Maria Perez

Current Position: 

Data Science Lead, Airbnb

Maria (Cuky) Perez is a Data Scientist at Airbnb. Cuky completed her PhD in the Economics of Education program at Stanford University in 2012. She received her professional degree in Economics from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, and a Master's degree in Economics at Stanford University. She is the recipient of the Stanford Interdisciplinary Fellowship (SIGF) and the Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation research concentrated on the theoretical and empirical effects of performance-based pay for teachers. In the first paper she addressed how inequity aversion differ among prospective teachers and lawyers by conducting a controlled behavioral experiment. In the second paper, she investigated how measures of teacher and school value-added interact with and/or predict incentive scheme preferences. And in her third paper she developed a general equilibrium model of teacher performance-based pay to simulate the potential general effects of this policy. Before coming to Stanford, she worked at the American Institute for Research (AIR) where she gained extensive experience directing evaluation projects on a range of public policy issues, particularly those related with English language learners, low performing schools, and students with disabilities.