Welcome to my Webpage!
Second Year PhD Student at Ohio State University
Greetings from Alexander J. Ryan!
I am a second year PhD student at Ohio State in the Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics department. I graduated from John Carroll University in January 2019 with dual majors in economics and finance. Before joining OSU, I interned at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and spent 3 years as a senior associate on KPMG Chicago's Economic & Valuation Services team.
I recently have passed the microeconomics qualifier and have celebrated by shifting my attention towards exciting research. I am currently studying the impact of small-scale weather events (flood and fire) on the mortgage industry and city-level commitments to generating 100% renewable energy. I also enjoy visiting the Columbus Park of Roses, listening to records, and playing disc golf on the weekends.
Education
John Carroll University (Cleveland, OH)
Majors: Economics and Finance
August 2015 - Decemver 2018
Overall GPA: 3.85 | Major GPAs (Economics & Finance): 3.85
Member of JCU Honors Program
Dean's list all 7 semesters
Recipient of the Economic Department’s Omicron Delta Epsilon Award, which is awarded to the top student in the junior class
Invited to join the Jesuit Honor Society (Alpha Sigma Nu) and the Business Honor Society (Beta Gamma Sigma)
Certifications
Certified Business Economist®
National Association for Business Economists
January 2020
Volunteer Activity
Late Night Scholarships Inc.
Founder and Trustee
February 2020 - present
Founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation to offer scholarships for high achieving students in Northeast Ohio and coordinate an alumni network/mentoring program for student applicants.
Designed the unique online scholarship web-based application and manages fundraising campaigns that collect over $1,500 in annual donations for the organization's scholarship award.
Organizes the selection of three annual scholarship recipients by coordinating with 35+ donors to select the top applicants.
Fayetteville Mafia Press
Financial Analyst
February 2020 - present
Assists Fayetteville Mafia Press, a small publishing company, with preparing monthly financial reports. I have automated most of this process by designing a program that performs financial analysis on monthly reports generated by FMP's distributor.
Discusses pricing strategies and marketing campaigns with the FMP founders/executives.
Publications/Books
Active Research Projects
Impact of Climate Change on the U.S. Mortgage Industry - Under Review and Revision at the Journal of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics
Spring 2023
Existing literature analyzing the impact of climate change on mortgage and housing markets has been conducted on a case-study basis, studying how specific wildfire events, sea-level rise, or natural disasters impacts the behavior of traditional mortgage and fintech (e.g., QuickenLoans) providers. Our research performs time series analysis from 1998 - 2018 on a state-level basis, analyzing how flooding and wildfire trends impact the U.S. mortgage industry. We have completed the literature review and data collection and are finalizing our regressions during Summer 2021. We expect to finalize a draft and begin the review/publication process in Fall 2021.
The Political Economy of Recreation Marijuana Laws: A Spatial Analysis - Under Review and Reivision at the Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy
Spring 2023
Building upon our research on state-level medical marijuana laws from the early 2010's, we apply a median voter model to analyze the influence of special interests and median voter characteristics that influence the passage of recreational marijuana laws. We apply a unique estimation technique by applying the spatial durbin model on panel data to bifurcate the special interest influence on marijuana legalization due to indirect spatial spillover effects. We hope to publish our work in Fall 2021.
The Political Economy of Municipal Committments to Generating 100% Energy Demand from Renewable Energy
Summer 2023
Over the last 5 years, the number of cities that have committed to generating 100% of energy demand within city limits has increased substantially, with over 160 cities formalizing committment as of August 2020. While prior work performs a cursory analysis on the influence of special interests in mayoral/city council committements to generating 100% renewable energy, we are the first economists to perform econometric modeling on panel data using random sample of U.S. cities to compare against the 100% committed cities. We have successfully performed initial searches of the literature and have collected data on the municipal-level. We are currently preparing preliminary drafts to publish by Spring 2022.
Technical Skills
Programming/Coding
Python, Alteryx, Sharepoint
Econometric Modeling
Python, R, Stata, MatLab