So what has Tom been up to?

You have heard about what Deanna is doing in medical school.  You have heard about what Tom and Deanna are doing on their (very seldom) days off.  What has Tom(I) been up to?

Well...

I am doing a Masters in Science in Finance and a Juris Doctorate.  The schedule looks like this...

year 1 - Finance
year 2 - Law
years 3 and 4 - some mix between the Finance and Law. 

Currently, I'm finishing up the first year in finance and working as a researcher doing econometric studies (more on this later). 

What does someone do in a Masters of Science in Finance?  A ton of math.  Here is a taste of what I'm working on right now (Probit and Logit Binary linear regression analysis) 

The idea is that finance is a derivative of microeconomics that focuses specifically on firms ability to raise and manage capital.   So basically I've been learning how to invest, budget, and evaluate how much a business is "worth" based on it's assets and business model. 

But the thing I've found that I LOVE is economics.  More specifically the mix of philosophy, economics and public policy.  These types of studies began by telling us things like:

How much should a government tax it's citizens?  How should the money governments spend be best used? 

But modern statistical methodology can tell us things like whether racism is still rampant in businesses and society.   Whether or not a gun ban would affect citizens freedoms and by how much.  Whether or not a businesses should be allowed to contribute to political campaigns and what it effects when they do. 

All of these things can be measured in various ways to help leaders and citizens become educated on issues in the public sphere to better vote, volunteer and participate in the political and social process. 

In my current work I'm looking at whether or not there is wage discrimination amongst those who are deaf or have severe hearing loss.  The difficulty is comparing apples with the closest things we can possibly get to apples.  For instance, looking at two people, one being deaf and one not, leaves out a ton of information.  What if one is more educated?  What if one has a different race or ethnicity?  What if one doesn't speak English as well as the other?  These are all factors that should be taken in account when comparing people. 

Luckily, the Census has a long questionnaire that helps businesses, the government and researchers (like me) that gives us a ton of data to use to help ask just these types of questions of a representative sample of Americans! 

Anyway, we are looking at a huge number (2 million or so) of people and getting a lot of great feedback which the professor who I'm working with is hoping we can get published (fingers crossed). 

I begin Law School this summer and go back to finance beginning in the summer of 2014 (depending on internships and stuff). 

ok, that's all, now let me get you back to your regularly scheduled reading :)