Kate Baggott

Using Nonlinearities to Deal with Unpredictable Economic Shocks: Quinlan Lee

November 25, 2025 By Kate Baggott

Covid-19 may have started as a public health crisis, but it also delivered a lasting shock to the world economy. Accompanied by interest rate hikes and inflation, the pandemic sparked fundamental changes to how people interact and altered the behaviour of households, firms and financial markets. Quinlan Lee, a PhD Candidate with the Department of Economics, is focused on developing new tools for understanding how shocks like these, and the reactions they create, affect the economy over time.

An econometrician, Lee develops analytical tools for complex mathematical models with a broad spectrum of practical applications.

“There’s so much uncertainty nowadays, and the world feels unpredictable,” Lee explained. “That means the models economists use need to be much more complex. My job market paper focuses on nonlinear dynamics because they’ve become more and more prevalent as things get unpredictable.” [Read more…]

The Little Schoolhouses that Transformed Canada: Devin Bissky Dziadyk

November 19, 2025 By Kate Baggott

The one-room schoolhouse is a historical fixture of the Canadian identity. If anything, the legacy of these little rural centres of childhood literacy may not loom largely enough. According to new research by Devin Bissky Dziadyk, a PhD candidate with the Department of Economics, the expansion of one-room schoolhouses during the 1900s shaped economic history, and regional development and ultimately sparked the reallocation of labor out of Canadian agriculture.

Bissky Dziadyk wanted to understand if and how having access to a nearby school changed the paths that early 20^th century rural children followed as they grew up.

“What I find is that children who had access to this very early form of education made dramatically different life choices compared to those who didn’t,” said Bissky Dziadyk. “They were more likely to move out of agricultural occupations, earn higher incomes as adults, and shift into a specific set of higher-skilled jobs, particularly becoming teachers or managers.” [Read more…]

Jiaying Gu Appointed Canada Research Chair

November 18, 2025 By Kate Baggott

Associate Professor Jiaying Gu of the Department of Economics is now a Canada Research Chair (CRC). Gu’s Tier 2 CRC in Statistical Decision Making comes with a total award of $120,000 for each year of its five-year renewable term. [Read more…]

For as Long as We Shall Have a Place to Live: Sean Elliott

November 13, 2025 By Kate Baggott

Marriage rates have declined. Cohabitation rates are up. There’s another social change less spoken about. Fewer people than ever are matching up at all. Sean Elliott, a PhD candidate with the Department of Economics took a close look at data that captures the changing nature of happily ever after. The applied econometrician applied his research toolkit to understanding what amateur observers might call a romance shortage. Ironically, he used a methodology best known in industrial organization that sounds like it could be the framework for a dating app, but isn’t, called dynamic discrete choice econometrics. Unlike other research models, this one enabled Elliott to estimate the payoffs and costs of being in a relationship separately.

“The question was what theoretical framework do we have to address all these changes simultaneously? It turns out there isn’t a great one that exists,” Elliott explained. “So, I proposed a new one, a dynamic model that explains why fewer matches are formed even as those that do persist are more stable. I take it to the data and show that people have been enjoying their matches more, but entry costs have also been rising substantially, creating frictions that prevent matching.” [Read more…]

From Taylor’s Jet to Taxation for Climate Rescue: Tasnia Hussain

November 12, 2025 By Kate Baggott

Criticism of Taylor Swift’s private jet flights inspired Tasnia Hussain. The PhD candidate’s job market paper, Optimal Carbon Policy Under Carbon Inequality, now contributes evidence for tax policies that will reduce carbon emissions and support the population’s long overdue breakup with fossil fuels.

“Two years ago, there was a lot of outrage on Twitter about celebrity private jet use,” Hussain remembered. “People were angry because carbon taxes felt regressive, most people feel them at the gas pump or when heating their homes. Meanwhile, the ultra-rich continue to fly private and sail on massive yachts. That moment made me realize this was the perfect intersection of my interests in inequality and climate.”

Carbon inequality is the idea that wealthy households are responsible for a disproportionate share of emissions and climate change compared to lower income households whose emissions are generated through heating their homes and commuting to work.

“Carbon inequality results not just because of the consumption habits of the wealthy, but also because of how they generate their wealth,” Hussain explained. “For the top 0.1% of the population, their income comes primarily from business ownership, and those businesses are often highly carbon intensive.”

[Read more…]

Using Nonlinearities to Deal with Unpredictable Economic Shocks: Quinlan Lee

The Little Schoolhouses that Transformed Canada: Devin Bissky Dziadyk

Jiaying Gu Appointed Canada Research Chair

For as Long as We Shall Have a Place to Live: Sean Elliott

From Taylor’s Jet to Taxation for Climate Rescue: Tasnia Hussain

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