Ongoing Research Ideas
1. AI Agents to Support Migrant Career Choices
- AI-powered reskilling platforms matching migrants’ prior education with emerging job markets.
- Language-learning agents using adaptive dialogue systems to accelerate local language proficiency.
- AI career coaching that simulates labor market entry strategies for migrants.
- Cross-country credential equivalence AI agents that automate recognition of foreign degrees.
- Predictive analytics to identify integration risks and propose tailored support for vulnerable migrants.
- Looking for coauthors: expertise in migration economics or labor policy.
2. AI for Low-Connectivity Education
- Edge-based LLM compression for AI tutoring in remote rural schools.
- Offline AI agents combining solar-powered hardware with local content databases.
- Decentralized AI learning pods: community centers hosting AI tutors accessible without internet.
- Adaptive learning AI that uses minimal data to personalize content under tight connectivity constraints.
- AI-driven creation of culturally relevant textbooks and simulations for indigenous communities.
- Looking for coauthors: educational technologists, network engineers.
3. Natural Resources as a Blessing
- “Green corridors” financed by extractive revenues: biodiversity restoration after oil booms.
- Longitudinal studies of how sovereign wealth funds affect human capital formation.
- Machine learning models predicting which resource-rich regions are most likely to escape the resource curse.
- Mapping supply chain transitions from oil extraction to forestry, agriculture, or renewables.
- Studying successful local governance arrangements that transform resource windfalls into education infrastructure.
- Looking for coauthors: resource economists, environmental scientists.
4. AI in Tax and Financial Education
- AI tutors simplifying complex tax systems for small business owners in developing economies.
- Adaptive financial literacy modules using AI chat agents for vulnerable youth populations.
- Evaluating long-run effects of AI-assisted financial literacy interventions on household resilience.
- Deployment of offline AI financial coaches in underserved banking regions.
- Looking for coauthors: behavioral economists, fintech researchers.
5. Gender and Classroom Dynamics
- Using AI to simulate peer effects under different gender compositions in classrooms.
- Dynamic models of gender-based career expectations in STEM fields.
- AI-based mentoring programs reducing gender gaps in educational aspirations.
- Large-scale experiments introducing AI role models in classrooms.
- Looking for coauthors: sociologists, gender studies scholars.
6. RCTs and Experimental Designs
- RCT measuring AI tutors’ ability to reduce learning gaps in post-conflict regions.
- Quasi-experimental designs comparing resource-funded educational programs vs traditional aid.
- Multi-arm RCTs testing blended learning in remote schools using low-cost AI devices.
- Studying the impact of AI-powered formative assessments on student engagement and retention.
- Looking for coauthors: experimental economists, education policy researchers.
7. Random Early-Stage Ideas
- AI tools detecting early signs of school dropout via passive data collection (attendance, performance, behavioral cues).
- Agent-based models simulating long-term labor market dynamics under rapid AI adoption.
- Studying psychological effects of AI companionship on isolated student populations.
- The role of AI in improving trust between migrant communities and host country institutions.
- Impact of AI-enhanced governance transparency on resource allocation and educational equity.
- Looking for coauthors: computational social scientists, psychologists.