Women in Research #LINOecon: Anastasiya-Mariya Noha

Anastasiya-Mariya Noha from Ukraine is a PhD candidate at the International Center for Higher Education Research (INCHER) at the University of Kassel, Germany.

She works in the areas of development economics and economics of education. Her specialization is in digital social-emotional interventions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries and conflict settings.

Anastasiya participates in the 8^th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Economic Sciences.

Enjoy the interview with Anastasiya and get inspired:

What inspired you to pursue a career in science / in your discipline?

I initially received my bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Lviv with a major in marketing. I was drawn to careers that would be pro-social and require structured thinking and precision, and I couldn’t imagine such a career in marketing at that time. It really didn’t cross my mind for a long time that it was an option to be a researcher in economics at all. I was fortunate to read popular economics books, such as “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, “Nudge”, “Poor Economics”, and “Freakonomics”, and become fascinated by the way researchers in economics think about social processes, causal relationships, and economic development. That’s why I decided to pursue a career in this field.

Who are your role models?

Absolutely, Esther Duflo and Susan Athey. Their research is cutting-edge, socially relevant, and rigorous.

How did you get to where you are in your career path?

Firstly, I enrolled in a Master of Science in “Economic Behaviour and Governance” at the University of Kassel. Just being accepted to a German University was an incredible validation. I was filled with excitement and was very active in every course I took. In a year, I took on a job as a research assistant in data analysis for a large-scale randomized controlled trial in Ecuadorian schools, led by Igor Asanov and David McKenzie. After working on such an impressive project, I knew I would like to continue and pursue a PhD in the same field.

What is the coolest project you have worked on and why?

I worked on multiple randomized controlled trials in the area of development and education economics, and they were all incredibly cool. However, for me, the coolest project was the one with Igor Asanov and Guido Buenstorf, which we launched in 2022 after Ukraine was invaded. We adapted a WHO-based stress-management manual, “Doing what Matters in Times of Stress,” into an online course format and ran a trial testing it among Ukrainian refugees, internally displaced people, and Ukrainians in Ukraine. This was an incredibly challenging time for me, and being able to concentrate on a project I believed in so much definitely helped.

Another project I work on, and one that I simply cannot refrain from mentioning, is a World Bank-led project we are currently completing in Vietnam. It’s an RCT testing different delivery methods of a social-emotional training programme among 58,000 high-school students. This project involved cooperation from numerous international and Vietnamese organizations. Being there from the beginning and contributing to it coming together deeply impressed me and made me reconsider what is possible in our field.

What’s a time you felt immense pride in yourself / your work?

Honestly, receiving qualitative feedback on the courses we tested. When I work with the data, I sometimes lose sight of the “reality” of the project. To read reviews from real people who participated in a course and found it helpful was probably the happiest I’ve felt about our work. Naturally, only after evaluating the data from the experiment can one actually know whether the programme was effective. However, purely for the mental health of a researcher, seeing the qualitative feedback is priceless.

What is a “day in the life” of you like?

That usually depends on the stages of the projects I’m involved in. But it’s some combination of data analysis, writing papers, preparing for teaching or teaching, responding to emails, and participating in group calls with people from all around the world.

What are you seeking to accomplish in your career?

I like to think of scientific knowledge as a grand palace that we keep building and improving, sometimes adding new bricks, sometimes removing old ones and fixing them if we find a weakness, and sometimes even reorganizing entire sections. I love this process and would love to continue contributing to the palace for future generations to use and expand on.

What do you like to do when you’re not doing research?

Reading and writing fiction (mostly fantasy and horror), gaming (definitely shouldn’t tell my colleagues how many hours I have in Baldur’s Gate 3), and bouldering. I also spend a lot of time on the phone with my parents and friends who live in Ukraine.

What advice do you have for other women interested in science / in your discipline?

Most of the advice I have works both for men and women – put your mental health first, make peace with null results, as they are an inseparable element of rigorous research, and always triple-check your analysis. Also, find supervisors and colleagues who are interested in your development and will support you throughout the whole journey. The advice I would give specifically to women would be to trust their instincts and not follow every piece of advice that’s suitable for men. For example, I don’t like the “email like a man” trend; I still prefer to write “sorry for the delay” in my emails rather than “thank you for your patience”, as it’s polite and creates an environment for admitting mistakes.

In your opinion, what will be the next great breakthrough in science / in your discipline?

I think there will be a lot of breakthroughs related to machine learning and AI, both in terms of using them for causal inference and in terms of evaluating AI’s effect on society.

What should be done to increase the number of female scientists and professors?

I would say long-term contracts at the levels of scientific careers after the PhD.