What I learnt from a Nobel Prize winner?

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to set up a one-on-one #Plakshanomics interaction with Professor David Card, winner of the #NobelPrize in #Economics in 2021. The event started with Prof. Rudra Pratap , the Vice Chancellor of Plaksha University, welcoming Dave Card. Our discussion was divided into four categories –– Student Research, Faculty Research, Academia-Industry Collaboration and Institution building.

1. Student Research:

Referring to his classic 1989 Mariel Boatlift Paper that was cited in his Nobel Prize lecture, I asked Dave: “What can undergraduate students do to become good researchers and devise ideas?”

During his tenure as a faculty member at Princeton, Dave shared his experience with institutional practices, wherein, students were required to write papers during their junior and senior years, known as junior papers and senior thesis. While working on the impact of immigration on job opportunities for less educated natives and minority groups, a student named Alex approached him about the Mariel Boatlift. Despite the challenges in obtaining micro-level data, they collaborated on the student’s junior paper. Later, Dave wrote a research paper comparing Miami to similar cities in the past using the theory of synthetic control group.

Dave advised undergraduate students to ask elementary questions, such as why income disparities exist within families or why some friends perform better in education than others. He emphasized the need for empirical evidence to determine whether better education leads to better choices, questioning if it's causal or merely a superstition. He highlighted the misconception about inflation and unemployment in the past and encouraged students to start with basic questions and challenge norms while reading specialists’ writings in their fields to foster student research and curiosity.

2. Faculty Research:

I inquired about Dave's research motivation, sources of inspiration, and idea generation. Additionally, I discussed the prevailing emphasis on publishing in high-impact journals and how some junior faculty members may strategize to navigate this competitive landscape. ?

Dave provided an example of a fundamental notion of causality, pondering whether one phenomenon genuinely causes another. He passionately conveyed his enthusiasm for data, expressing excitement about acquiring new data and drawing inferences from it. He also underscored the significance of technology and the internet in his research. Dave cited studies that utilize thresholds, such as age or grades, to illustrate their relevance in his field. He offered guidance to junior faculty and students, encouraging them to explore sharp discontinuities stemming from arbitrary regulations or unexpected environmental disruptions as potential starting points for intriguing research inquiries. Dave emphasized the importance of acquiring in-depth knowledge, which eventually shapes the career objectives that the young researchers strive for. He discussed economies of scale, mentioning that it takes time to gain expertise in a particular area due to the multitude of unknowns. He shared his concept of delving deeply into a specific subject matter before expanding the scope of studies after gaining career experience and achievements.

3. Academia-Industry Collaboration:

I asked Dave about the experiences of an economist-scholar in the tech industry and the rationale behind hiring economists at institutions like Plaksha University.

Dave elucidated that in the tech industry, companies frequently face complex decisions without well-defined models. Economists play a pivotal role in such situations due to their expertise in handling poorly specified models. He elaborated on how economists could assist in determining the optimal wages for employees at Plaksha University. Dave challenged the traditional notion of a single market wage, emphasizing the existence of various wage levels. Economists could address questions related to turnover rates, absenteeism rate, employee effort, and the quality of employees hired at different wage rates. Given the absence of a complete labour market model, these questions could be tackled through quasi-experimental or experimental approaches. Dave cited the example of information silos in such contexts and stressed the importance of economists in workforce management. This was in contrast to data scientists or applied statisticians who deal with readily available data and required less reliance on model-based frameworks. In economics, data was treated as a precious commodity, demanding patience in analysing key variables and careful examination of missing data components, setting it apart from computer science.

4. Institution Building:

In this part of the interaction, I asked Dave, " You have built institutions such as AEA and the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley. Plaksha models itself as a liberal arts university with a tech focus, encompassing disciplines like Robotics, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Economics, and Bioengineering. What can Plaksha do to attract world-class faculty in economics?"

Dave advised University leadership to provide a conducive environment and resources, including excellent students, ample funding, and, most importantly, access to other researchers. He suggested that universities should offer favourable conditions to scholars, as they are highly mobile and often self-employed. For instance, he cited the example of Berkeley, which attracts numerous researchers and has a pool of talented graduate students.

Overall, Dave's passion for research and constantly finding rigorous answers to policy-relevant questions in collaboration with students, junior colleagues and peers was contagious. This combination of immense curiosity, humility and original thinking made the students at Plaksha University aware of what it takes to be one of the greatest minds of the twenty first century.

Plaksha University | Rudra Pratap | Nina Mehta | Rajiv Khosla | Sarika Gupta Bhattacharyya | Vishal Garg

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