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Our Research Assistants
(RAs) come from diverse academic and professional backgrounds.
Here are profiles of some current RAs.
Research Department | New England Public Policy Center | Supervision, Regulation and Credit
Kyle Carlson is an RA to senior economist Lorenz Goette and director of research publications Suzanne Lorant. He graduated from The University of Memphis with a BA in economics and philosophy and a minor in Spanish. His current work in the Center for Behavioral Economics and Decisionmaking involves empirical research on the decisions of homeowners. Feel free to contact contact Kyle with any questions.
Adrienne Hathaway is an RA to vice president and economist Jane Sneddon Little and senior economist Christina Wang. Slowly making her way east across the state, Adrienne, who is originally from central Massachusetts, began work at the Bank in July 2006, after graduating from Wellesley College with a BA in international relations and Spanish. Her work at the Bank has ranged from investigating changes in real and financial volatility and tracking economic developments in foreign countries to researching the effects of technology on credit scoring and mortgage origination and tracing the histories of many data series reported in bank regulatory financial reports. She also regularly works on projects for policy meetings. Feel free to contact Adrienne with any questions.
Benjamin Levinger is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Joanna Stavins. Hailing from St. Paul, Minnesota, Ben received a BA in economics-mathematics from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in May of 2007. His work at the Bank is mainly focused on consumer payment types. Ben is also involved with data collection for the Beige Book. Feel free to contact Ben with any questions.
Brendan Mackoff is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Robert Triest on topics in macroeconomic theory, labor, and public finance. After attending high school in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Brendan matriculated to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he received a BA in economics and a minor in computer science. Brendan has concurrently done research for projects ranging in topic from labor force participation rates to pension funds to the federal budget. In addition, he has drafted a memo on federal budget forecasting accuracy and prepared a sizable presentation titled “When the Boomers Retire…” on the retirement preparedness of Baby Boomers. Feel free to contact Brendan with any questions.
Ana Patricia Muñoz is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Yolanda Kodrzycki. Originally from Ecuador, she received a BS in economics at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. She spent two years working as an economic advisor for a congressman in the National Parliament of Ecuador. Ana Patricia has a master’s degree in economics with specialization in economics of development and international economics from the Université de Montréal and a master’s degree in public affairs from Brown University. Ana Patricia has been working on a long-term research project on displaced workers and she also works on wide range of policy work for pre-FOMC meetings. Lately she has focused her research on commercial real estate market and forecasting housing prices. She is also involved in a project studying economic and labor force conditions in Springfield, Massachusetts. Feel free to contact Ana Patricia with questions.
Carl Nadler is an RA to senior economist Mary Burke. Raised in Concord, Massachusetts, Carl recently completed his BFA at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in Film/TV production with a double major in economics from the College of Arts and Sciences. His current projects involve investigating the effects of child disability on parents’ labor force participation; compiling labor force participation rates over the past thirty years for different subgroups to compare the General Social Survey to the Current Population Survey; simulating student-level classroom data for estimating the effects of peer groups on academic achievement; and studying the causes of obesity, particularly social ones, in women. Feel free to contact Carl with any questions.
Aaron Pancost is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Michelle Barnes. Born and raised in the suburbs of Washington, DC, he graduated in 2008 with a BA in economics and a BS in mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park. His current projects at the Bank involve measuring the impact of the recent liquidity provisions enacted by the Federal Reserve as well as examining the determinants of long-run inflation expectations. Feel free to contact contact Aaron with any questions.
Puja Singhal is an RA to vice president and economist Jane Little, working on topics related to international macroeconomics. Originally from India, she graduated in 2008 with an AB in economics and a minor in mathematics from Smith College, where her studies focused on macro- and monetary economics. Now at the Fed, she is pursuing her interests in following economic and monetary developments in the international economy, especially in European and emerging countries. Her work also involves country reports, projects connected to FOMC meetings, the Beige Book, and some long-term research. Feel free to contact Puja with any questions.
Rachel Stern is an RA to senior vice president and economist Geoff Tootell. She graduated in 2007 with a BA in economics from Bates College. Rachel’s research interests include macroeconomic policy, political economy, and urban economics. Her favorite thing about working at the Fed is interacting, learning, and occasionally playing Frisbee with an amazing group of people. Please feel free to contact Rachel with any questions.
Michael Zabek is an RA to senior economist and policy advisor Scott Schuh. Mike is originally from the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. He attended Kenyon College in Ohio, graduating in 2008 with majors in mathematics and economics. Mike’s biggest research project is an examination of consumer payment choice and the effects of payment instruments on monetary policy. He also analyzes data on Canadian check volumes and examines the effects of inventories on business cycles in the United States. He loves the supportive environment of the bank and the opportunity to experience economic research firsthand. Feel free to contact Mike with any questions.
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Robert Clifford is an RA at the Center
and conducts data analysis and research on economic
and policy issues. His research interests include public
finance, health policy, and development economics. Originally
from New Hampshire, Robert holds a Masters in economics
from the University of New Hampshire and a BA in economics
from Keene State College. Feel free to contact
Robert with any questions.
Nick Kraninger is an RA to the financial economists in the Quantitative Analysis Unit of the Supervision, Credit and Regulation Department. Originally from Wisconsin, Nick received a B.S. in economics and philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In the year that Nick has been at the Boston Fed, he has been involved in research on diverse topics. He has contributed to projects on welfare, credit access, the state of the housing market, financial modeling, and cancer survival. Currently, in addition to his other research responsibilities, Nick is co-authoring a paper on banking market structure with financial economist Ethan Cohen-Cole.
Jonathan Larson is an RA to the financial economists in the Quantitative Analysis Unit of the Supervision, Credit and Regulation Department. Hailing from Minnesota, Jonathan came to the Boston Fed after graduating with a BA in physics from Middlebury College in 2006. Jonathan chiefly focuses his research on bank supervision, specifically on understanding capital requirements for the Basel II Accords. He has also made contributions to a variety of other projects—from capital punishment deterrence to sophisticated modeling of operational loss data. He supports the economists’ research by designing simulations and performing statistical analyses on empirical data sets.
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