Research
I am in the 5th year of an Economics PhD at Cornell University, where I am finishing my dissertation focusing on labour economics.
The Labour Market Effects of Genetics and Education (2025, JMP).
I investigate the extent that genes associated with education affect labour market outcomes, using random genetic inheritance as a natural experiment and adjusting various statistical concerns.
Draft forthcoming.
Causal Mediation in Natural Experiments (2025).
Applied econometrics paper showing how mediation works (or does not work) in a quasi-experimental setting — and what to do about it.
Working paper here, and slides here.
Extended Abstract
Natural experiments are a cornerstone of applied economics, providing settings for estimating causal effects with a compelling argument for treatment randomisation, but give little indication of the mechanisms behind causal effects. Causal Mediation (CM) provides a framework to analyse mechanisms by identifying the average direct and indirect effects (CM effects), yet conventional CM methods require the relevant mediator is as-good-as-randomly assigned. When people choose the mediator based on costs and benefits (whether to visit a doctor, to attend university, etc.), this assumption fails and conventional CM analyses are at risk of bias. I propose a control function strategy that uses instrumental variation in mediator take-up costs, delivering unbiased direct and indirect effects when selection is driven by unobserved gains. The method identifies CM effects via the marginal effect of the mediator, with parametric or semi-parametric estimation that is simple to implement in two stages. Applying these methods to the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment reveals a substantial portion of the Medicaid lottery's effect on self-reported health and happiness flows through increased healthcare usage --- an effect that a conventional CM analysis would mistake. This approach gives applied researchers an alternative method to estimate CM effects when an initial treatment is quasi-randomly assigned, but the mediator is not, as is common in natural experiments.Less Funding, More Lecturers, and Fewer Professors (2024).
Empirical economics paper connecting stagnating US higher education funding with substituting professors for lecturers.
Working paper here.
Food Insecurity Among Military Veterans (2025).
Joint with Seungmin Lee (Notre Dame), Chris Barrett, John Hoddinott (Cornell), Matthew Rabbitt (USDA).
Empirical economics project measuring food insecurity among military veterans, using newly crafted data from the PSID to causally measure the impact of military service on food insecurity outcomes.
Draft forthcoming.
Market Interventions in a Large-Scale Virtual Economy (2022).
Joint with Peter Xenopoulos, Claudio Silva (NYU). ArXiv paper here.
Study of large market interventions in an online multiplayer game’s economy, and the causal effects on market activity. Combines insights from applied economics and data science in the study of virtual games.