Master's Student and Professor Present Research in Thailand

07 November 2011 4:32PM

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Alecia Waite, second-year student in the Economics Master’s Program, traveled to Thailand with Professor Ed Tower this past summer as part of her Research Assistantship.  It was not only a cultural experience for Waite, who during her time away from work visited attractions such as the Jim Thompson house and the Grand Palace, but a venture into the work of an international economist.  While working on her research project, she had the honor of meeting several prominent international economists and presenting her work to them.  Below, Waite discusses her research, her travels, and the influence her trip to Thailand had on her future academic plans.  

Where did you do your undergraduate work and what did you study?

I attended the University of Mississippi and majored in International Studies and Chinese.   

How did you find the Duke MA program and why did you decide to come here?

It was not very hard for me to find the Duke MA program as it is one of the most well known Master’s programs in economics. I knew that I wanted to study economics at the graduate level, but felt that I lacked the technical and analytical skills for a PhD.

Why did you want to do graduate work in economics?

My environmental activism first drew me to economics. During my undergraduate career, I organized a variety of activities to raise environmental awareness. I planned a recycling campaign for football tailgaters, the university’s first Focus the Nation, and a university-wide recycling convention. I knew that pursuing a field related to the environment would be perfect for me, so I signed up for a course on environmental economics. I was intrigued by externalities and nonmarket valuation. It was a type of economics that a “greenie” like me could relate to, because it explained why the same market mechanisms that brought us prosperity failed in terms of societal welfare.

Can you describe the nature of your work for Professor Ed Tower?

I began working as a research assistant for Dr. Tower in the Spring of 2011. Dr. Tower was interested in examining how the manufacturing sector affects protectionist politics.  We obtained data from several sources like the World Bank and the United Nations that gave us information on a country’s manufacturing output as a share of GDP.  But it was only after we really played with this data extensively that we were able to narrow our focus to a manageable topic which sought to determine if mercantilist policies in manufacturing was supported by the data.  Essentially we were analyzing how a country’s manufacturing sector contributes to per capita GDP growth.  

How was your time in Thailand?

Visiting Thailand was a great experience. I met trade economists from other schools as well as economists who worked for governments of developing countries. I was thrilled by the opportunity to prepare a quick presentation about the work Dr. Tower and I were doing and deliver the key messages to economists who actually are involved in policymaking. When Dr. Tower and I presented our paper, I talked for a great deal of our presentation. It was good practice for me as I plan to become a research economist.

How has this project influenced your interests in economics?

I've become increasingly interested in international economics because I heard so many interesting presentations at the conference. I also learned a bit about which trade data sets are available and what can be done with those. For example, I attended a workshop that explained data sets and gravity modeling, an econometric tool used by trade economists to measure trade flows based on distances between countries.

What are your recommendations for those who are seeking meaningful RA experience in the M.A. program? 

Often as a research assistant, you receive explicit assignments from your adviser. You of course need to do those.  But for me, I got the most out of my assignments by taking them and running in every which direction with them.  I did a lot of extraneous stuff on my own but when I liked certain things I found, I shared my results with my adviser. Dr. Tower didn't always pursue the avenues I explored with his assignments, and there were certainly a lot of dead ends, but some of the "divergent" experiments made significant contributions to our work and were excellent learning experiences. I personally got the most out of my projects by occasionally making up my own tasks to see if I could use the data to answer unexpected questions.