I grew up in the American Midwest. I have lived in 18 towns, villages, and cities across Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Wisconsin. Through a childhood spent as “the new kid,” I gained an objective perspective on human behavior and an interest in the functioning of our social system. I am fascinated by the ways in which individuals interact with each other and with society as a whole through their consumption habits. My current research interest is focused on food consumption. I am interested in alternative foods, why people choose to consume them, and the impact of those choices on the individual and the marketplace. In my spare time, I enjoy SCUBA diving, playing wiffleball, cooking, watching movies, and playing computer games.

Area of interest: Motivation and consumption; pathologies of maladaptive patterns of consumption; the economic/consumption behaviors of emerging adults. People and their behavior interest me. I majored in math and economics—I would have chosen psychology instead of economics but I was one course closer to completing the major in economics. While finishing my BA I searched for graduate programs that would sweep across disciplinary boundaries in the study of human behavior: I found the MA in QMSS at Columbia. My advisor was a demographer and I ended up writing my thesis on the early life experiences and the transition to adulthood. The program was a terminal degree and it seemed that most PhD programs required depth at the expense of breadth. At that point I took some time to study for rabbinic ordination which I received. After considering employment opportunities I came across the CBFE degree at UW. My interests in economics and psychology correlate, roughly, with the two degree tracks. Recently I have been studying the literature that connects basic human needs with patterns in consumption—particularly how when these needs are unmet then maladaptive patterns of consumption emerge. This relates to my work on emerging adulthood as this is a particularly sensitive period of development. This follows the increased popularity of “materialism” research. I do not have specific expectations professionally, though I expect that at least part of my work would involve trying to improve people’s lives

My area of interest is the household level economic consequences (i.e. saving behavior, conspicuous consumption) of social marginalization. My research centers on the idea that social structures (such as racism) impact household financial decision making on areas such as saving and asset allocation by limiting access rather than simply shifting preferences (the traditional economic approach). My Masters thesis was on ethnic differences in status conveying consumption (published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 2006) and my more recent research examines race and asset allocation (Financial Counseling and Planning, 2007) and the formal retirement saving of immigrant households (forthcoming). My dissertation focus is the ‘financial acculturation’ process of immigrant households, including savings decisions, the role of social networks in financial decision making, and alternatives to traditional/formal financial behavior used by immigrants. Prior to entering graduate school I spent several years in retail management, and have maintained an interest in business and market research. I currently conduct business and market research consulting for both local and national financial institutions with Chamberlain Research Consultants. Although the majority of my research has used large national data and been quantitative in nature, I have conducted both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses in this capacity. After completing my dissertation I hope to obtain a tenure-track position at a major research university in a consumer economics, family ecology, sociology, or ethnic studies department. I will also likely maintain a consulting business, continuing my relationship with the financial institutions I currently work with.

I was not very familiar with consumer behavior and family economics before I came to US and learned about it from a friend. It is a fascinating field because it attempts to make sense of our daily lives. Using economic theory, the field examines why consumers buy, why people get married, even why they have children. My current research, for my Master’s thesis, is on the relationship between family shock and children’s educational attainment. When I was in college, I was always involved in some volunteer work to help those kids who didn’t have enough financial resources for school. This experience has led to my interest in research on children’s well-being, especially on their education-level. I think it is a very useful and important topic because education plays a very significant role in children’s future careers, social status and living standard. On a personal note: In Chinese, “Dong” means winter. My father gave me this name because I was born in winter. In my spare time I like running and playing badminton. Cooking is my other hobby. It makes me feel happy when my husband and friends enjoy my food. I have been taking a piano class for two semesters. I am still a very beginner now, but I think I’m getting better and better.

