Connor Tragesser

Connor Tragesser

Ph.D. candidate in political science at Ohio State, specializing in causal inference. Former analyst at Charles River Associates.

Connor Tragesser

I am a Ph.D. candidate in political science at The Ohio State University, specializing in quantitative methods and causal inference. Before graduate school, I spent two years as an analyst in the financial economics practice at Charles River Associates in Washington, D.C., analyzing consumer lending data for fair lending litigation. I returned to graduate school to deepen the econometric and causal inference methods I had been developing there. My dissertation draws on data from a variety of sources to show how the American public processes economic information and translates it into political evaluations.

Skills

Statistical methods: Causal inference, econometrics, regression modeling, survey methodology, data validation, data visualization

Programming: R (advanced), Python, SQL, Stata

Tools: DuckDB, Git, high-performance computing (SLURM), ArcGIS, SPSS, LaTeX

Experience

Doctoral Researcher, Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University (2023–present)

  • Built a SQL (DuckDB) and R pipeline that sources and curates 90+ statewide voter-file archives into an analysis-ready panel, processing over 400 million records covering 15.8 million registrants across three states
  • Apply quasi-experimental research designs in R to estimate how credit availability affects electoral behavior, testing every result against alternative specifications, bandwidths, and control groups
  • Translate model output into figures, written summaries, and conference presentations for audiences with varying technical backgrounds

Fellow, Program in Statistics and Methodology (PRISM), The Ohio State University (2026–present)

  • Lead methods workshops and advise graduate researchers on data cleaning and modeling problems in their own projects

Graduate Research Assistant, Comparative National Elections Project, The Ohio State University (2024–2025)

  • Validated and integrated survey data collected by field researchers in more than 30 countries into a longitudinal cross-national dataset cited in over 100 articles and books
  • Developed standardized coding protocols and data documentation for a distributed international team, then managed their handoff from Ohio State to Pompeu Fabra University

Analyst / Associate, Financial Economics Practice, Charles River Associates (2021–2023)

  • Built Stata and Python pipelines to clean and analyze consumer lending data for fair lending and discrimination matters, from tens of thousands of HMDA-reportable mortgage and auto records to 20+ million card-level transaction observations
  • Produced result tables, exhibits, and written reports communicating statistical findings to clients, opposing counsel, and federal regulators
  • Managed 4–5 simultaneous litigation support projects under deadline, with peer code review and quality-assurance checks on every deliverable
  • Co-authored a memo on the effect of COVID-era debt management programs on credit card default rates

Research Assistant, UBI Center (2021)

  • Developed Python-based economic analyses of universal basic income policies, modeling distributional effects on the racial wealth gap for a published report

Education

Ph.D., Political Science (expected May 2027), The Ohio State University University Fellowship, 2023–24; Political Science Department Fellowship, Summer 2025 and Summer 2026; Graduate Minor in Economics (expected)

B.S., Economics & Political Science (2021), The Ohio State University Summa cum laude; Research Distinction