OMID ATABATI

[email protected] / [email protected] www.linkedin.com/in/oatabati

Summary Analytical and innovative economist and data scientist, 6+ years of hands-on experience in leading research projects, conducting economic scientific thinking, data analytics, and causal inference to produce policy recommendations. Provides advanced Econometric and Statistical Modeling combined with cutting-edge Machine Learning (ML) methods to assure precise result, producing actionable insights from data and theory. Experienced in industrial organization, market research, evaluation of business outcomes, and health policy analysis. Accustomed to managing projects under tight schedules; thoroughly assessing project scope and requirements to manage development from identification of data sources to building and interpreting analytical models, preparing reports and briefings. Excellent writing and verbal communication skills. Experienced in collaborative problem solving and liaising with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders to ensure project is completed to scope. PhD in Economics (expected 2021), Master’s degree in Mathematics, and taught several economics and statistics courses at universities.

Core Skills & Competencies ▪ Econometrics, ML ▪ Economic Model Building ▪ Policy Analysis & Recommendation ▪ Project Management, ▪ Collaborative Problem Solving ▪ Analytical Writing Stakeholder Engagement Expert in: ▪ Causal inference | Counterfactual analysis | ML & Predictive methods | Regression, clustering, classification | Experimental design (e.g., treatment analysis, A/B testing) ▪ Market research: estimating Preferences & Expectations in Demand, Cost & Productivity factors in Supply ▪ Statistical modeling framework: R | STATA | Python | MATLAB Advanced in: ▪ Data visualization and Business Intelligence (BI): R | MS Power BI | Tableau | MS Excel ▪ Programming and development languages: C++ | Python | R Solid understanding in: ▪ Database analytics tools: SQL ▪ Graph theory and social network analysis: SNAP in C++ | Gephi | R ▪ Operations Research, Linear Programming, Industrial Engineering

Professional & Research Experiences Contract Faculty Sept 2018 - Present Department of Economics Justice & Policy Studies, Mount Royal University, , AB Key Responsibilities: Delivery of undergraduate university level economics courses, including lectures, evaluations, and exams. Experienced in managing in-person and virtual classes with over 100 students per academic semester. Tasked with transition of classes to virtual format amid COVID19 pandemic. Data Manipulation: handled the performance evaluation of courses by managing the students’ coursework data in a database using Excel spreadsheets. Course subjects taught as sole instructor: Microeconomic Theory, Macroeconomic Theory

Eyes High Doctoral Scholar, Researcher, PhD Candidate Sept 2014 - Present Department of Economics, , Calgary, AB Key Responsibilities: • Economic Research: Performed focused and cutting-edge quantitative and thorough qualitative research analysis in following categories: 1) creating a deeper institutional knowledge of the projects’ background to identify appropriate economic models, 2) building economic models, solving and interpreting the results under the light of economic theory and relevant evidences, 3) identifying the empirical analysis and data requirement and Omid Atabati page 2

econometric Modeling , 4) designing economic experiments and surveys, and 5) interpreting empirical findings and highlighting policy and welfare implications. • Data and Statistical analysis: Conducting empirical economic research, performed in following processes: 1) identifying and obtaining required data sources for each project, 2) data cleaning and merging various data sources to create customized working samples with economically meaningful variables, 3) conducting descriptive & causal treatment analyses and data visualizations to express the insights behind the raw data, and 4) conducting Econometric & Statistical Modeling and Machine Learning (ML) methods using software R, STATA, Python, MS Excel, and MATLAB. Some of the methods used: analyses of regression, probabilistic models, clustering and classification methods, panel data methods, and estimating structural econometric models such as demand and supply/cost estimation, choice models, and dynamic programming. • Progress Reports and Stakeholder Engagement: Awarded the Eyes High Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship from Dr. Robert Oxoby and University of Calgary as the stakeholder in my PhD program project and the associated scholarship. Tasked with conducting consistent and full-time economic research under this award. Consistently participated in liaising and communicating with researchers, providing weekly progress reports to the supervisor, and presenting seasonal research talks, consolidate suggestions and writing annual briefs and proposal to update the stakeholder on overall project status.

Selected Accomplishments & Projects: • Eyes High Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship ($120,000), 2014.

• Project: Attitude and behaviours regarding COVID19: A survey targeting development of behavioural nudges, and • Project: Characterization of persons who are non-adopters of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions o Role: Collaborated with multidisciplinary teams of researchers, medical doctors, and Health Services (AHS, the health authority for the Canadian province of Alberta). AHS contributed to the recruitment and surveying of participants in this study. Task: conducting data analysis and responsible for clustering analysis. o Summary: Public support of protective behaviours including physical distancing, masking, staying home while sick, avoiding crowded indoor spaces and contact tracing applications remains critical for reducing spread of COVID-19. The aim of our work was to understand current behaviours and attitudes towards public health measures as well as barriers individuals face in following protective behaviours. We also sought to identify attitudes persons have regarding a COVID-19 vaccine and reasons for vaccine hesitancy.

