Zein Alamah

I’ve always been the curious type, a person who constantly inquires about anything and everything. My teachers frequently complained to my mother that I asked too many questions. Anyone who knows me will laugh hearing about that, as that curiosity remains at the core of my identity. I have never been comfortable mindlessly memorizing information or accepting things at face value. Instead, I prefer understanding why things work the way they do, connecting concepts, and exploring broader ideas. While this didn’t help me much in traditional school settings, it became an advantage in graduate research, allowing me to approach complex problems with a broader perspective.

Another defining trait is what an old friend humorously called my “hyper-independence.” While teamwork has clear benefits, I’ve always preferred doing things myself, never taking comfort in relying on others. This independent streak led me to explore a variety of skills, such as programming, design, business strategy, and marketing. That meant I often learned things I wasn’t formally supposed to. Although I am not an expert in graphic design, I know enough to create this website, my logo, and various graphical elements I used in presentations.

Perhaps unexpectedly, my third defining characteristic is my inherent laziness, particularly my dislike for routine tasks. Ironically, this aversion sparked my interest in programming and automation. Instead of accepting repetitive tasks, I spent countless hours coding solutions that automated these tasks. While initially time-consuming, this eventually boosted my productivity significantly, especially during my research assistantship, where writing custom Stata commands became a rewarding challenge.

My entrepreneurial drive emerged early and was encouraged by my father. At 18, rather than attending a high-ranking university, I ventured into one of my many business attempts, starting a laser-cutting business. Although it ultimately failed financially, the hands-on lessons on business strategy, marketing, and real-world operations were invaluable. They set the foundation for my interest in business and understanding economic transactions.

Life didn’t exactly follow the plan I had in mind. Before considering grad school, I always assumed I’d work for a few years. But that plan unraveled quickly when Lebanon’s economic and social crises hit hard. Faced with a rapidly shifting reality, I applied to the MS in Finance program at the Lebanese University. Not long after, amid a global pandemic and all the uncertainty it brought, I pursued a second master’s degree in Applied Economics with the support of a generous assistantship at the Lebanese American University.

Somewhere along the way, something unexpected happened. I rediscovered programming. I had first picked up C++ as a teenager, but I had set that interest aside for years. It wasn’t until my Finance thesis, where I decided to run a Monte Carlo simulation, that I jumped back in. I had to teach myself Python from scratch and write hundreds of lines of code. That spark only grew stronger. During my second master’s, I worked as a research assistant and quickly realized how much I disliked repetitive tasks. That tendency towards “productive laziness” pushed me to automate parts of the statistical analysis process. I even began writing my own Stata commands, not because I had to, but because I wanted to make the work more efficient and less boring.

As a PhD candidate in Economics at Concordia University, I am motivated by three questions. What is value? How is it priced? Why is it priced that way? As I examine the disparity between intrinsic and perceived value, my curiosity and independence continue to shape my interest in programming, automation, and new research tools.