Rodrigo Belo

Rodrigo Belo, PhD
Post-doctoral Fellow

H. John Heinz III College
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213
rbelo@cmu.edu

Background

Ph.D., Technological Change & Entrepreneurship, Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, 2012.
M.Sc., Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, 2011.
5-year B.Sc., Computer Science and Engineering, IST - Technical University of Lisbon, 2002.

Research

My research interests lie on the economics of technology adoption and diffusion. I currently pursue two streams of research, namely on the Economic Impacts of ICTs in Education, and on Peer Influence and Product Adoption in Large Social Networks.

Economic Impacts of ICTs in Education

I am interested in the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in students' learning experience, in how these technologies affect students' educational outcomes and skill acquisition. I am also interested in the community level effects of providing students with these technologies, namely in terms of home Internet adoption and adults' skills acquisition.

Peer Influence and Product Adoption in Large Social Networks

I am interested in quantifying the actual net effects of peer influence in large mobile and online social networks. Methodologically, identification of social influence in observational data is a difficult task, mainly due to phenomena such as homophily or other sources of correlation. I am interested in alternative methods to disentangle influence from these other effects.

Publications

Working Papers

Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira. "Spillover Effects of Broadband in Schools and the Critical Role of Children", working paper, Carnegie Mellon University.
Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira. "Using Randomization Methods to Identify Social Influence in Mobile Networks", working paper, Carnegie Mellon University.
Pedro Ferreira, Rodrigo Belo. "The Role of ICT on the Informal Education of STEM", working paper, Carnegie Mellon University, March 2012.

Journal Publications

Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira, Rahul Telang. "Broadband in School: Impact on Student Performance", Management Science, (forthcoming).

Papers in Refereed Conference Proceedings

Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira, Rahul Telang (2010). "Broadband in Schools: Does it help or hurt student performance?", International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS, St. Louis), December 2010.
Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira (2012)."Using Randomization to Identify Social Influence in Mobile Networks", The Fourth IEEE International Conference on Social Computing, SocialCom 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 3-5.

Papers in Refereed Conferences / Workshops

Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira (2012). "Spillover Effects of Broadband in Schools and the Critical Role of Children", Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, August 3-7.
Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira (2012)."Using Randomization Methods to Identify Social Influence in Mobile Networks", Statistical Challenges in eCommerce Research Symposium, Montreal, Quebec, June 28-29.
Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira (2012). "Spillover Effects of Broadband in Schools and the Critical Role of Children", 2012 Industry Studies Association Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, May 29-June 1.
Rodrigo Belo (2012). "Social Influence and Product Adoption in Mobile Networks", ICTNET 4th Workshop, London, April 23-24, 2012.
Rodrigo Belo (2011). "From School to Home: Spillover Effects of Broadband in Schools and the Critical Role of Children", ICTNET 3rd Workshop, Mannheim, October 24-25.
Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira (2011)."Using Randomization Methods to Identify Social Influence in Mobile Networks", Second Conference on the Analysis of Mobile Phone Datasets and Networks (NetMob 2011), Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 10-11.
Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira, Rahul Telang (2011). "The Effects of Broadband in Schools: Evidence from Portugal", Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany, June 27-28.
Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira, Rahul Telang (2010). "The Effects of Broadband in Schools: Evidence from Portugal", National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 23-24.

Conference and Seminar Presentations

"Social Influence and Product Adoption in Mobile Networks", ICTNET 4th Workshop, London, April 23-24, 2012.
"From School to Home: Spillover Effects of Broadband in Schools and the Critical Role of Children", ICTNET 3rd Workshop, Mannheim, October 24-25, 2011.
"Using Randomization Methods to Identify Social Influence in Mobile Networks", Second Conference on the Analysis of Mobile Phone Datasets and Networks (NetMob 2011), Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 10-11.
"The Effects of Broadband in Schools: Evidence from Portugal", Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany, June 27-28, 2011.
"Broadband in Schools: Does it help or hurt student performance?", International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS, St. Louis), December 2010.
"The Effects of Broadband in Schools: Evidence from Portugal", SETChange seminar, Carnegie Mellon University, October 2009.