![Rahul Singh](/sites/g/files/omnuum5991/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2025-12/25_1209_Singh_01.jpg?itok=4_toYYkz) # Rahul Singh Reflects on the 'Magic' of Academia December 09, 2025 Rahul Singh is invigorated by the intellectual atmosphere of universities. Whether he is drawing on the interdisciplinary energy of the Harvard Society of Fellows or engaging with students and colleagues, he approaches university life with the wide-eyed excitement of someone encountering a world of possibilities for the first time. ![decoration](/sites/g/files/omnuum5991/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-12/25_1209_Singh03.jpg?itok=dYzzyPmh) Singh has been seated in the Harvard University Department of Economics since 2023, in the role of a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows. He officially joined the faculty this fall as an Assistant Professor of Economics. In the spring semester Singh will teach the graduate-level econometrics course—ECON 2140: Econometric Methods—where he will follow in the footsteps of some of the world's most notable econometricians – think Chamberlain, Jorgenson, Imbens, Tamer, Kasy. He recently took the time to share more about himself and his road to the Harvard University Department of Economics. **Q: Can you describe the path that led you to Harvard?** After attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio, Singh earned a BA in economics and mathematics from Yale University. His first days on the Yale campus proved formative. “After my first couple of weeks at Yale, I knew that I loved universities and that I wanted to be a professor,” he explains. His academic journey continued as a Marshall Scholar at the London School of Economics, where he earned an MSc in econometrics and mathematical economics. The following year, he completed an MSc in computational statistics and machine learning at University College London. He went on to earn a PhD in economics and statistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the Harvard Society of Fellows in 2023. Singh’s first two years in the department as a postdoctoral fellow gave him the advantage of a “soft launch” after graduate school, as well as the opportunity to devote himself full-time to research. In addition to offering an ideal environment for scholarship, the fellowship allowed him to become part of a multidisciplinary community. The Society of Fellows at Harvard has 12 scholars in Singh’s cohort, representing a wide range of fields, yet they form a close-knit group, spending time together and meeting for meals several times a week. “The incredible generosity of Harvard allowed me to try something new and risky,” he explains, which led to his new stream of applied econometrics. “I don’t know if otherwise I would have had the bandwidth to pursue it.” ![decorative](/sites/g/files/omnuum5991/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-12/25_1209_Singh02.jpg?itok=Neh0aQ0V) On a more personal level, he says the guidance from his colleagues has been invaluable. “Elie (Tamer), Neil (Shephard), Jim (Stock), Jessie (Shapiro), and Raj (Chetty) have all been very generous,” Singh explains. He notes that Neil Shephard has helped him learn how to package his research effectively, Jim Stock provides insightful feedback, and Elie Tamer is consistently generous with his time. Jessie Shapiro has helped to identify the economic impacts, and Raj Chetty frequently shares data from Opportunity Insights. Just a few doors down from his Littauer office, colleague and co-author Davide Viviano offers what Singh calls “the single most important reason” for being at Harvard—the opportunity to work alongside talented and generous colleagues. “This is just a great place to be as a young person,” Singh says. “I have enjoyed getting to know academics in other fields through the fellows program.” Add to that the students, and Singh is delighted to be here. “I have to acknowledge how good the students are here,” he says. “Other faculty agree that Harvard students are actually amazing.” **Q: Tell us about your dissertation research** “Raj Chetty gave a seminar at Yale related to his ’Where is the Land of Opportunity?’ paper. I used that data for my undergraduate thesis and then ended up expanding on those themes and challenges for my PhD dissertation,” Singh explains. In his dissertation, he developed tools for flexible causal inference by integrating machine learning into econometrics and addressing the challenges that arise at their intersection. His work focused on three areas: causal inference using privacy-protected data, providing rigorous statistical guarantees for machine-learning methods, and creating simple algorithms to address complex causal questions. His job market paper was motivated by the 2020 Census. “The Census Bureau recently started adding ‘noise’ to the data to create anonymity—for the sake of privacy. This highlights a trade-off between privacy and usability in economic data,” he explains. “We wanted a method to estimate economic parameters in the data well despite the noise.” Another stream of his dissertation research creates confidence bands for machine learning estimators such as kernel ridge regression. “Machine learning gives us exciting new tools for data analysis, but economists can be reluctant to use them until they have reliable confidence bands.” Most recently, he has collaborated with Davide Viviano and Ashesh Rambachan, resulting in the paper "[Program Evaluation with Remotely Sensed Outcomes.]()" This study provides practical principles on how to use remotely sensed variables in environmental and development economics. Specifically, the paper provides a new formula for researchers who use satellite images to detect crop burning and deforestation. **Q: How does your background impact your research and your teaching?** Singh’s interactions with his mentors helped shape how he works with students. As an undergraduate at Yale, his introduction to senior lecturer Tolga Koker steered him toward economics. “Tolga Koker was very charismatic,” Singh explains. “He hired me to be a grader, then told me to get a PhD.” At MIT, Singh’s interest in econometrics and statistics deepened—due in part to his work with Professor Whitney Newey. “During the first summer of my PhD, I would meet with Whitney for a couple of hours every day. He wanted to think about research out loud, and I would think through everything he was saying. I would write it up each day.” ![decorative](/sites/g/files/omnuum5991/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-12/25_1209_Singh04.jpg?itok=Pb5MeXdV) Singh also credits Professor Anna Mikusheva with teaching him how to learn. “In the first semester of my PhD, Anna created a reading group in her office for just me and another student, so we could explore an unconventional topic that wasn’t in our courses.” Now, Singh says he follows the method that got him here. “Maybe my work with Whitney and Anna was a bit of an apprentice model—spending one-on-one time with students,” he says. “It’s definitely more personal that way. It may be a bit old school, but I like it.” His teaching style also directly reflects his own experience as a student. One of his first teaching assignments was a perfect fit for Singh, who says his late start in statistics was a challenge. “I was a TA at MIT for an intro statistics course for social science students. It was an interesting class where students cared about social science but might have been intimidated by the math.” His success as a TF grew out of reflecting on those early experiences. “I had to keep in mind that, at the beginning, statistics felt hard because I learned it late, and I had to figure things out for myself.” That self-reflection helped shape his teaching style. “Reminding myself that it was hard for me the first time helps me to explain ideas to students.” His future work with undergrads will continue through the [SPUDS (Summer Program for Undergraduates in Data Science)](https://uraf.harvard.edu/spuds) and [SUPER (Semester Undergraduate Program for Economics Research)](https://www.economics.harvard.edu/super) programs—where he will have the opportunity to channel his inner Koker and Newey and Mikusheva to leave a formative impact on students. One can hope he will leave the students with a Singh-influence as well, that drives them to relish in the environment of learning. As the new assistant professor enthusiastically puts it, “Universities are magical things.” Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)