• Project: “Self-employment productivity and networking investment” (submitted for publication, draft available) Role: Primary Researcher o Summary: Networking investment may affect self-employment earning by providing informational, financial, or motivational supports. The goal of this project is to assess the economic return from networking investments in self-employment using a novel statistical method. This project provides evidence-based numerical estimates on how professional networking activities lead to substantial economic returns in self-employment, which contributes to benefit-cost analysis of SME policies and introduce promotion and training programs around social & professional networking activity as an effective policy tool.

• Project: “The size and persistence of non-pecuniary factors in self-employment” (submitted for publication, draft available) Role: Primary Researcher. o Summary: This project evaluates the importance of non-pecuniary factors for self- employment in the short and long terms, paying particular attention to self- employed entrants. The economic impact of new businesses started by the self-employed has sparked public policies to promote self-employment. These policies, however, may only lead to increase the number of transitory self-employment spells without sustainability and growth. The size, sign, and persistence of estimates in this project suggest that sustaining self-employment activities beyond the first year requires compensating for significant cost factors. Most of these factors persistently challenges the self-employed along the spell, and they are not limited to switching or entry costs that disappears beyond the first year. The monetary estimates are presented accordingly.

• Project: “Estimating expectations and anticipated biases in labour market: evidence from experiments”. Role: Primary Researcher. Omid Atabati page 3

o Summary: The goal of this project is to create a detailed understanding and estimation of how potential employees and job applicants anticipate and evaluate various labor market opportunities. In this project, I design and conduct an Economic Experiment and Survey to obtain the data and estimate an Econometric model, using the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The challenge in this project is separating different ways individuals’ anticipations affect their labor market choice and estimating such detailed variables that are impossible to observe in typical observational data (Hence the need for a calculated survey design). I approach this problem with a fully-fledged economic model that incorporates the choices of the demand and supply sides of labor market. The project provides policy recommendation related to behavioral tools and welfare implications regarding individuals’ choices in education and labor market sectors.

• Project: “The regulation of Internet market: an economic analysis of Net Neutrality policies”. (Doctoral course term paper, presented to Dr. Aidan Hollis, Dept. of Economics, University of Calgary). o Summary: Net neutrality generally argues that Internet Service Providers (ISP) should not discriminate among users and differentiate their services for them, where users are either content providers (CPs) or households. To clarify the extent of justification for the imposition of net neutrality, which is the current regulation in many countries I derive the main implications behind notable models in literature, interact the findings together, and extend some of the theoretical frameworks to create an extensive analysis. Policy directive are provided conditional on specific evidence-based supports.

• Project: A probabilistic analysis of prediction model for matches in professional sport leagues. Role: Primary Researcher. o Summary: This is a data analysis and programming project, resulted in code files using R and STATA to conduct two tasks: cluster analysis of soccer teams to find the most efficient use of information regarding similar patterns of play, and Modeling the relation of match results with determining factors.

Research Assistant, seasonal Sept 2014- March 2021 Department of Economics, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB Key Responsibilities: • Qualitative Economic Research: Creating a deeper understanding of the context and gaining institutional knowledge of the background for each project which consist the qualitative aspect of my research approach using study of related policy reports, literature review, personal interviews. • Quantitative Economic Research: Using econometric Modeling, applying methods included but not limited to regression analysis, panel methods studies, cluster and classification analysis, dynamic programming estimation. • Preparing Reports and Briefings: Generated weekly progress reports and presentations, consistently participated in liaising with project managers to consolidate suggestions and update stakeholders on overall project status.

Selected Accomplishments & Projects: • Project: Building Economic Theoretical models of social network cohesiveness and information acquisition. Reported to Dr. Robert Oxoby. o Individuals often must make a choice between alternatives whose advantages are imperfectly known (e.g., the decision to adopt a new technology, or to start a business). To make an informed decision, they can personally acquire information or gather information through networking with peers and external sources. This project use ideas from Behavioral Economics and Microeconomic theory to build an economic model and investigate the implications of such individual choices for the aggregate information available in a society, and how this depends on the network structure. This project provides policy recommendation regarding facilitation of communication and flow of information within organizations. • Project: Studying research findings on knowledge network in organizations: Case study on pharmaceutical companies and biotechnical entrepreneurial firms. Reported to Dr. Dimitri Migrow. o Task: Conducted a deep literature review on large interdisciplinary body of research studies how intraorganizational knowledge network affects the ability of individuals and the organization to create and transfer knowledge. I explored the structure of organizational networks between biotechnological firms and larger pharmaceutical companies and within biotechnological firms which is tightly connected to commercialization of the knowledge, and regulatory purposes in pharmaceutical industry. Omid Atabati page 4

