Anja is a 4th year PhD student in Economics at NYU. Originally from Munich, Germany, she came to the Graduate Forum in Fall 2006. Her research interests are scattered across various areas in applied microeconomic theory, particularly in mechanism design and contract theory, and development economics, but she is also interested in IO and choice theory. She has recently been investigating how a worker's self-confidence affects incentives in an employment relationship and if there is a connection with the differential treatment of male and female workers. Currently, she is developing a theoretical basis for dowry 'inflation' in a dynamic marriage market. An empirical analysis of the demand side of corruption and an experiment on self-confidence and incentives are in their early stages of work.
" The Grad Forum is to me a most cherished opportunity to get in touch with other graduate students and to learn about the often so different experiences across disciplines, ranging from language, topics, and methods to the daily work schedule and publication and job search procedures. I thoroughly enjoy engaging in the animated, but always friendly discussions at our monthly dinners, free from the presuppositions and accepted wisdoms that frame a typical within-discipline seminar talk.
When I started out in the Forum one and a half years ago I was quite timid in those discussions; not least because I am not a native speaker, and suddenly the language barrier made itself felt again, which had almost vanished in conversations about my own. But this has changed over time, and I particularly encourage foreign tudents to apply for the Forum: the experience has not only expanded my vocabulary and fluency in (academic) English, but has also greatly advanced my understanding of the American academic landscape, education system, and intellectual life. "