PC: Nick Barakos

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Management Division at Columbia Business School.

I study topics in economic and organizational sociology, race and ethnicity, and cultural sociology.

My research asks how individuals’ categorical statuses shape their market behavior and outcomes. I employ quantitative and qualitative methods to understand how race and gender affect individuals’ abilities to achieve key personal economic outcomes, including obtaining credit and debt relief, getting a job, and the contexts in which they open their own businesses. 

Using computational text analysis and archival data collection, I conducted research on the legislative debates and early legal practice of personal bankruptcy in the United States in the early twentieth century. My work builds on cultural theories of discrimination and stratification in markets. 

In ongoing research that employs quasi-experimental methods, I examine how barbershops and hair and nail salons foster the formation of social networks and contribute to local entrepreneurship, especially for women and in African American communities. I strive to shed light on how how race and gender interact with social networks to shape individual’s outcomes in markets.

I completed my Ph.D. in Sociology at Columbia University in 2023. I received my B.A. in Sociology from Princeton University.