Senior Ahmed Meshref's Capstone project on the transitions of single men with high school degrees or less, in and out of the labor force, and in and out of employment clinched the top prize in the Accounting, Economics, and Finance category at the seventh annual Undergraduate Research Competition held in Abu Dhabi. 

"I estimate the effects of state-level economic variables as well as demographics on their behavior and try to understand how did 'Job Polarization' and the Great Recession worsen their conditions," explained Meshref, an economics major.

This is not Meshref's first recognition for his research work. He was awarded second place last year for his research on the level of democracy and quality of governance using an instrumental variable approach.

"I was really lucky to work with amazing mentors at NYU Abu Dhabi, especially Professors John Ham (Capstone mentor), Ronald Rogowski (mentor for last year's project), Christian Haefke, (my major mentor), and Maximilian Mihm (my Capstone convener), whose efforts made this possible. Winning this competition is a great boost to continue doing more advanced research in the future."

This year's competition awarded teams from 17 universities in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi. 

Other NYUAD student presenters were Dayin Wijaya's Trade Liberalization and Labor Demand Elasticities: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia and Nischal Mainali's Automated Classification of Modes of Moral Reasoning in Judicial Decisions.