Affiliated Research Centers, Labs, and Initiatives
Center for Analytical Finance (CAFIN)
The Center for Analytical Finance (CAFIN) is a group of researchers who aim to solve real-world problems of finance in a globalized financial system, producing cutting-edge research with practical applications. The center focuses on three critical areas: systemic risk in financial systems leading to economic collapse, financial access to quality financial services, and market design regarding the rules, platforms, and institutions in trading.
Faculty directors hold international workshops on analytical finance topics and quarterly lectures for faculty and students. This includes hosting a fintech conference and climate finance conference in partnership with other universities and financial institutions. The center publishes an annual newsletter for its affiliates, along with a bulletin series exploring the most pressing topics and research advancements in the field. Ph.D. students and other center affiliates can also publish their work on the CAFIN website through a working paper series.
Income Dynamics Lab
The Income Dynamics Lab was founded in 2012 to study the evolution of household income. It aggregates income data longitudinally to understand the effects of income inequality.
Lab director Ajay Shenoy and a team of undergraduates have created panel data spanning several decades, providing undergraduates with research opportunities in coding. The undergraduate lab also focuses on how political corruption influences the legislative process, and why poor countries are poor. This data has been used to look for evidence of household poverty traps and measure intergenerational mobility in rural India.
Learning and Experimental Economics Projects (LEEPS)
The Learning and Experimental Economics Projects (LEEPS) laboratory researches experimental and behavioral economics, with an emphasis on market institutions and learning in economic interactions.
The center provides opportunities for undergraduate students to work with faculty and graduate students in writing computer programs to conduct human subject experiments, analyze the data, and prepare reports on the results. Many undergraduates have the opportunity to carry out independent projects, leading to senior theses and publications. The lab also supports related graduate student research. Each year, LEEPS sponsors meetings of experimental economists and typically hosts up to three visiting researchers to hold lectures at UCSC.
Institute for Social Transformation
The Institute for Social Transformation provides faculty and students with a wide range of research opportunities, funding, and events. Over a dozen economics undergraduate students have participated in the Building Belonging program, receiving scholarships to conduct economics research alongside faculty. Students have explored topics like racial inequality, climate risk, family planning incentives, child health, nutrition across cultures and classes, and risk management.
Several faculty members in economics have received faculty grants, furthering projects studying wealth gaps, global banking, health and financial well-being, emergency services abroad, and data pooling. Each year, one faculty member from our department serves on the institute’s executive board. Faculty also appear on the institute’s KSQD radio series, Cutting Edge, to discuss trends in economics. Economics research centers have joined the institute to co-host speaker series on financial topics, from political conflict and economic activity to financial systems and sustainable development and carbon neutrality goals.
