Majid M
- Research Program Mentor

PhD at Carnegie Mellon University

Expertise

Economics, Machine Learning

Bio

I love math and thus enjoy working on any research question that can be approached mathematically. However, as I got older, I tried to avoid abstract mathematical questions and work on those which can potentially make a difference in real life. That's why I am an economist now. I believe that mathematical knowledge combined with some programming skills are very useful in answering many economic questions of interest in our society. As a side note, I like to be intellectually challenged all the time and for that I play chess as much as I can.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Optimal Performance Criteria

When you hire somebody to do a job but you cannot observe the he effort put in, it is known in economic theory that you'd better pay the employee contingent on the job outcome so that the employee is incentivized to put effort into the job. What if the employee could choose the performance criteria based on which he would like to be paid? What is the best choice he can make?

Are Medicare and Medicaid optimal for social welfare?

While many economists agree that some people in the society need the government's help to get better medical services, not all agree on the best method to do so. We can use data on Medicare and Medicaid spending and some measured outcomes to evaluate these policies.

Coding skills

MatLab, R, Python

Languages I know

Persian

Teaching experience

I have been the teaching assistant for several courses for undergrads and graduate students both in Economics and Electrical and Computer Engineering. I have also been tutoring undergrads in these fields. Also, I have the experience of introducing graduate-level research to high-school students through a program at Carnegie Mellon University.