Research

I conduct research in five broad subject areas

Subject Area 1: Indivisibilities and Economic Outcomes

Subject Area 2: Economics and Psychology

Subject Area 3: Life Cycle Consumption and Portfolio Choice

Subject Area 4: Real Estate Finance

Subject Area 5: Individual Differences And Outcomes In Economics And Politics

While the topics are diverse, they form part of a web of long term personal interests. One connecting thread in the first three subject areas is the drive to connect the highest level of abstraction with the finest points of empirical detail. In all cases, I aspire to identify and to model the major forces at work, to measure the corresponding theoretical constructs, and to gauge the match between model and measurement.  On a side note, my current work with John Leahy (A Graph Theoretic Approach to Markets and Divisible Goods and Comparative Statics in Markets for Indivisible Goods available under “Indivisibilities”) involves novel mathematics. To my surprise, I find myself becoming more comfortable with abstraction as I age, and as a result more capable of contributing to technical advance.

My most current work, hence the most exciting to me, concerns imperfect perception. This work, joint with Daniel Martin, has produced first visible fruits, available at the link below:

“A Testable Theory of Imperfect Perception”

My research on real estate finance in subject area four centers on my long running effort to seed the development of markets in housing equity. This has brought me into contact with the realities of housing policy in the U.S., an activity that has been profoundly depressing, as indicated herein:

Subject Area 6:  U.S. Housing Policy: In Crisis