Summary

Economics PhD candidate in empirical economics and political economy focused on granular open data across space, time, and behavior.

Education

• PhD in Economics

  present
  University of Queensland
• Doctoral studies in Economics

  2021
  Penn State University and Ibn Haldun University
• MA in Economics

  2010
  Koc University

  GPA: 3.92/4.0
• BSc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering

  2008
  Koc University

  GPA: 3.48/4.0

Work Experience

• Senior Research Assistant

  2022 - 2025
  Queensland Centre for Population Research (School of the Environment, UQ)

  Developed reproducible demographic estimation pipelines and methods for small-area Indigenous population estimation.
• Senior Research Assistant

  2022 - 2025
  UQ International Comparisons Database (UQICD)

  Refactored and documented core R workflows and built reproducible comparative data pipelines.
• Senior Research Assistant

  2021 - 2022
  Real Estate and Transport Project (Prof. Alicia Rambaldi)

  Integrated property transaction data with GIS and transport networks for econometric analysis.
• Research Assistant

  2018 - 2021
  Ibn Haldun University

  Built social media text analytics and sentiment workflows.
• Research Assistant

  2010 - 2017
  Penn State University

  Developed data tools and supported theory research in economics.
• Research Assistant

  2004 - 2008
  Koc University (Engineering)

  Applied pattern recognition and signal-processing methods.

Skills

Publications

• Birthplace Favoritism Revisited: Replication, Modern Evidence, and Crisis Dynamics

  2025
  UQ School of Economics Discussion Paper Series

  Replication and extension study using open-source data and VIIRS night lights with crisis dynamics analysis.

  View Publication
• A High-Resolution View of the Hinterland: Local Government Centralization and Rural Development in Turkey
  Work in progress

  Border-based DiD analysis of Turkey's 2012 metropolitan reform with newly reconstructed village-level data.

  View Publication
• Measuring Cognition at Scale: The Association Between Ramadan Exposure and Chess Performance
  Work in progress

  Move-level analysis of 16 million chess observations using Stockfish benchmarking and DiD identification.

  View Publication

Presentations

• A High-Resolution View of the Hinterland: Local Government Centralization and Rural Development in Turkey

  2024
  38th Annual PhD Conference in Economics and Business, ANU

  Canberra, Australia
• A High-Resolution View of the Hinterland: Local Government Centralization and Rural Development in Turkey

  2025
  Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (SIOE), UNSW

  Sydney, Australia
• Birthplace Favoritism Revisited: Replication, Modern Evidence, and Crisis Dynamics

  2025
  UQ Applied Micro Day, UQ

  Brisbane, Australia

Teaching

• Mathematical Economics; Tools of Economic Analysis

  2021
  University of Queensland

  Role: Senior Tutor
• Advanced Microeconomics (MA); Strategy (MA); Managerial Economics; Mathematical Economics

  2021
  University of Queensland

  Role: Tutor
• PhD-level Microeconomics and Macroeconomics

  2018
  Ibn Haldun University

  Role: Teaching Assistant
• Intermediate Microeconomics; Introductory Econometrics

  2010
  Penn State University

  Role: Instructor of Record

References

• Prof. Alicia Rambaldi (Principal Advisor)

  a.rambaldi@uq.edu.au
• Dr. Haishan Yuan (Associate Advisor)

  h.yuan@uq.edu.au
• Dr. Pia Wohland

  pia.wohland@uq.edu.au