Research Statement
What happens when the lake gets dirty, the smoke rolls in, or your neighborhood loses its only grocery store? I study how people and businesses adapt, or don't, to environmental and food system shocks, and what that means for policy.
My toolkit: large-scale cellphone mobility data, structural demand estimation, and a healthy obsession with getting causal 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
Environmental (Dis)amenities
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.
Quantifying Recreational Benefits from Fish Consumption Advisories
Forthcoming+
WTP to avoid advisory sites ~$72/quarter; $87 in summer. Full disclosure generates $3.4M in aggregated annual welfare benefits.
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+
Each additional smoke day reduces visits 13%+. Wildfire smoke caused $21B/year in lost U.S. recreational benefits. Visitors adapt through substitution but only partially offset losses.
Planes Overhead: How Airplane Noise Impacts Home Values
Working Paper+
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.
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.
Food System
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.
Shrinkflation, Unit Price Disclosure, and Consumer Welfare: Canned Tuna
R&R+
Consumers in disclosure states 130% more responsive to unit prices. Nationwide disclosure raises consumer surplus $2.57M short-term, $5.82M long-term.
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.
Human Mobility Methodology
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.
Causal Recreation Demand Estimation with Cellphone Mobility Data: Evidence from 2021 Huntington Beach Oil Spill
Forthcoming+
$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
Forthcoming+
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.
The Impact of Texas Senate Bill 8 on Family Care Utilization: Evidence from Large-Scale Mobility Data
R&R+
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.
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–8pm ET, Monday–Friday.