I am an economist by training and an entrepreneur at heart. Writing this blog keeps me thinking about what I am doing and why.  I discuss projects I am working on or other things going on in my life, with an emphasis on economics and decision-making.  Check out Why I Blog for a more goal and philosophy oriented discussion.

Services

If you’d like you can look at my portfolio. I am not capable of much in the way of analytical work pending my return from the Peace Corps, but I have experience in the following areas:

• Economic Research: Forecasting, impact analysis, and written discussion of economic events.
• Statistical Analysis: Impacts and relationships with a focus on human behavior and social variables.
• Web Design and Analytics: Site development and design, web analytics and web apps generally.

Interests and Experience

I like to think about why we behave as we do, and so many of my posts are on funny things humans do.  I am also in the process of creating an open source economic impact model in the vein of IMPLAN or RIMS II.  Building software is so easy these days (well, not for me) that there ought to be free software for doing economic impact of analysis.  Currently I am in Niger with the Peace Corps, and am spending my remaining year working with local partners to teach gender awareness and communication and decision-making skills to youth.

I am also interested in small businesses, eco-friendly businesses, development in West Africa, micro-finance, and any other small and nimble agent going up against the big guys.

I have a B.A. in Economics from Hampshire College (flash site) and an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts. I worked for REMI as an economic consultant for two years, and was a research scientist at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at the University of New Mexico for two and a half years.  I have spent the last two years in Africa as a Small Enterprise Development Volunteer (in Guinea) and a Municipal Community Development Volunteer (in Niger) with the Peace Corps.  I am currently serving a volunteer post as a Life Skills Component Manager with a local NGO and will be here until August 2011.

My work at BBER centered on economic and fiscal analysis, such as examining the impacts of the Santa Fe living wage, looking at economic leakages for the Town of Taos, determining the economic contributions of our national forests, and a variety of smaller projects.

Most of my work has been done with SAS, SPSS, GIS, IMPLAN and ridiculous amounts of Excel.  I am developing SQL experience while building an economic model in my free time.

My non-professional interests include Aikido and Ultimate Frisbee.

If you’d like to contact me, you can leave a comment on any post or send me a message here. If you find something interesting, let me know.

Thanks

-Nick (zot)

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