People

“I wanted a doctoral program that would let me do cross-disciplinary work. HBS lets me turn my skill set into an active research agenda.”

An interdisciplinary approach to economics has always appealed to Erica Moszkowski (she/her). After taking a computer science course that examined mechanism design and computational elegance, she began to apply ideas gleaned from her second major in computer science to her thesis in economics at Williams College. Degree in hand, Erica accepted a position as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she witnessed how economic modeling translates into policy decisions. She became passionate about pursuing a research career that draws on insights from computer science to inform our understanding of social and economic networks. “Working every day with PhD-trained economists taught me to be an effective consumer of economic research,” she explains. “I wanted a doctoral program that would let me do cross-disciplinary work. HBS lets me turn my skill set into an active research agenda.”

In the PhD program in Business Economics at HBS, Erica receives the same rigorous economic training as her colleagues in the Economics department within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but with a special emphasis on bringing economic theory to bear on real-world applications. “HBS is the ideal environment because I get to think about the world like an economist, but I have the freedom and resources to draw on methods from other disciplines as I study market design and industrial organization.”

Coming from a liberal arts college, Erica appreciates the open, collaborative environment both at HBS and in the Economics department. “If I have a question or am interested in a particular line of research, it’s easy to send an email to any faculty member and arrange a meeting,” she says. “The relationships I’ve built with professors and my fellow doctoral students at HBS and in the Economics department have enhanced my experience and improved my research tremendously.”

Research

Erica’s research interests lie at the intersection of industrial organization and market design. In particular, she is investigating competitive dynamics within individual markets. One particular line of inquiry involves an investigation into factors which influence markets that are not based on price—such as the market for donor organs, which cannot be bought or sold. “Everyone I meet at HBS is very open to the idea of nontraditional lines of inquiry,” she says. “Between the support from faculty and the incredible resources that are available, it’s easy to feed your curiosity and follow your passion when it comes to research.”