Current Work
My current work is connected by an interest in institutional research and the use of linked administrative data to address broader questions in economics and public policy. Much of this work examines how educational institutions, labour markets, and public organizations (like the armed forces) contribute to the development and allocation of human capital and labour market capacity. These themes have led to three related areas of research and professional activity.
- The economic returns to (or opportunity costs of) PhD education (with Boriana Miloucheva and Natalia Vigezzi): examining the educational, career, and earnings trajectories of doctoral graduates in Canada using administrative and census data. The project explores questions surrounding completion, attrition, opportunity costs, and labour market outcomes, as well as broader questions concerning educational investments and human capital formation. See the working paper.
- Financial aid and enrolment management (with Angelique Saweczko and Annabel Thornton): applying a strategic enrolment management lens to institutional financial aid design, with a particular focus on how funding structures affect access, affordability, educational opportunity, and student success.
- Personnel and defence economics: an emerging research agenda that brings together longstanding interests in labour and personnel economics with questions of military service, human capital, and national capacity. Current work focuses on recruitment, retention, education, and career trajectories in the Royal Canadian Navy (and the Canadian Armed Forces), while more broadly examining the role of skills, education, and labour market capacity in supporting Canada's defence and defence-adjacent sectors.