As an applied microeconomist, I develop models that utilize high-resolution spatiotemporal data. My current research focuses on productivity and efficiency analysis, applying econometric models to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by beginning farmers using restricted-access Agriculture Census data.

I am particularly interested in research that requires advanced analytical tools and methods to address these issues in both cross-sectional and intertemporal contexts. I enjoy collaborating with interdisciplinary teams and have experience working with remote sensing data, gridded production data, causal inference, and machine learning, in addition to traditional econometric analysis, modeling, and visualization.

Dissertation

My dissertation is organized around three themes. The first examines specific properties of social networks to locate opportunities to fund academic researchers strategically in order to facilitate research productivity and network connectedness. I developed an integrated econometric modeling and simulation method to examine the productive collaborations of researchers to predict publication output. Using collaboration as the unit of analysis, the analyses determine the expected number of publications, the likelihood that new researchers enter the network through a collaboration, or if an existing researcher will exit. I compare several funding strategies and assess whether network compactness or density contributes to overall topic advancement, in particular, if the most successful strategies exhibit the properties of a small-world network.
(Abstract)

The second dissertation paper centers on improving output of a biopower process. I was able to locate hourly data on electricity prices at gins for 12 years and develop a stochastic distribution of electricity prices month by month using Bayesian simulation methods. I conduct operations research to allocate variable gin trash volumes to jointly manage ginning and biopower together over a 9-month ginning season over 10,000 simulation years at different scales of power generation.
(Paper, Abstract)

The final paper examines the extent to which a persistent, racial property taxation gap exists in Atlanta, GA, even after city leadership shifted to minority control. I use high-resolution demographic and sales price data, downscaling geospatial mapping to appropriate scales, to locate neighborhood characteristics of a sale, as well as individual housing characteristics and those of adjacent neighbors. All of these had to be conformed to a uniform scale to provide highly detailed individual outcomes. This reversed a prior finding using much less detailed information that African Americans were under-taxed in Atlanta.
(Paper, Abstract)

Peer-Reviewed Publications

“A Problem with Distance Variables and Alternatives for Their Use” (with Michael Farmer, Kusum Naithani & Donald Lacombe). Journal of Real Estate Research, (1-23) DOI: 10.1080/08965803.2024.2325244 (Paper)

“Individual, Household, and Community Resilience and Coping Strategies to Conflict in Uganda and Malawi” (with James Muriuki & Darren Hudon). Agrekon, 63, (1-2). DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2024.2368128

“Spillover Effect of Violent Conflicts on Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa” (with James Muriuki, Darren Hudon, Donald Lacombe & Ray March). Food Policy, 115. DOI: 10.1177/10659129211020830

“The Impact of Conflict on Food Security: Evidence from Household Data in Ethiopia and Malawi” (with James Muriuki & Darren Hudson). Agriculture & Food Security, 12, 41. DOI: 10.1186/s40066-023-00447-z

Papers in Review

Who to Fund? Identifying Strategic Collaborations & Stimulative Policies for Dynamic Research Networks (with Michael C. Farmer)
Presented at AAEA 2023, SEA 2023, Arts and Humanities Conference 2022 & 2023, scheduled for AEA/ASSA 2024 (Poster)

Economic Opportunities of Bioelectricity from Cotton Gin Waste (with Michael C. Farmer)
(Paper, Presentation)

Racial Bias in Property Taxation in Atlanta: The Difficulty of Reversing a Legacy of Discrimination (with Michael C. Farmer)
Presented at Mid-Continent Regional Science Association Meeting 2023, scheduled for AEA/ASSA 2024 (Paper, Presentation)

Populists’ Playbook: Impact of Durable Right-Wing Populists on Democratic Quality

DACA Effect on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from U.S. Micro-Level Data (with Shakil Haider, Darren Hudson and Jamie Pavlik)

Does Crime Beget Crime? A Spatial Study of Crime in U.S. Counties (with Shakil Haider and Darren Hudson and Jamie Pavlik)

Working Papers

Comparative Effectiveness of Machine Learning Methods for Causal Inference (with Syed Badruddoza and Modhurima Amin) (In process of submission)
Presented at AAEA 2023 & 2022, and AEA/ASSA 2023 (Presentation, poster)

A Fully Endogenized Finite Mixture Modeling Approach to Submarket Delineation in Atlanta, GA (with Michael C. Farmer and Abidemi Adisa) (In prep)
Presented at Mid-Continent Regional Science Association Meeting 2023 (Presentation)

Determinants of the Presence, Density, and Popularity of U.S. Food Retailers (with Syed Badruddoza and Modhurima Amin) (In prep)
Presented at AAEA 2023 & 2022, and AEA/ASSA 2023 (Presentation, poster)

The Wretched Refuse? Sanctuary Policies and Crime in U.S. Counties (with Shakil Haider, Darren Hudson and Jamie Pavlik) (In process of submission)

Pre-Ph.D. Publications

Prior to my Ph.D., I worked in policy related to international development economics. My work involved collaborative and grant-specific research with multilateral organizations and international agencies including United Nations, Department for International Development (now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), British Academy, Overseas Development Institute, etc. Some of my selected works include:

Bhattacharya, D., Rahman, M.R., Fuad, Syed, M. (2019). How Coherent are Trade and Investment Policies of the Southern Finance Providers? A Case Study on Indo-Bangla Lines of Credit. New York: United Nations Development Program.
External link to paper

Nixon, H., Menocal, A. R., Bhattacharya, D., Fuad, Syed. M., Hassan, I., … & Yusuf, S. (2018). Local governance, decentralization and corruption in Bangladesh and Nigeria. London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
External link to paper, External link to country report