Ben B
- Research Program Mentor
MA candidate at University of Pennsylvania (UPenn)
Expertise
Math, Economics, Microeconomics, Antitrust, Social Sciences, Law, Finance, Strategy
Bio
I was born in Brooklyn, NY, and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston where I attended a large public high school. My education continued in college at the University of Pennsylvania where I studied economics and American history and won a national championship in crew. My favorite course as an undergraduate student at Penn was industrial organization, the application of industrial organization is antitrust. After graduating from Penn, I followed my passion for industrial organization into economic consulting in antitrust where I conducted research for economists from Stanford, Berkeley, and Princeton. I love to do antitrust research. I am currently a graduate student at Penn in an interdisciplinary research program where I am focusing on antitrust, a combination of economics and law. Before graduate school, I took advanced math courses at UC Berkeley to prepare for the graduate economics courses. In my spare time, I enjoy attending dance and music performances and reading history.Project ideas
Antitrust Economics Project: NCAA-pay student athletes
Should college athletes be paid? If yes, how much? After losing 4 antitrust cases in the last 3 years, the NCAA has proposed giving college athletes a 20% cut of intercollegiate sports revenue. In 2023 that revenue reached $1.3 billion. 20% would be $260 million, is that a fair amount? In step 1 of the research project, I will guide the student through preliminary research where we will discover both the theoretical economic background for evaluating whether college athletes should be paid, and if so, how much, and academic papers setting the landscape for the student’s research. In step 2, I will help the student develop a research question they are passionate about answering and identify appropriate methodology to conduct original research and analysis. In step 3, the student will conduct original research and analysis. I will give feedback on the student’s work. And finally, in step 4 the student will write a paper discussing their findings. I will mentor the student and give guidance on the paper.