SAN FRANCISCO – The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has named Aina Krupinski Puig and Hina Usman as its first “Unlocking Our Potential” graduate student essayists. The student essays explored impacts to the U.S. economy from gender and racial inequities.
Born in Barcelona and currently living in Washington, D.C., Puig is a macroeconomics PhD student specializing in inequality topics at American University. Her essay focused on the impact of monetary policy through interest rates on spending patterns among different types of U.S. households.
Usman, who is originally from Lahore, Pakistan, is a fifth-year PhD candidate in applied microeconomics at University of California, Irvine. Her essay examined whether economic insecurity fuels racially motivated crimes in the United States.
“These essays help shed new light on the impact of gender and racial inequities, which have a real economic cost for every American,” said SF Fed Research Director Sylvain Leduc. “We applaud these students’ contributions to this important area of scholarship.”
The essay program’s goal of exploring fresh perspectives on these topics is part of the SF Fed’s commitment to better understand the economy’s potential in support of the Fed’s maximum employment mandate, Leduc noted.
More information about Puig and Usman’s research can be found on the SF Fed Blog. The authors will each be awarded a $1,000 prize.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (SF Fed) works to advance the nation’s monetary, financial, and payment systems to build a stronger economy for all Americans. As part of the U.S. central bank, the SF Fed serves the Twelfth Federal Reserve District, which covers the nine western states—Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai’i, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—plus American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. By pursuing our two key goals of maximum employment and price stability—known as the Fed’s dual mandate—we work toward supporting an economy that works for everyone.