Global Linkages Lab

The Global Linkages Lab is dedicated to deepening our understanding of globalization. As a collaborative research hub, the Global Linkages Lab fosters innovative scholarship, funds state-of-the-art research, and provides insights to inform evidence-based policymaking for global growth and welfare.

The Global Linkages Lab hosts a diverse range of raw and derived datasets on global trade and financial linkages, at a granular level, enabling to ignite path breaking research on issues such as global networks, tariffs and sanctions, trade and inflation, domestic and global productivity, misallocation of global capital, financing of green transition, dominance of the dollar, the global impact of U.S. fiscal, monetary and trade policies, geopolitics led global fragmentation and disengagement amidst significant global challenges. One of our primary goals is to provide a valuable public service, by sharing our data and hosting seminars and large conferences.

The Global Linkages Lab strives to help to build a diverse, inclusive and productive economics profession following the 2019 best practices report of AEA task force composed of Amanda Bayer, our director Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan, Rohini Pande, Cecilia Elena Rouse, Anthony A. Smith Jr., Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, and David W. Wilcox, that can be found here.

Director

Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan

sebnemkalemliozcan.com

Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan is Schreiber Family Professor of Economics at Brown University and the Director of the Global Linkages Lab. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). She is the co-editor of American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. She also serves at the economic advisory panels of the NY Federal Reserve and the Bank of International Settlements.

Research Director

Muhammed A. Yildirim

sites.google.com/site/yildirim

Muhammed A. Yildirim is a Research Director at GLL. He also serves as the Director of Academic Research at the Harvard Growth Lab and an Associate Professor of Economics at Koç University. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University and a BS degree from the California Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the faculty at Koç University, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard University. His research primarily focuses on understanding network and spillover effects across various research domains, including industrial policy, international trade, productivity, economic growth, and matching. His work has been published in prestigious economic journals, including Science, Nature, Cell, Nature Communications, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Theoretical Economics, and Research Policy. Furthermore, he is a co-author of "The Atlas of Economic Complexity," published by the MIT Press.

Affiliated Faculty

Paula Donaldson

pauladonaldson.github.io

Paula Donaldson is an incoming Assistant Professor of Economics at Brown University. She is completing her PhD in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. Her research spans macroeconomics and international economics, with a focus on how cross-sectional identification methods can be used to answer macroeconomic questions.

Alexandre Gaillard

a-gaillard.com

Alexandre Gaillard is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Brown University. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Toulouse School of Economics and was a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University in 2022 before joining Brown in 2023. His research lies at the intersection of macroeconomics and public finance, with a particular focus on inequality, taxation, and trade.

Amy Handlan

sites.google.com/view/amy-handlan

Amy Handlan is the Yang Family Assistant Professor of Economics at Brown University, where she has been on the faculty since 2021. She earned her PhD and MA in Economics from the University of Minnesota and her BS in Economics from George Mason University. Her research spans monetary economics and macroeconomics, with a particular focus on applying computational text analysis and machine learning methods.

Technical Director

Jacob M. Adamcik

Jacob M. Adamcik is the Technical Director of the Global Linkages Lab at Brown University. He earned his Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS degree from Drexel University. Prior to joining the lab, he was a Quantitative Research Analyst at a boutique investment management firm in Philadelphia. He was granted the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2022.

Pre-Doc

Yuqi Shi

Yuqi Shi is a Pre-Doctoral Research Associate at Brown University's Global Linkages Lab. His research interests lie in macroeconomics, financial systems and policy. Before joining Brown, Yuqi received his Master of Arts in International Economics and Finance from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and his Bachelor in Economics with a minor in Statistics from the University of California, Davis.

Administrative Coordinator

Ilise Hamilton

Ilise is our administrative coordinator and also department manager. She has been in the econ department in various roles since 2018 and has been the manager since 2024. Ilise has a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Rhode Island.

PhD Students

Julia Chahine

Julia Chahine is a third year Ph.D. candidate at Brown University. Her research interests are on topics in international macroeconomics and finance as well as in macro-finance. Prior to Brown, she earned a B.A. in theoretical mathematics from Colby College with minors in economics and philosophy, and later she earned a M.S. in applied and interdisciplinary mathematics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Matthew DeHaven

matthewdehaven.com

Matthew DeHaven is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate at Brown University. He is interested in topics in macro-finance and international economics. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics-Economics from Furman University and worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board in D.C.

