Research Project

Water quality and availability in India

David Glick was an NICHD fellow in 2014-2015 during his fifth year as an Economics PhD student studying inequality and poverty. After his graduation in 2017, took a position as an associate with the Analyst Group. Here he describes his fellowship year.

I think the biggest benefit of the fellowship is that it allowed me to devote more time to my own research. I've been working primarily on two projects, both related to water quality and availability in India, and the fellowship has helped me juggle both projects. Along these lines, I was able to travel to India to conduct a pilot survey for one of these projects.  Without the fellowship (and not having to TA a class), I wouldn’t have been able to take 3 weeks during the middle of the semester to do this fieldwork. The piloting I conducted was instrumental in getting a main survey ready to go, which is now about to be underway. 

The availability of PSTC faculty is also a big advantage of being part of the PSTC community. Andrew Foster's door is always open and he is willing to discuss my research, as are the other faculty that I've worked with during my fellowship.

I also received financial support from the PSTC to conduct a small-scale data collection project related to an earlier paper that I wrote, which was really helpful as well.

I would advise future PSTC fellows to have a long-term outlook on their work, and make sure they take the necessary steps early on to ensure the long-term plans are not delayed.