Research Statement
I study how people, households, and firms respond to change and disruption, and what those responses mean for welfare and policy. My toolkit draws on large-scale cellphone mobility data alongside housing, survey, and satellite data, combined with causal inference and applied econometric methods, and a healthy obsession with getting identification right.
Featured In
MIT Sloan · Ideas Made to Matter
Aircraft noise impacts home values, new data shows
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The Conversation
PFAS exposure through food, water, and lakes: new maps show how risk from forever chemicals varies
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Agricultural Policy Review · Iowa State University
Iowa Lakes Drive Over $1 Billion in Recreational Spending Each Year
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Extensions & Tools
Interactive Research Tool
PFAS Exposure Risk Dashboard
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as "forever chemicals," are persistent synthetic compounds detected widely across the U.S. This dashboard translates PFAS exposure estimates across industrial, drinking water, recreational, and dietary pathways into ZIP-level risk scores, enabling community-level analysis to support targeted environmental health policies.
2,991+
Known contaminated
locations in the U.S.
locations in the U.S.
2,593
Public water systems
tested (MI/NY/PA)
tested (MI/NY/PA)
23M
Population served by
tested systems
tested systems
Research Focus
Core Method & Data
Cellphone Mobility Data for Economic Research
Much of my work turns high-frequency smartphone location data into revealed-preference evidence for environmental, agricultural, and urban policy questions — built on structural demand estimation and collaborations with researchers across institutions. Datasets, methods, and papers below.
Research
Published & Under Review
Shrinkflation, Unit Price Disclosure, and Consumer Welfare: Evidence from Canned Tuna
Published+
Consumers in unit-price-disclosure states are three times more responsive to price changes, consistent with disclosure increasing price salience. Nationwide disclosure would raise consumer surplus by $3.03M short-term, $8.33M long-term. Only 16 states currently require such labeling.
Causal Recreation Demand Estimation with Cellphone Mobility Data: Evidence from 2021 Huntington Beach Oil Spill
Published+
$1.03M aggregate welfare loss; $83k/week losses persisted beyond closure. Integrates empirical Bayes into a two-step random coefficient logit model for low-visit sites.
Evaluating Precision, Privacy, and Representation with Cell Phone Data: Evidence from Cape Cod Beaches
Published+
MWTP $8.92/visit under best practices. Differential privacy reduces MWTP by 65%; relaxed dwell time by 57%. Highlights privacy-accuracy trade-offs in non-market valuation.
Quantifying Recreational Benefits from Fish Consumption Advisories
Published+
WTP to avoid advisory sites ~$72/quarter; $87 in summer. Full disclosure generates $3.4M in aggregated annual welfare benefits.
Harnessing Human Mobility Data for Applied Economic Research: Current Knowledge, Challenges, and Emerging Opportunities
Published+
Survey covering contributions of mobility data to travel behavior, labor markets, social interactions, and health outcomes. Addresses measurement errors, sampling biases, and privacy trade-offs.
Uncovering Disparities in Water-based Outdoor Recreation using Cellphone Mobility Data
Published+
From 70M+ outdoor trips, communities of color, rural areas, and disadvantaged groups are significantly underrepresented in water-based recreation. Native Americans travel 3–5× longer distances.
How Do Firms Respond to Political Tensions? Chinese Food Importers
Published+
20% persistent decline in Norwegian fresh salmon imports. "Political hedging" effect: 20% reduction in max import share from any single country three years post-sanction.
Estimating the Economic Cost of Floods: Urban Mobility and Rental Markets
R&R+
On high-tide flood days, visits decrease 5%. Each additional HTF day/year reduces rents 0.25%. Lower-bound annual cost of Presidential Disaster Declaration floods: $4 billion.
When Nature Turns Hazy: How Wildfire Smoke Affects Outdoor Recreation
R&R+
First nationwide mobility-based assessment of wildfire smoke and outdoor recreation. Each additional smoke day cuts visits 13%+, with smoke-sourced PM2.5 reducing visits nearly 4x more than an equivalent increase from temperature inversions. Effects are largest at non-water sites and weakest at national parks, where trip flexibility is lower. Valuing lost visits conservatively at $30/person-day, wildfire smoke costs $8.0B/year in foregone recreational welfare.
Planes Overhead: How Airplane Noise Impacts Home Values
Under Review+
A one-decibel increase in annual day-night sound levels reduces housing prices 0.6–1.0%. WTP for quiet is heterogeneous across income and race.
Working Papers
Who Goes to Farmers Markets? Food Desert Gaps, Structural Demand, and Policy Design
Working Paper+
~70% of food-desert visit gap is demand-side; ~20% supply. SNAP acceptance closes ~18%; evening hours ~33%; one new market per food-desert CBG ~58%. SNAP delivers highest return per public dollar.
I Love That Dirty Water? Value of Water Quality in Recreation Sites
Working Paper+
Using anonymized mobile device data on ~22 million residents visiting 30,000 water recreation sites (2018–2022), recreators are willing to pay $8.20/trip for a one-meter increase in Secchi depth. Improving all sites to the cleanest observed would yield ~$56.3B in annual benefits.
Unequal Waters: Socioeconomic Disparities in Recreational Benefits from Water Quality Improvements
Working Paper+
Demand-side factors explain 80–90% of SES welfare gap; geographic access 10–20%. We propose an equity-informed alternative to current Iowa lake restoration prioritization.
The Impact of Texas Senate Bill 8 on Family Care Utilization: Evidence from Large-Scale Mobility Data
Working Paper+
Using GPS mobility data from Texas family care clinics (2021–2022), SB 8 increased administrative demands on day-shift practitioners (+8.74 visits/month) while urban patients visited more but spent less time per visit. Rural and suburban patient visits stagnated, highlighting how restrictive abortion legislation disrupts healthcare access for underserved communities.
Ongoing Projects
The Geographic Extent of Water Quality Benefits
Ongoing
Beyond Supermarkets: Measuring the Impact of Food Environment on Healthy Store Utilization
Ongoing
Disparities in Wildfire Evacuation: Evidence from Cellphone Mobility Data
Ongoing
Academic Profile
Teaching Assistant · Iowa State University, 2016–2019
Principles of Microeconomics
Economics of Discrimination
Intermediate Environmental and Resource Economics
Microeconomic Analysis I
Guest Lecturer
Principles of Microeconomics
Energy Economics
Certificate
TYRIT Teaching Certificate
National Science Foundation (SBIR/STTR)
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
American Journal of Agricultural Economics
Land Economics
Economic Journal
Journal of Regional Science
Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics
Climatic Change
International Review of Economics and Finance
President2018
Economics Graduate Student Association · Iowa State University
Coordinator2018
Graduate Student Seminar · Iowa State University
President2014
China Center for Human Capital & Labor Market Research
Contact
Available for Zoom or in-person meetings,
9am–5pm CT, Monday–Friday.