Adrien Foutelet

afouts.github.io

Adrien Foutelet is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Brown University. His research focuses on topics at the intersection of growth and development, international macroeconomics, and public debt. He holds a B.A. in social sciences, humanities, and mathematics, and an M.S. in Economics from the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon.

Moritz Greiwe

Moritz Greiwe is a third-year Ph.D. candidate at Brown University, focusing on macro-finance and international finance. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Cologne and a M.Sc. in Economics from the Barcelona School of Economics. Prior to coming to Brown, he worked in the Macroprudential Policy and Financial Stability Division of the European Central Bank and as a research assistant at the University of Zurich.

Olivia Lattus

olivialattus.com

Olivia Lattus is a PhD candidate in economics at Brown University. Her research interests lie in macroeconomics, finance, and behavioral finance. Before coming to Brown, Olivia received her bachelor of science in economics and minors in mathematics and French from Arizona State University. In her free time, she loves reading, cooking, traveling, and hanging out with her cat.

Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee is a third-year Ph.D. candidate at Brown University. Her research interests lie in macroeconomics, monetary economics, and international finance. She earned her B.A. in Economics and Psychology from Seoul National University. Prior to coming to Brown, she worked as a Junior Economist at the Bank of Korea.

Scott Lu

Scott Lu is a third-year Economics PhD student at Brown University focusing on applied microeconomics. He is interested in topics in labor, education, and urban, with a current focus on the impacts of immigration on native workers, firms, and local labor markets. Prior to coming to Brown, Scott worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board in D.C.

Chidubem Okechi

Chidubem Okechi is a third year Economics Ph.D. student at Brown University. He is interested in topics in international economics. Prior to Brown, he worked as a quantitative analyst at a global investment management firm based in Boston.

Sai Pitre

Sai Pitre is a third-year Economics PhD student at Brown University. She is interested in studying firm growth in emerging markets with a particular focus on India. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Mumbai and has a Master's in Economics from University College London.

Finn Schüle

finnschule.com

Finn Schüle is a fifth-year Economics PhD student at Brown University. He is interested in the implications of multi-sector models for monetary policy and the labor market. He earned an M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Warwick and a B.A. in History and Economics from the University of Oxford. Prior to starting his PhD, he worked as a Senior Research Assistant for the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Can Soylu

Can Soylu is a PhD Candidate in Economics at Brown University. He holds an A.B. in Social Studies and a Master's in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard University. Prior to his current roles, he was a Research Fellow at Harvard's Growth Lab and the Belfer Center. His research focuses on macroeconomics, international economics, growth and development.

Alumni

Haoyu Sheng

haoyusheng.net

Quantitative Researcher and Systematic Trader at Susquehanna International Group

Haoyu Sheng completed his Economics PhD at Brown University. He pursued a concurrent masters degree in Computer Science through Brown's Open Graduate Fellowship program. He is interested in building and solving granular models of the macroeconomy, and leveraging alternative data to answer macroeconomic questions. He did his undergraduate studies at Williams College, majoring in Economics and Computer Science.

Jiayue Zhang

jzhangg.github.io

Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy & Environment Lab, University of Chicago

Jiayue Zhang completed her PhD in Economics at Brown University in 2026. Her research focuses on firm decisions in low-income countries using experimental methods and primary data collection. She has multiple active field projects in Ghana and Kenya. Jiayue earned an M.Sc. in Finance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Bachelor in Economics and Finance from the University of Hong Kong. Prior to her PhD, she worked as an Assistant Economist and then as a Manager at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Undergraduates

Vanessa Berman

Vanessa Berman is a sophomore at Brown University concentrating in Applied Mathematics-Economics and Music. She is interested in the intersection between mathematics and the social sciences, with an interest in macroeconomics and behavioral economics. She has research experience with the Levari Lab in the CoPsy department, studying decision-making, and with the Population Studies and Training Center. On campus, Vanessa helps coordinate logistics for the Brown University Math Olympiad and acts on the executive board of the Association for Women in Mathematics.

