Economic Development & Public Policy Evaluation

📋 Research Overview

This theme examines how place-based policies, public infrastructure investment, and economic development programs affect firms, workers, communities, and regional labor markets. Research uses quasi-experimental designs, spatial econometrics, regression discontinuity, difference-in-differences, and administrative microdata to produce rigorous causal estimates of policy impact. Substantive areas include road and infrastructure stimulus, guaranteed minimum income programs, payments for ecosystem services, housing markets and foreign buyer taxes, local economic development strategies, and workforce and income dynamics in growing cities. This research is internationally comparative, drawing on large administrative datasets from China, Australia, and the United States. NSF-funded work currently examines the societal and economic impacts of place-based innovation policies.

💰 External Funding

📄 Featured Publications