I am in the first year of the Economics PhD at MIT. My current fields of interest include public finance, behavioral economics, and macroeconomics. One of my specific interests is creating agent-based economic models based on behavioral assumptions that are more realistic than those used in standard economic theory. In 2000-2001 I worked at the Brookings Institution doing research on American welfare reform and poverty issues, and I graduated from Pomona College in 2000 with a math major.