27/07/2022

Victor Perez defends his thesis in mathematical economics.

Doutorando Victor Perez

Coming from a humanities background, doctoral student Victor Perez believes that the transition to the field of mathematical economics at IMPA was not so difficult. The Peruvian will present, next Wednesday (27), the thesis “Single crossing and implementability in two-dimensional screening”, supervised by researcher Aloisio Araujo. The presentation will take place at 4 pm and will be broadcast on the institute's YouTube channel .

This thesis discusses a classic economic model that studies the formation of a contract between two parties, one of whom possesses private information about their own characteristics that are relevant to potential gains in a contractual relationship.

“We want to know what kind of contract will emerge in this circumstance where one party can act strategically using this private information to deceive the other party and obtain a better contract for themselves. It's a fairly classic model in economics, but almost all texts on the subject model private information as a number, while there are many contexts in which it is more reasonable for private information to be multidimensional. I put forward some hypotheses that attempt to do in the two-dimensional model the same work that the single crossing hypothesis does in the one-dimensional model,” explains Perez.

With a degree in economics, the doctoral candidate says he wasn't particularly interested in applied economics, always preferring the theoretical modeling of economic problems. Despite his humanities-focused background, he sought out extracurricular courses to understand mathematics. “Besides economics classes, the lessons were mainly in history, philosophy, and other humanities subjects, but I learned most of the mathematics here at IMPA. I think the transition was good because I already had some contact with more formal mathematics through some courses I took there,” he says.

After defending his thesis, Victor Perez will begin planning his next steps. His goal is to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship in mathematical economics. “Originally, my defense was planned for later, but it was brought forward. My advisor suggested I apply for the postdoctoral position, but I would have to defend my thesis before the end of July. I'm defending it now and I'll apply for some postdocs and think about where I'll go next,” he summarizes.