Hamzah S. Ahmed

Ph.D. Candidate in Economics · University of Southern California

I am a third-year Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of Southern California. My research sits at the intersection of labor and public economics, with a focus on how policy affects the lives of children and families. I study questions in child welfare, education, and social policy using administrative data and quasi-experimental methods.

Before USC, I completed my M.A. in Economics at Duke University and my B.S. in Applied and Computational Mathematics at USC, where I graduated summa cum laude.

hamzahah@usc.edu Personal Website Curriculum Vitae

Research

Working Paper

Improving School Funding Decisions using AI: Evidence from Nevada

Simon Quach & Hamzah Ahmed

We estimate the causal effects of an AI-driven risk reclassification policy on school funding allocation and student outcomes in Nevada. Using reduced-form methods, we exploit the introduction of an algorithmic risk assessment tool that changed which schools were designated as at-risk, thereby reshaping the distribution of state funding across the public school system.

Work in Progress

Family Separation and Economic Hardship: Evidence from Foster Care Placements

Hamzah Ahmed

This paper studies the economic consequences of child removal on birth parents. I exploit quasi-random variation in child removal decisions to identify the causal effects of foster care placement on parental labor market outcomes and economic wellbeing.

Work in Progress

Competition or Cream-Skimming? Charter School Expansion and Public School Quality in Nevada

Hamzah Ahmed

I study the effects of charter school entry on traditional public school quality in Nevada, using administrative school-level data and quasi-experimental variation in charter school expansion. A key question is whether any observed effects on public schools reflect genuine competitive responses or compositional changes driven by selective enrollment.

Hamzah S. Ahmed

Research

Curriculum Vitae

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