Graduate / 'the simple models we learned' - SOP - PH.D Economics NYU [5]

Hi everyone. I want to apply for Ph.D in economics. The closest deadline is Dec 18th and it's for NYU. I would appreciate any feedback and critique - style,grammar ...

Some say I am not a bad economist but my writing skills aren't that good. I made this version shorter, due to space limits according to NYU's demands. If it's OK, I'll post the full version that I hope to use for other universities.

For more than 5 years I have studied economics at XXX University, XXX. The knowledge and analytical skills I have acquired, have changed the way I think and look at the world. I enjoy the studies in general and research in particular. I feel that the research gives me the freedom to express myself. As such, my main goal is to become a professor at a research university and to earn my bread and butter by doing research.

As an undergraduate student, I was constantly exploring additional parameters for the simple models we learned, which should have taken into account the limited abilities and mental resources that humans have. Later, reading papers by Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky and Richard H. Thaler I encountered behavioral economics, with all the additional aspects of human behavior previously unknown to me. The incorporation of economics and psychology is vital if we want to have a full picture of human economic behavior. Therefore this is the field I intend to focus on.

Currently I work on Master's degree thesis under the supervisor of Professor XXX. My research seeks to understand what we seek to achieve when we punish or avenge. Do we only seek to make the offender suffer impersonally at least the same amount of pain as his/her victim or is the punishment a tool of communication that delivers a certain message to the offender from the victim?

Analysis of human economic behavior under the assumption of strict rationality cannot explain punishment if it does not increase the expected future earnings. However, examples of non-strategic punishment can be found both in our everyday interactions and demonstrated repeatedly in experimental laboratories. My MA research will hopefully determine the effect punishers seek to achieve.

Unlike previous psychological research, which uses questionnaires as an experimental tool to measure participants' mental state, or other techniques such as lexical decision tasks, I use special versions of the Dictator game, Public good game and Power take game, which allow participants to make actual choices that reveal their true preferences. Since the three games illuminate individuals' reactions in different types of interactions, similar behavioral patterns allow a generalization of the results.

The Department of Economics of New York's University has one of the leading doctoral programs, with exceptional faculty whose interests cover a variety of fields. But what makes your program unique for me is the opportunity to work with Professor Mario J. Rizzo, with whom I have common research interests. My goal is to generate original research by incorporating the ideas of behavioral economics and Austrian economics. Hopefully, he will find some of my ideas interesting and agree to become my mentor.

I am determined to work hard to succeed. To prepare myself for the doctoral program I plan on taking enrichment courses in math (see CV), and an individual workshop to develop my academic writing skills in English. As such, I aim to prove that I am worthy of the program. That I actually enjoy studying and researching economics will inspire me to become an excellent student in your program and later to become excellent researcher. As Aristotle once said "Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."