PRIMO Alumni Profile Details

“You’ll meet some of the smartest and hardworking people here and learn the most you ever will have learned in such a short period of time.”

About

Raghav Warrier was born in South Florida and raised in Arizona by his parents who emigrated from South India in the late 90s. He enrolled in public education throughout his upbringing and is now part of the Honors College program at Arizona State University (ASU) where he studies computer science, mathematics, and economics. His inspiration for pursuing research in PRIMO and, ultimately, a PHD, comes from his mother’s dad, his grandfather, who was an academic.

Building on the work that he had done in previous summers, PRIMO was the most fulfilling experience he ever had. PRIMO continued the positive elements from his past work experiences and then added some other key ingredients, noting the great people and faculty.

He worked with Professor Shane Greenstein in the Technology and Operations Management Unit in Summer 2023.

Raghav has accepted a pre-doctoral position in economics at the Becker Friedman Institute at The University of Chicago, beginning in Summer 2024.

What kind of research did you and your professor work on?

The project was focused on industrial organization. Specifically, I studied the wireless product market. Essentially, that’s anything that uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and, also, other assorted products that you may not think of but use every day, like your car’s key remote.

We got a really good data set from the Federal Communications Commission. Based on this data set, we brainstormed interesting things we could look at. After doing some preliminary analysis, we decided to study different patterns in the market. Specifically, we looked at where firms are geographically located, what industries these products are primarily being developed for, and whether these firms are primarily creating one product and then exiting the market, or they are persistently in the market.

After this exploratory phase we developed what questions were important. This research process gave us a chance to be open, flexible, and play around with the data. I created lots of graphs and maps and things like that at the beginning. And that is how the questions were born.

What has the research collaboration been like?

I really liked the system of work that I had with my professor, Shane Greenstein.

We started off by talking through some topics, and he gave me some initial tasks, which I worked through, and sent him emails when I had questions. And then the following week, I would come back and show him, here's what we've got, and we'll talk through a lot of it together. Based on those findings, he had me manipulate the data in different ways, and say, “oh, okay, that looks great, what if we try it like this. What does that change in the data?” So, we did a lot of minor exercises together. And then from there, we decided, okay, so based on this, here is what we should try doing next week. And then kind of repeat that process. It was a very iterative and collaborative process throughout.

I got to have a little bit of independence as to what methods and tools I use, but, also, some guidance from the professor who was very supportive and responsive to all of my questions.

Is there something that you’ve reflected on that has been meaningful this summer?

There’s so many that it’s hard to pinpoint one. Everyone here is fantastic. The Doctoral Programs Office staff really chose great people who are intelligent and very personable. I think we’ve had a lot of great shared experiences. We go out to eat together. We all tried Indian food last week. We all got to explore the North End and see parts of Boston together. And then there are PRIMO sponsored events like bowling and the duck boat tour.

The best part of this program, especially since my last two summers’ work experiences were remote, is having this community of people because I know that I'm going to be working with them in the future. In this group, there is someone whom I will hopefully co-author a paper with or end up as faculty with. To think that is a possibility is cool because we've already established a great relationship. I know I'm going to be friends with all of them for a long, long time.

Is there anything that surprised you during your time in PRIMO?

I did not expect so many backgrounds because we were at a business school, but you kind of have people who do everything. There are a lot of econ folks, people who study English, and people like me who study computer science, math, with a sprinkle of economics in there. We even have a fellow studying both computer science and neuroscience. So, it has been really interesting. I expected some more homogeneity at a business school program, but everyone comes from really cool and diverse academic backgrounds.

About being at Harvard itself, I was definitely worried about coming from ASU, but everyone's been so welcoming and nice, including the other Research Village students at Harvard. I've had a lot of people to hit tennis with and sit down with different people at dinner every day. That was a pleasant surprise, I think, because it was definitely a fear at the beginning.

Any advice for incoming PRIMO students?

The biggest thing is to leverage the PhD students and the professors here. During my time here, I have had over about 10 coffee chats, and sat down for 30 minutes to an hour with different PhD students and professors. And they are all so kind and so helpful. They are always willing to answer my million questions. If you find the one person who can be your mentor and then branch out and meet people from there, that is, I think, the biggest asset you can get out of HBS, so use that. As a PRIMO student, I think the best thing that's happened for me is personal and professional growth since I've got here, all stemming from the great connections I made.