Paulo Nascimento is a research officer at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), a federal public organization committed to provide technical and institutional support to government actions in Brazil. Paulo holds a MSc in Economics of Education (UCL Institute of Education, London). At the moment, Paulo is a PhD candidate in Economics at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and a Visiting Student Researcher at Stanford's Lemann Center. His current research involves impact evaluation of higher education student loan schemes as well as the application of the repayment burden empirical model to construct useful simulations of distributions of graduate lifetime earnings for loan analysis. While at Stanford, Paulo is deepening his studies on quasi-experimental design and discussing with Lemann Center professors and fellows the impact of loan schemes on student intakes and graduate flows. In August 2017, Paulo shall start a six-month visit to the Australian National University (ANU). Initial results from his PhD research have already been published by IPEA, discussing income-contingent repayment plans as alternatives for the Fundo de Financiamento Estudantil (FIES) as well as for introducing tuition fees in public higher education institutions. His previous research was focused on labor market issues concerning STEM graduates. In the future, Paulo also intends to study labor market and certification for school teachers.
