News

Second-Year Research Competition Recipients Announced

7 July, 2025

Three PhD in Economics students have been awarded this year’s Second-Year Research Competition Fellowship. The evaluation committee selected Amos Njeku, Shampita Das, and Akhil Kumar as the 2025 recipients.

The Second-Year Research Competition recognizes the most promising research proposals submitted by our second-year PhD students. The purpose of the fellowship is to support students as they transition from coursework to dissertation research, allowing them to focus fully on the early stages of their academic careers.

Amos Njeku developed a research project assessing the impact of inter-ethnic migration within Africa on skill transfers and economic outcomes. His proposal is based on the novel idea that ethnicity can embody economically valuable skills, which may be diffused through migration. The project includes preliminary correlational findings that support its core hypotheses.

Shampita Das presented a theoretical analysis of common-pool resource games in the presence of uncertainty about future crises. Early results from two related models suggest that the anticipation of crises can reduce resource extraction and foster cooperative behavior. If expanded further, this research could have meaningful environmental and social implications.

Akhil Kumar plans to examine the effects of authoritarian regimes on political participation, labor market engagement, and social trust. His proposed study focuses on the contemporary repression of Kurdish socio-political life in Turkey, a setting that allows for robust econometric analysis due to the staggered implementation of repression policies across provinces.

Congratulations to all three recipients!