Daijin Dorsey-Reyes

Daijin Dorsey-Reyes is a Junior at Brown University pursuing an Sc.B. in Economics and Applied Mathematics. He is interested in macroeconomics and finance, with a focus on monetary policy and global financial shocks. He has experience in macroeconomic forecasting and modeling as an incoming summer analyst at the Blackrock Investment Institute and the Portfolio Manager of Brown's student run ESG fund investing a portion of Brown's endowment.

John Farrell

johnfarrell.io

Web Developer

John Farrell is a undergraduate at Brown University studying Computer Science and Mathematics. He has a strong background in software engineering, and is interested in the intersection of technology and economics. He is currently working on a project to develop a web-based platform for the Global Linkages Lab.

Larissa Flora

Larissa Flora is a member of the Class of 2027 at Brown University pursuing a Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics-Economics. Originally from Brazil, she is interested in international finance and macroeconomics, with a particular focus on emerging markets. She has professional experience in macroeconomic research and risk management on the buy and sell side in the Brazilian financial sector and is joining the World Bank Treasury for the summer of 2026.

Jason Fu

Jason Fu is a sophomore at Brown University studying Applied Mathematics-Economics and Urban Studies. He is interested in international trade and exchange rate dynamics, particularly with respect to the effects of tariffs and trade policy on capital flows. He has experience in policy research and development in Canada, and is contributing to projects on trade and exchange rates.

Preetish Juneja

Preetish Juneja is a senior at Brown University concentrating in Applied Mathematics-Economics and Computer Science. He is interested in the fields of exchange rate dynamics and asset pricing, while primarily working with text-based methods to enhance fundamentals-driven signals. He is writing his honors thesis on belief distortions in FX markets and is excited to use his experience at AQR post-graduation as a quantitative researcher on the Global Stock Selection team.

Pin Kasemsri

Pin Kasemsri is an undergraduate student at Brown University, studying Economics and International & Public Affairs. She is originally from Bangkok, Thailand. Her interests are in international political economy, global macroeconomics, and geopolitics.

Tetiana Kyryliuk

Tetiana Kyryliuk is a Junior at the Kyiv School of Economics pursuing a Sc.B. in Economics and Big Data, currently a Visiting Student at Brown University. Her research interests lie in international finance and macroeconomics, with a particular focus on leveraging data analytics to understand global financial systems. As an incoming Research Fellow at the University of Toronto this summer, she will specialize in financial planning and portfolio optimization using AI and machine learning. Previously, she gained professional experience as an Operations Analyst at a fintech company in Ukraine.

Matthew Nam

Matthew Nam is a freshman at Brown University pursuing a Sc.B. in Electrical Engineering and A.B. in Economics. He is interested in macroeconomics, large-scale data solutions, and machine learning applications in economic contexts. He has experience in equity modeling as a Research Analyst at the Brown Private Equity Club and applied machine learning research as a Research Intern at the ACT Lab.

High School Interns

Danny Jang

linkedin.com/in/danny-jang-a1002a285

Research Assistant

Danny Jang is a high school intern at the Global Linkages Lab. He is a junior at Bergen County Technical High School (Teterboro) in New Jersey, with research interests in macroeconomics, behavioral economics, and international finance. He has coauthored papers on financial literacy, critical thinking, and sports economics, and is the founder of Futures Financials Inc., a nonprofit that has taught thousands of students personal finance. He hopes to pursue economics in college with a focus on global finance and policy. He will be attending Harvard University in the Fall of 2026.

Akshay Subramanian

sites.google.com/view/akshay-subramanian/home

Research Assistant

Akshay Subramanian is a high school senior from the Chicagoland area in Illinois, focused on combining technological innovation with data-informed intelligent decision making processes to create societal impact. As an affiliate researcher at the Global Linkages Lab, he explores data-intensive methods in the context of economics, with projects applying techniques like fuzzy matching to large datasets using Python and Excel. He will be attending the University of Pennsylvania in the Fall of 2026.