Curriculum Vitae
Education
McMaster University: Ph.D - Economics, 2017
Dissertation: "Four Essays on Inequality". Committee: Michel Grignon, Mike Veall, Phil DeCicca
Fields of Specialization
Applied Micro, Applied Econometrics, Public Economics, Health Economics
Nominated for Dissertation Award
McMaster University: MA - Economic Policy, 2012
Research Project: Call me maybe - Assessing the stability of private donations to charities, does contacting your donors make a difference?
Research Interests
Inequity, policy analysis/program evaluation, and related econometric techniques
Catawba College: BS - Sustainable Business & Community Development, 2010
Publications
We examine the roles of subnational and national governments in Canada and the USA vis-à-vis protective public health response in the onset phase of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This period was characterized in both countries by incomplete and incorrect information as well as the uncertainty regarding which level of government should be responsible for which policies. The crisis represents an opportunity to study how national and subnational governments respond to such policy challenges. In this paper, we present a unique dataset which catalogues the policy responses of US states and Canadian provinces as well as those of the respective federal governments.
A companion paper to Here Comes the SUN, this work investigates potential correlates between expectations for healthcare and socio-economic status that could result in biased conclusions about the prevalence and magnitude of inequity of access when using self-assessed unmet need as a measure. This article shows that many of the conclusions we have drawn about inequality that are based on self-assessed unmet need may be due not to differential access to care, but rather to differences in beliefs about what constitutes`unmet need’.
We show theoretically that the traditional methods of measuring equality of access are unreliable when preferences for healthcare vary by socio-economic status. We propose and discuss similar issues facing self-assessed measures of unmet need. An empirical analysis finds that self-assessed unmet need as measured in Canadian health surveys has predictive power for lower health status in future periods, resolving one of the issues potentially facing this measure of inequity.
Conference Presentations
Teaching
2017
“Ask Me About My Day: A Framework for Assessing Bias in Subjective Survey Data.”
CRDCN National Conference - Montreal, QC
“Oh Brother How Art Thou? Variations in Propensity to Self-Report
Unmet Need.”
Canadian Economics Association - Antigonish, NS
2016
“Here Comes the SUN: Self-Assessed Unmet Need, Worsening Health
Outcomes, and Healthcare Inequity."
Canadian Economics Association - Ottawa, ON
References
Mike Veall - veall AT mcmaster.ca
Michel Grignon - grignon AT mcmaster.ca
Phil DeCicca - ppdecicca AT bsu.edu
2017 - Winter, Spring; 2016 - Fall
McMaster University: Econ 2D03 - Economic Issues
McMaster University: Econ 2GG3 - Consumer Theory
2016 - Summer
Teaching Assistant
Graduate Econometrics 1, Introduction to Econometrics
Econometrics
Macroeconomics
Introduction to Macroeconomics, Intermediate Macroeconomics 1
Microeconomics
Introduction to Economics, Producer Theory, Microeconomics for Public Policy (Graduate)
Topics Courses
Economic Issues, Economics & Public Policy, Economics of Sport,
Environmental Economics, International Finance, Trade Economics