• Project: Studying research findings on the consequences of price cap policies in competitive markets and markets for generic drugs. Reported to Dr. Aidan Hollis. o Although price cap regulation creates the incentives for firms to reduce their costs, there are several problems and challenges associated with this regulation. There is a large literature in economics that suggests the range of beneficial price caps becomes narrower the more competitive the industry and the less volatile is demand. I explain this view and I provide a review of discussions in this literature, explore the literature of works discussing the practical problems ahead of price cap regulation and the welfare cost of imposing price caps, and finally provide a review of discussions related to market for generic drugs.

Sessional Instructor May 2017- Dec 2020 Department of Economics, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB Key Responsibilities: Delivery of undergraduate university level economics courses, including lectures, evaluations, and exams. Experienced in managing in-person as large of +200. Tasked with transition of classes to virtual format amid COVID19 pandemic. Data Manipulation: handled the performance evaluation of courses by managing the students’ coursework data in a database using Excel spreadsheets. Course subjects taught as sole instructor: Use of Statistics in Economics, Microeconomic Theory

Teaching Assistant, seasonal Sept 2014- April 2018 Department of Economics, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Key Responsibilities: Lectured extra syllabuses topics, provided weekly tutorial sessions, and held problem-solving sessions to assist students in understanding the key concepts of the textbook. Data Manipulation: Prepared a step-by- step manual for adding, deleting, and modifying data in a database prepared for the course assignments using Excel. Course subjects: Electricity Markets, Econometrics for PhD, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Behavioral Economics Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, seasonal Jan 2013- April 2014 Department of Mathematics, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON. Key Responsibilities: • Solving mathematical models and optimization problems using C++ programming and Social Network Analysis software tools. • Held problem-solving sessions to assist undergraduate students in understanding the key concepts. Course subjects: Mathematics for Computer Science, Discrete Mathematics, Mathematical Reasoning Selected Accomplishments & Projects: • Graduate and Research Fellowships ($25,500). G Ronald Brown Graduate Award. • Projects: Network formation models and social network analysis. Producing two peer-reviewed research publications on application of Graph Theory and Social Network Analysis.

Education Ph.D. in Economics, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Sept 2014 – (expected to complete) 2021 • Research interest: Applied Econometrics | Empirical Industrial Organization | Applied Microeconomics • Supervisor: Dr. Robert Oxoby

Master of Science in Mathematics, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON Jan 2013 – Sept 2014 • Specialization in Algorithmic Game Theory, close links to Microeconomics

B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Sept 2008 – Sept 2012

Certificates LinkedIn Certificate of Completion in Business Intelligence Specialization 2021 • Business intelligence (BI) toolbox: Microsoft Power BI, IBM Crystal Reports, Tableau, and Google Analytics. Omid Atabati page 5

Publications Peer-reviewed Publications (Pre-doctoral): • “A Strategic Model for Network Formation”, with Babak Farzad. Journal of Computational Social Networks 2(1), 1-14, 2015. • “A Hierarchical Network Formation Model”, with Babak Farzad. Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics 50, 379-384, 2015.

Selected Doctoral Courses Regulatory Economics, Empirical Industrial Organizations, Public Revenue Analysis, Empirical Public Economics, Environmental Economics, Behavioral & Experimental Economics, Advanced Microeconomic Theory, Advanced Macroeconomic Theory, Advanced Econometrics.

Presentations and Talks Seminar series at Department of Economics, University of Calgary, April 2019 & May 2020 • Presented “Understanding and measuring anticipated discrimination” The 52nd Annual Conference of the Canadian Economics Assoc. (CEA), McGill University, Montréal, Québec, June 2018 • Presented “Self-employment and Networking Investment” Seminar series at Department of Economics, University of Calgary, April 2018 & May 2019 • Presented “Self-employment and Networking investment” The 22nd Ontario Combinatorics Workshop (OCW), FIELDS Institute, York University, Toronto, May 2014 • Presented a part of my MSc thesis “Game-theoretic network formation” The 4th biennial Canadian Discrete & Algorithmic Mathematics Conference, Memorial Univ, St. John’s, NL, June 2013 Languages • English (fluent), French (elementary), Persian (native)

References Dr. Robert Oxoby (PhD supervisor) Professor, Department Head, Department of Economics, Social Sciences 402, University of Calgary, 2500 University Prof. NW, Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4 Email: [email protected]

Available upon request.