Welcome to the Jumpstart Lab!
About the Jumpstart Lab
The Jumpstart Lab (or jlab for short) is an applied economics research project and lab started at the University of British Columbia in 2024 by Dr Jonathan Graves that helps undergraduate economics students get started with research.
Based at UBC’s Vancouver School of Economics, our team consists of faculty and students (at all levels) who work together to create new research projects and discover new economic relationships and facts.
Our Goals
The jlab has two goals: (1) to develop young undergraduate economics researchers, and (2) to produce and disseminate high-quality economics research about topics of interest to our team members.
Developing Researchers
The first goal of the jlab is to help undergraduate students get started with their first research projects. This include developing fundamental skills, such as:
- Identifying research problems and opportunities.
- Using collaborative research software, such as
gitor Asana. - Conducting focused and high-quality literature reviews and research syntheses.
- Performing data clean-up and validation.
- Learning to perform econometric analysis using software such as
R. - Creating rich visualization and analyses of descriptive data.
Students learn these skills by working with other students and the lab PIs on different applied projects.
We accept undergraduate researchers from the University of British Columbia’s school of economics, including students who are minoring or doing interdisciplinary studies. Students can be from any academic level or program, including:
- First or second year students, after completing at least 1 course in economics, even before declaring their major.
- Third year or above, if you either major or minor in economics, or are completing a program in interdisciplinary studies.
- Other students who have taken at least 3 courses in economics and have a strong interest in specific areas of economics relevant to our current projects.
If you are interested in getting involved, you can find more information below.
Conducting Economics Research
The second goal of the jlab is to produce and disseminate economics research. We have a model of “learning-by-doing.” While our first goal is pedagogical, the end goal is to let students create research projects that they can share, publish, and put on their resumes as examples of outstanding economics research. To support this goal, we have several principles:
- Team members are researchers first, not just students. All members of a lab who make a significant contribution to a project will be recognized as co-authors on a paper, and all contributors will be recognized on our project pages and acknowledgements.
- Peer-review and publications are our goals. When we work, we keep in mind that all our work will be treated like any other scholar. We engage in our work seriously and responsibly, and take feedback to heart. We use replicable and transparent methods of doing research, and ensure our work will pass critical scrutiny.
- We are professionals, but we have fun. Research is supposed to be fun, and so is the
jlab. We set high expectations for one another, and we hold one another to high professional and ethical standards (see our philosophy). However, there’s no pressure to publish here, and learning is the greatest prize, more than anything else.
You can see some of our current research project on our project pages.
Get Involved
The jlab is run mostly by volunteers. If you are interested in getting involved:
- Review our current projects and see if any are interesting to you.
- Read over our code of conduct and research philosophy.
- If you think these are both great, get involved by submitting an application.
The jlab is interdisciplinary: students in economics or other fields are welcome. If you have any questions you can contact .