Many and important economic data contain information about firms or workers collected over time and space. Developing statistical methods that are appropriate for such data is essential for understanding a range of core economic questions, such as how firms or individuals respond to changes in monetary policy.
“My research focuses on developing suitable quantitative methods for dealing with a specific type of data, namely panel data. Such data contain information on a number of units, such as individuals, firms or countries observed repeatedly over a period of time,” says economist Yana Petrova.
In her doctoral thesis “Essays on Panel Data with Multidimensional Unobserved Heterogeneity”, Yana Petrova provides fundamental new knowledge on how to analyse panels of this type of data. She identifies shortcomings of established methods and provides new, improved, approaches.
“I examine the potential consequences for the estimation of the effect under consideration when the commonly made assumptions are not met. I then propose a set of solutions to bring the theoretical and the empirical worlds closer to each other,” Yana Petrova comments.
Yana Petrova shows the appeal of her methods by deriving their theoretical properties and validates their usefulness by means of simulations. The Research Education Council also notes how she then “takes theory to data and applies the new methods to a series of economic issues, not only of interest for state-of-the-art research but also for policy making, public authorities, and private businesses.”
The prize money consists of SEK 25,000. The award will be recognized during a small corona-adapted ceremony late spring 2021.
Comments on the prize
“I would like to thank the School and everyone involved in the process for the award. It’s a great honour! I would also like to take the opportunity and thank my supervisor Joakim Westerlund for all the guidance and support during my PhD studies. It was a great pleasure working under your supervision,” Yana Petrova comments when reached with the news of the award.
“Congratulations to Yana, her supervisor – and to the Department of Economics. This really is something to be proud of, and the important work that PhD students do should be made visible,” says Maria Stanfors, Deputy Dean of LUSEM.
“Yana has been a brilliant colleague, not only in research, but in all respects and has affected everyone here at the Department. She will be sorely missed now when she leaves for Aarhus University. I'm therefore very happy that we are able to present her with this prize,” Joakim Westerlund comments.
The thesis in the Lund University Research Portal
Essays on Panel Data with Multidimensional Unobserved Heterogeneity
Yana Petrova defended her thesis on 20 May 2020. She is currently employed both by LUSEM and Aarhus University, but since 1 February she has started a full-time position as an assistant professor at Aarhus University.