I developed in college my interest in industrial organization and behavioral economics, a field that focuses on alternative explanations of how individuals, households and firms make decisions. Areas of particular interest to me include household development, wage setting and unemployment. There is a large literature that deals with those issues within the neoclassical framework.  In graduate school, I aim to gain a deeper understanding of the literature, as well as seeking possible breakthroughs in theory. In my bachelor degree thesis I attempt to model the mechanism of wage setting under asymmetric information, and explain issues such as why large firms in some industries would offer wages several times higher than smaller firms for the same type of work, and why the minimum wage may reduce social welfare. I have also conducted empirical research on the job market for recent college graduates following the methodology in Marianne and Sendhil (2003). The Department of Consumer Science has strengths in household economic theory and connections with many research centers. Its interdisciplinary training will broaden my research methodology skills. I am looking forward to the challenge and fulfillment of studying here.

My undergraduate degree focus was personal finance. Although I found that focus extremely interesting, I learned in my senior year that I did not want to be a financial planner. After talking to my advisor I learned that he too went through a similar undergraduate program and was able to still work with many of things I enjoy but from a research and Extension standpoint. Upon completion of my degree I would like to be a professor and help educate masses on financial management. I’ve never had a “real” job. I started graduate school right after four years of undergrad. I enjoy traveling and was able to spend some time in Trinidad & Tobago with a few friends last winter. This fall I was in Florida for two conferences and also in Columbus, Ohio for the UW football game-go Bucky! I am interested in household financial “adequacies.” For my M.S. thesis I am investigating whether households have enough financial resources to retire with a desired standard of living as well as if households have enough current financial resources to maintain a desired standard of living if a spouse were to die tomorrow.

I will describe myself as a traveler, since I’ve lived in different cities in China and the U.S. since I was born. The curiosity to explore new things that developed from my gravels has influenced my academic interests. In my first semester here, I finished a project concerning online purchasing behavior, which was inspired by my personal experience as a heavy e-shopper. As I explored the field of consumer behavior further, I gradually found that what I feel most comfortable with and excited about is to predict and forecast behavior with known information. Ambitious as it seems, I’ve taken my first step: Last semester, I researched how to relate real consumption with measures from consumer confidence data, at both the macro and micro levels. Results showed that consumer confidence can be a well-performed indicator of real consumption. Right now I will continue to study this topic as well as assist Professor Zepeda in researching organic food consumption.

Area of interest: Ethical, environmental, or health conscious consumer behavior; Co-op and non-profit organization; Business social responsibility. Volunteering at an organic farming community my freshman year first introduced me to consumption issues. I was impressed by the consumer co-op movement which played an important role in the growth of organic farming in Korea. I realized that consumption had the power to change the way products were produced. Throughout my undergraduate years, I participated in various activities on ‘Green Consumption’. After graduation, I worked as a magazine reporter at the Korean Research Institute for Cooperatives. It was a good opportunity to explore various businesses and organizations. Since I loved writing and wanted to be a good writer who was able to bridge theory and practice, I began my graduate study. While working on my master’s thesis, I endeavored to learn both quantitative research methods and qualitative ones. After my master’s coursework I worked as a research assistant and executive staff of the Korean Institute for Consumer Education for two years. Since I hoped to explore my field of interest in an international setting beyond my country, I decided to pursue a PhD at the UW-Madison in the USA. I also thought the program’s emphasis on interdisciplinary approach coincided with my desire to study social, economical, and historical aspects of consumer behavior and organization. I’ll do my best so that studying in the UW-Madison will be a new energy for my academic growing and my life.

Fulbright Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I come to the UW-Madison because of its emphasis on research, and the wide range of topics of study it offers. Currently, I wish to study about buyer’s remorse, since the topic is very relevant to my personal experiences, that I often buy something I do not really need, or even I do not really want, and I just realize it after I pay the goods. It always makes me feel guilty, when I realize the opportunity cost of buying the things I do not need, want, or like, and I am sure that I am not the only person with such experience. Unfortunately, in my home country, the caveat emptor principle rules; a buyer cannot return the goods he/she has paid for the reason that he/she bought wrong item. The experiences of buying unwanted or unneeded things make me more interested to know and study more about the consumers’ decision making, and the consumers’ remorse itself if he/she realized that he/she has made a wrong decision. Nevertheless, it will not nullify the probability of studying other areas, if I find other more fascinating topics in the future. My future career plan is either to be an academia or working in the United Nations. I hope that by becoming academia or staff at the UN, I would be able to do further research about the topic I am interested to, and do research that can have useful impact to the society.

