ALUMNI PROFILE
After receiving her PhD at KU earlier this year, Dr. Naowar Mohiuddin currently serves as a research fellow at the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and as a postdoctoral fellow in monetary policy studies at the University of Pretoria, working in a variety of capacities to support SARB policy implementation and study how its policy responses influence the broader economy.
She said that her educational experiences and relationships she built with the Economics Department faculty during her years at KU were critical components in landing such prominent roles.
“Professor Barnett has been the best support system I could have asked for. He explained the inner workings of the economics profession, and his stories about economists he has known and places he has traveled taught me as much as any formal lectures did,” she said. “I try to bring his meticulousness to my own writing and research so that I deliver the best work I can.”
Dr. Mohiuddin added that, “Professor Slusky's advice to run every robustness check a reviewer might ask for has stayed with me. It is not the most pleasant part of the work, but I try to follow it in my own papers. I appreciated his and Professor Ginther's thoughtful check-ins, especially during periods of disruption in my home country and uncertainty around immigration and international students in the US. Their encouragement and support made a real difference to me as an international student navigating life in a different country.”
She added that one funny story she sometimes thinks about involves Dr. Dietrich Earnhart, “who once told me I was too nice to be a macroeconomist! But in fairness, I think economists are nice people in general, and I have been fortunate to meet and interact with many of them.
“For me, the bottom line is that my time at KU changed how I work. Teaching and interacting with so many students made me more considerate and a better communicator. With the Department's support, I traveled to conferences to present my research, where I met other economists whose feedback helped me improve my work - some of which is now published.”
One major current project she is working on within the SARB Research Department involves how the adoption of foreign-pegged digital currencies affects monetary policy transmission in South Africa. Additional analysis she is conducting involves reviewing over-the-counter corporate bond transactions to test whether dealers who are well connected within the trading network earn a centrality premium. Finally, she says that she is pursuing her own line of research on how sovereign borrowing costs affect who bears the burden of fiscal consolidation in emerging market economies; and on how financial market signals can help predict downside risks to growth in South Africa.