Opportunity Details

Details about the opportunity you selected and the mentor are shown below. It is your responsibility to contact the mentor to discuss collaborating with them this summer. If your mentor invites you to submit an application, you can access that from the front page of this site. Upon completion of the application, it will be sent to the mentor for approval before being passed on to the Summer Scholar Selection Committee, which will make the decisions.

Faculty Information

David Garman

david.garman@tufts.edu

Assoc Professor

P: (617) 627-2683

F: (617) 627-3917

Address:

317 Braker Hall
8 Upper Campus Rd

Medford, MA 02155

Affiliated Institutions:

Arts and Sciences

Associated Departments:

Economics

Opportunity:

New Models of College Application and Choice

Summary:

Economic models of college attendance and choice have typically treated individuals as rational decision makers who maximize expected utility. These models ignore important work on the psychology of decision making and the influence of social forces on individual decisions. This expanded view of individual decision making has been incorporated into economics under the heading of behavioral economics. While many economic models have been reformulated using ideas from behavioral economics, there has been little work on reformulating the models related to college choices. This project will focus on developing and estimating new models of one or two of these choices (such as the choice to attend college or the choice of college to attend.) One applicant has already expressed a strong interest in this topic.

Contact Via:

E-mail

What is the timeframe for this research opportunity?

Throughout the summer of 2009.

Prerequisities for students?

Student who has taken intermediate microeconomic theory and econometrics.

Responsibilities for students?

Review research literature; develop and estimate new econometric models of college choice.

Area(s) of Research:

Economics of Education

Applied Econometrics

Behavioral Economics