economy—particularly in European and emerging countries—projects connected to policy meetings, other long-term research, and the Beige Book. Please feel free to contact Puja with any questions.
Rachel Stern is an RA to senior vice president and economist Geoff Tootell. She graduated in 2007 with a BA in economics and a minor in mathematics from Bates College. Rachel’s research interests include macroeconomic policy, political economy, sustainable business, and urban economics. Her current work includes researching whether financial stability should be included as an independent argument in the Central Bank’s objective function, studying family consumption changes during recessions using Panel Study Income Dynamics data, and assisting in the preparation of memos for pre-FOMC meetings. She is also involved in greening the bank as a member of the Boston Fed’s Environmental Impact Committee. Her favorite thing about working at the Fed is interacting, learning, and occasionally playing Frisbee with an amazing group of people. Please feel free to contact Rachel with any questions.
Mike Zabek is an RA to economist Scott Schuh, the director of the Consumer Payments Research Center. Mike is originally from the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. He attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, graduating in 2008 with majors in mathematics and economics. Mike’s biggest projects have been two surveys examining the payments choices of U.S. consumers. After the release of the data to the public and the drafting of publications to describe the data, Mike looks forward to performing more detailed economic research to examine consumers’ day-to-day financial decisions. Please feel free to contact Mike with any questions.
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Robert Clifford is an RA at the Center
and conducts data analysis and research on economic
and policy issues. His research interests include public
finance, health policy, and development economics. Originally
from New Hampshire, Robert holds a Masters in economics
from the University of New Hampshire and a BA in economics
from Keene State College. Feel free to contact
Robert with any questions.
Nick Kraninger is an RA to the financial economists in the Quantitative Analysis Unit of the Supervision, Credit and Regulation Department. Originally from Wisconsin, Nick received a B.S. in economics and philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In the year that Nick has been at the Boston Fed, he has been involved in research on diverse topics. He has contributed to projects on welfare, credit access, the state of the housing market, financial modeling, and cancer survival. Currently, in addition to his other research responsibilities, Nick is co-authoring a paper on banking market structure with financial economist Ethan Cohen-Cole.
Jonathan Larson is an RA to the financial economists in the Quantitative Analysis Unit of the Supervision, Credit and Regulation Department. Hailing from Minnesota, Jonathan came to the Boston Fed after graduating with a BA in physics from Middlebury College in 2006. Jonathan chiefly focuses his research on bank supervision, specifically on understanding capital requirements for the Basel II Accords. He has also made contributions to a variety of other projects—from capital punishment deterrence to sophisticated modeling of operational loss data. He supports the economists’ research by designing simulations and performing statistical analyses on empirical data sets.
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