In preparation for ABFM’s upcoming conference in Denver, I am doing a series of profiles on the doctoral students on the job market.

Iuliia (Yulia) Shybalkina (Maxwell-Syracuse) will be presenting “What Makes Public Participation More “Pro-Poor”? Evidence from Participatory Budgeting” in the 8:15am Friday session. The associated article has a revise-and-resubmit with Public Budgeting and Finance, here is the abstract:

We attempt to measure the effects of participatory budgeting on the allocation of capital funding among areas of different income levels within New York City council districts. We created a longitudinal, geocoded dataset of all projects funded with council member capital discretionary money over nine years. We employ a difference-in-differences design, which compares changes in the allocation of funding in adopting districts before and after the adoption of participatory budgeting to changes over the same period among a control group consisting of later adopters. We find that, on average, adopting districts increase funding in the next to the lowest income census tracts more than the control group, but there is no evidence of participatory budgeting redirecting funds to the lowest income census tracts.

Her dissertation is “Does Citizen Engagement in Public Finance Administration Support or Undermine Equity?” and is chaired by Robert Bifulco. She has a second job market paper that similarly looks at participatory budgeting in New York City, this time looking the role of “dedicated and involved” public officials in helping low income neighborhoods obtain a larger share of capital projects. Her other work on property assessment appeals demonstrate her skills as a mixed-methods researcher.

Her profile page at Syracuse is found here.