Role
Graduate Student in Economics
Bio/Description

Mark Bamba is a PhD student in the economics department and studies the economic impact of urban transit systems. His current project studies the public transit system of Tokyo, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and host to one of the largest urban railway networks in the world. In particular, he studies the expansion of Tokyo's rail network from 1990-2020 as a natural experiment in order to calibrate an urban economic-geography model. The model is then used to simulate how hypothetical transportation networks would alter the spatial distribution of economic activity in Tokyo and affect welfare. The goal of the research is to provide a better understanding of the economic impact of public transit so that policy makers can determine how to invest in public infrastructure in the future.