Elena Lutz

Elena Lutz

Elena Lutz

Student / Programme Doctorate at D-BAUG

ETH Zürich

Raumentwicklung und Stadtpolitik

HIL H 29.2

Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5

8093 Zürich

Switzerland

Additional information

Research area

Elena conducts research at the intersection of urban economics, urban planning, and data science.

In her PhD, she evaluates how different land use and transportation policies affect inequality, income segregation, and housing affordability in urban areas. For example, she uses cell phone data to investigate how better transportation services in Bogotá, Colombia, change mobility and labor market outcomes for residents of informal settlements. In another project, she studies how changes in zoning regulation affect housing affordability and income segregation in Switzerland. She also studies how inequality and segregation affect turnout.

She uses methods of causal inference and computational statistics combined with new data sources, e.g. from web scraping or big data from cell phones. 

Elena is also a Research Associate at the Urban Economics Lab at MIT, where she spent a year of her PhD.

Bio:

Before her PhD, Elena completed an MSc in Political Economy of Europe with distinction from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BSc in International Economics from the University of Tübingen, where she focused on Statistics. For her master's thesis in regional innovation, she received the Nathaniel Lichtfeld Award for the best master's thesis in regional studies.

She also spent a semester at the University of Hong Kong, completed internships at the German Central Bank, the German Development Agency (GIZ), and worked part-time at Ernst & Young.

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