The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) is pleased to announce the award of 15 grants for new data to promote innovative economics research by University of Chicago faculty and students. These data sets will help promote ground-breaking research on a range of diverse topics. When published, the insights gleaned from this research and data will have real-world impacts across a variety of topics and fields of study.

“Supporting new and innovative research is an important part of how we support our faculty,” said Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and Director of BFI. “Through data acquisition grants, BFI purchases data that can be broadly shared by the full UChicago economics community for a range of new projects.”

BFI’s unique data acquisition grant program supports faculty in pursuing new, rigorous research. The awards are drawn from a competitive application process. A key mission of the program is to purchase data that can be made broadly available to UChicago faculty.

“We are proud to announce that BFI has awarded 80 data acquisition grants to UChicago faculty since the launch of this program in 2017,” said Erik Hurst, the Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at Chicago Booth and Deputy Director of BFI. “Our goal is to incentivize new research that might otherwise not occur through this support.”

BFI is proud to share the recipients of the newest data acquisition grants, listed below, along with data source and the research the new data will be supporting.

The full listing of BFI data acquisition grants can be found here.

Rodrigo Adao, Greg Kaplan and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg
Data Source: MADIP and BLADE
Research: International Trade and the Dynamic Adjustment of Regional Economies

Joseph Battles (Student Award)
Faculty Sponsor: Manasi Deshpande
Data Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Research: Which Barries to Healthcare Access Matter for Whom? Evidence from Pharmacy Closures

Hans Christensen
Data Source: Enverus International
Research: Does Ownership Matter for Corporate Social Responsibility? Evidence from Resource Extraction Activities in Africa and Reversing the Resource Curse: Foreign Corruption Regulation and the Local Economic Benefits of Resource Extraction 

Emanuele Colonnelli
Data Source: LinkedIn Data
Research: Who Invests in Emerging Markets?

Manasi Deshpande and Greg Kaplan
Data Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics and participating Australian Government Agencies
Research: Causes and Consequences of Disability Receipt: Evidence from Australian Administrative Data

Ingvil Gaarder
Data Source: University of Oslo
Research: Payroll Tax Incidence

Yana Gallen and Juanna Joenson
Data Source: Statistics Denmark
Research: Understanding Expectations Concerning Parenthood

Haoran Gao (Student Award)
Faculty Sponsor: Shaoda Wang
Data Source: FactSet
Research: Determinants and Consequences of China-related Lobbies by US Companies

Joshua Gottlieb
Data Source: L2
Research: Voter Registration Data for Political Economy Research

Shanon Hsuan-Ming Hsu (Student Award)
Faculty Sponsor: Oeindrila Dube
Data Source: Companies Commission of Malaysia
Research: Affirmative Industrial Policy, Firm Ownership, and Ethnic Inequality in Malaysia’s Growth Experience

Rubina Hundal and Emily Zhang (Student Award)
Faculty Sponsor: Anjali Adukia
Data Source: Collection of employer database and surveys
Research: Effects of Paid Labor Market Exposure in High School on Girls Educational and Career Decisions in India

Dmitri Koustas, Michael Weber, and Constantine Yannelis
Data Source: Collection of Employer Database and Surveys
Research: Beliefs and Consumption Responses Surrounding Student Loan Repayment

Fern Ramoutar (Student Award)
Faculty Sponsor: Milena Almagro
Data Source: Research Computing Center
Research: Historical Rental Price Data for Chicago

Michael Weber
Data Source: Kilts- Nielsen Consumer Panel
Research: Mechanisms Underlying Wage-Price Spirals

Shuqiong (Lydia) Zhao (Student Award)
Faculty Sponsor: Bradley Shapiro
Data Source: JD Power
Research: Does Product Innovation Push Brand Loyalty Out the Window?