Areas of interest: Nonprofit Sector, Volunteering, and Philanthropy. For my undergraduate degree I studied social work and swam competitively at the collegiate level. After graduating from Iowa, I lived in Singapore for three months, and then worked at United Way as an early childhood initiative coordinator. After a year of working, I decided to come back to my home town University, where the rest of my family had attended. By attending UW-Madison I felt I would be able to gain the necessary educational skills to further my career in the nonprofit sector as well as experience mentoring relationships with faculty along the way. I was attracted to the department of Consumer Science and the graduate program in Consumer Behavior and Family Economics due to my interest in working with the faculty and staff at SoHE who are involved with nonprofit agencies and do community action research. So far, I have been given wonderful opportunities to do preliminary research for the SoHE’s Center for Nonprofits as well as doing some outside research for local nonprofits. After graduating, I hope to travel to Greece and Italy before starting a job in the nonprofit sector, or possibly continuing on to get my PhD.  Eventually I would like to run a nonprofit organization and/or local foundation.

I am interested in personal and family finance. Research in this area could have inestimable value and great impact on human's life. First, consumption is an essential part of life for every person and family. Second, we are living in an age of commodity explosion. There is a learning curve for most consumers to behave in a way they feel is the most comfortable. For each consumer, how to act in this ever-changing market and how to bring the maximum benefit to a person or a family by using limited resource is especially important. These are reasons why I would like to dig more into this field in which employment is my career aspiration. My career plan is to be a personal and family financial consultant.

Born in the 1980s, I witnessed great changes in consumer behavior in China throughout my life. As an Economics undergraduate, I found it very interesting to study the economy from the consumers’ perspective, when they buy, why they buy and how they buy. Through my exchange experience in Japan, I became particularly interested in cultural influence on consumer behavior and in building cross-cultural marketing strategies. I took an experimental class with other international students to study people’s behavior in cross-cultural context. It would be more interesting if I could apply this study to consumer behavior. Another issue intriguing me is that many multinational companies are not doing well in China although they have the top market researchers. The problem is they do not understand Chinese people’s mindsets. Therefore, I am also eager to study sociology and psychology as well as other methods to get a more comprehensive view of consumer behavior. Currently I am thinking about a career in retailing or consulting in an international setting after graduation.

My family immigrated from South Korea when I was 8 years old. I have been fortunate enough to travel to Korea as well as many other countries while growing up, and through these experiences, I have naturally developed an interest in cultural similarities and differences. Of course, shopping has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was very young, so the field of consumer behavior just seemed to be the perfect path for me. I am particularly interested in the social-cultural motivations for consumption such as peer pressure, reference group expectations, social identity, and conspicuous consumption, and I found that migration to another country is an excellent cross-section to observe how the social environment affects and changes social consumption behavior. Hence, my current research is on whether international student communities encourage higher amounts of conspicuous consumption compared to students in their country-of-origin, immigrant students, and American students. In the future, I hope to continue into a PhD and academia to further research the relationship between social environment and consumption, particularly in regards to how poverty affects consumption psychology and how this knowledge can help improve the quality of life in poorer countries. I believe that marketers can actually be a positive force in this world and that they can distribute beneficial products and services as well as knowledge and education to people who are often excluded from the “global economy.” It is our job as consumer behaviorists and advocates to ensure that the consumption rights of people who do not have great financial means are still preserved.

I was born in Southern California and moved to Wisconsin when I was four years old. I have always viewed my Iranian heritage as a tremendous asset and vibrant medium through which I view the world. As an undergrad I majored in Consumer Science at UW – Madison. My area of interest was Consumer Rights. I chose UW – Madison to continue my graduate education because it is the ideal place for me to grow and nurture my dreams, both academically and personally. After I finish my graduate degree, I would like to work for NGOs as a consumer advocate and peace activist.