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Sophomore Dhiraj Sharma (Hetauda, Nepal) is researching a timely topic in today’s uncertain economy — the effect of the Asian financial crisis on unemployment in East and South Asia.
Sharma is collaborating on the research as an EXCEL Scholar with Vera Brusentsev, visiting assistant professor of economics and business.
“Raj is researching and collecting unemployment data in several Asian countries, including India, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand,” says Brusentsev. “He’s looking at gender, age, and demographic groups and trying to discern any trends that may appear. From this data, we are trying to determine an employment protection index based on employment protection schemes throughout the world.”
Sharma, an economics and business major, has found the research of primary sources quite difficult.
“It’s been challenging because I’ve been using a lot of official country sites as a resource,” he says. “I have to synthesize a lot of sketchy data that sometimes leads me to a dead end.”
Sharma also has been using the Library of Congress as a resource. He has tapped sources that detail employment statistics such as contractual arrangements, recourses for dismissal, retirement plans and disbursements (payouts), and labor agreements between governments and the work force.
“It’s put a lot of things into perspective, particularly when I looked at the Asian financial crisis with its recession and massive unemployment,” he says.
Sharma has a personal interest in the subject as it relates to his home country of Nepal. He also feels the project will influence his career plans, which include an interest in actuarial science, the analysis of the financial consequences of risk. Actuaries use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs.
“I want to concentrate on the mathematical end of the work, and there’s a lot of math involved in this project,” he says.
Sharma particularly enjoys the mentoring he receives from Brusentsev.
“She’s very knowledgeable and helps guide me through a lot of the research,” he says. “I look forward to continuing the analysis of all this data with her as we construct the index.”
“Raj is a delight to work with,” adds Brusentsev. “Through this research, he’s learning to single out an individual tree in the topic rather than just roam around the forest of information. In the classroom, students usually just learn about theory, but with EXCEL they can apply what they’ve learned to specific cases.”
“I’m very happy with what I’ve learned. EXCEL is an extremely good program — you can explore new things. I hope to make the best of my resources and opportunities at Lafayette,” says Sharma.
He is a member of International Students Association and Crew Club.