Profile of Sarah Lawson
First Job After Graduation: Research Assistant, Federal Reserve Board.
Graduation Year: 2002.
UO Major: Economics and Mathematics
Profile
Sarah graduated with honors in economics and mathematics from the University of Oregon in 2002. Sarah's honors thesis analyzes
the effects of a recent Oregon law providing family planning services to low-income women on the birth rate in Oregon's counties.
Her statistical analysis finds that providing this greater access to family planning services led to a significant decline in birth rates.
The honors project gave Sarah a taste of economic research and made her start
thinking about a career in this area. So in the winter of her senior year, Sarah applied and then interviewed with the Federal
Reserve Board for a position as a Research Assistant. These positions at the "Board" are considered plum jobs for undergraduate
majors and a springboard for future academic work in economics, law and public policy. Given her rigorous economics and mathematics
coursework, Sarah landed the job and began her new job in summer of 2002.
For the past couple years, Sarah has worked in the Fiscal Analysis Section of the Research and Statistics Division at the Board.
Her tasks include both short- and long-term analysis, with lots of data gathering and chart making. Of course, there have been the
occasional Alan Greenspan sightings as well!
In fall 2003, Sarah began applying to economics graduate schools, ultimately accepting full funding to begin the Ph.D. economics
program at UC-Davis in fall 2004. She plans to focus on applied microeconomics topics in the spirit of honors thesis she wrote as an
undergraduate. We wish her well in her studies!
Profile by Bruce Blonigen (2004)