Tom Schwantje

Welcome! I am a PhD Candidate in Economics at the University of Oxford. My research focuses on capturing rich heterogeneity in organisational and institutional practices in low-income countries, and its role in explaining firm performance and inclusion. My job market paper examines the role of rules in explaining performance differences between Ethiopian firms, implementing a novel adaptive Bayesian Questionnaire I developed to maximise information gain from surveys. Details on specific research projects I am working on can be found on the academic and policy research page. 

Methodologically, I have a particular interest in the optimal design of survey instruments, novel methods of data collection, and hierarchical Bayesian modelling using STAN, an (awesome) statistical software.

My job market paper is available here.

Beyond of my academic research, I work as an economist with the World Bank with the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction team in Bangladesh. I also teach Microeconomic Theory at the MSc Economics for Development at the University of Oxford. 

If you would like to chat, please do get in touch via tom.schwantje@economics.ox.ac.uk