I am an applied microeconomist working at the intersection of environmental and development economics. My research focuses on the health and human capital impacts of exposure to environmental harms. I also have work on the role of information frictions in economic development.
My undergraduate studies were in Economics and Religion (with a focus on Buddhist Philosophy) at Middlebury College. My senior thesis there focused on the role of partisan preferences in taxation and was published in the Journal of Public Economics. I studied abroad in Nepal as a college student and have ongoing fieldwork there as part of a J-PAL funded RCT. Prior to UC Davis, I worked at Mathematica Policy Research for four years on a range of international development impact evaluations in global health, energy infrastructure, and social protection.
I am on the job market in the 2026-2027 academic year and can be reached at msbrooks@ucdavis.edu. Here is my CV and here is my job market paper.
News
- I will be attending the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting in Kansas City this July where I will present on each of the following projects: “The Pollution–Productivity Curve”, “Monetary and Non-monetary Barriers to Accessing Environmental Public Benefit Programs”, and “Strengthening Women’s Livestock Cooperatives in Nepal with an Innovative Technology Bundle.”
- I will be presenting “Monetary and Non-monetary Barriers to Accessing Environmental Public Benefit Programs” at the 2026 Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management Fall Research Conference in Boston in November.
Research in Progress
- The Pollution–Productivity Curve: Non-Linear Effects and Adaptation in High-Pollution Environments (Job Market Paper)
With Faraz Usmani. Submitted.
This paper provides novel evidence that workers in a high particulate matter air pollution setting partially adapt to chronic exposure, but that adaptation does not offset cumulative harm. Using ball-by-ball data from professional cricket in India, we find that a 10 µg/m3 increase in same-day PM2.5 reduces performance by about 1 percent. Effects are non-linear, with the largest marginal damages above approximately 50 µg/m3. Workers with the highest past exposure are roughly 40 percent less sensitive to acute shocks than those with median exposure histories, consistent with adaptation. Nevertheless, chronic exposure degrades performance by more than this adaptation offsets.Invited Seminars: Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi · University of Massachusetts, Amherst · Middlebury College
Conferences: AERE 2025 · UCSB Occasional Workshop in E&RE · UC Boulder E&RE Workshop · PacDev 2026 · WCERE 2026 · AAEA 2026 (scheduled) - Monetary and Non-monetary Barriers to Accessing Environmental Public Benefit Programs: Experimental Evidence from California
With Shotaro Nakamura and Collin Weigel
This paper shows that administrative hassles in an environmental public benefit program application shift the applicant pool away from the intended beneficiaries. In a randomized controlled trial with 100,000 households in California, we randomly vary the subsidy rate (0-100%) and administrative hassles in an application for a subsidized air purifier. Lowering the subsidy rate lowers application rates non-linearly, with larger marginal reductions at higher subsidy levels. Hassles substantially reduce the application rate. We find suggestive evidence that these hassles disproportionately screen out intended beneficiaries: the longer form deters below-poverty-line applicants, and the residence requirement deters those with above-median particulate exposure.Conferences: APPAM 2026 (scheduled) · AAEA 2026 (scheduled) · AFE 2025 · UC Berkeley/Davis Giannini Student Conference 2025, 2026 · Funding: California Air Resources Board · PAP: AEA RCT Registry
Got Goat? The Effects of a Digital Inventory Tool on Livestock Market Outcomes in Rural Nepal
With Travis Lybbert, Conner Mullally, and Nick Magnan
Conferences: AAEA 2025 · Funding: J-PAL DAISI · PAP: AEA RCT RegistryPartisan Differences in Adaptation to Wildfire Smoke: Evidence from Indoor Air Quality in California
With Jamie Hansen-Lewis- Global Spillovers in Agricultural Technology Development
With Ashish Shenoy
Education
- Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Davis, Expected June 2027
- M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Davis, 2024
- B.A. in Economics and Religion (double major), Middlebury College, 2017
- Kathmandu University, Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, 2014-2015