Zach Freitas-Groff

Funding for research assistance in gathering data on the persistence, expansion, and reversal of laws over 5+ decades.

Zach Freitas-Groff is a PhD student in economics at Stanford University. He asked for funding to hire research assistants on Upwork to help gather data on close referenda in the U.S. as part of a project estimating how long the impact lasts from different types of ballot initiatives. Zach suggested this research could:

a) Boost the profile of longtermist economics research, by showing it’s possible to make empirical progress on a concrete question about how to have longer impact; and b) Provide concretely useful information on how to most effectively influence policy via ballot initiative.

I was most interested in the way this grant could further Zach’s career; references described him as one of the most promising global priorities researchers and economists in the EA movement.