Professor Craine’s primary interest is in the financial economics. He is currently researching on the dollarization effect on the Argentina’s economy. His research question is whether saving the cost of the interest rate spread is worth giving up the option to adjust and to absorb exogenous nominal shocks.

Professor Craine usually develops his research topics from the current events that interest him. However, sometimes the topics can be too abstract or too general to be pursued as research topics. He recommends students to read books or articles on the topics and to ask more specific questions to narrow down the topics. It may be difficult for the undergraduate students who are new to the thesis writing and do not have enough course works that concentrate in the specific areas. But, with more economics courses and with more research writing, it will become easier.

Professor Craine also advises students to start their thesis papers with some dynamic data sets, such as the daily stock price, to avoid uncertainty. Such data can be found and observed everyday on the newspaper, and can easily correlate with other data. An additional benefit for using dynamic data sets is that the thesis topics can be tested both ways. Correlated or not, either one can be presented as an excellent thesis finding.

Professor Craine would make a good thesis adviser for anyone who is interested in the financial market. He is very approachable and knowledgeable. He would be glad to answer any students’ questions on the financial economics. However, he will only be in Berkeley from September to March. If you want to ask Professor Craine to be your thesis advisor, it is recommended that you complete your thesis before April.