Employment and Affiliations Assistant Professor, Department of Management, UTSC and Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 2022 - Assistant Professor (by courtesy), Department of Economics, University of Toronto, 2025 - Assistant Professor (by courtesy), Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, 2024 - Invited Researcher, J-PAL North America, 2024 - Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Victoria, 2016 - 2024 Assistant Professor (cross-listed), School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, 2020 - 2024 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, McMaster University, 2021 Professor of Practice, Masters of Public Policy Program, McMaster University, 2021 Affiliated Scholar, People’s History Lab, University of Toronto, 2022 - Affiliated Scholar, Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality, CUNY Graduate Center, 2022 - Research Affiliate, CICD Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 2022 - 2025 Broadbent Fellow, Broadbent Institute, 2020 - Senior Ministerial Assistant, Office of the Finance Minister and Deputy Premier of British Columbia, 2017 - 2019 Chief Economist, Office of the Leader of Canada’s Official Opposition, 2011 - 2015
Education Ph.D. Economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2015 B.Arts Sci Arts and Science Program, B.A. Economics, McMaster University, 2006
Publications Improved Market Access and Indigenous Land Loss: Evidence from the Nineteenth-Century US Railroad Expansion, AEA Papers and Proceedings, Forthcoming, with Jeff Chan and Azim Essaji.
Indigenous Nations at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: Evidence from the 1901 Canadian Census and the Report of the Department of Indian Affairs for 1900, Historical Methods, Conditionally Accepted, with Donn Feir, Maggie Jones, and Kris Inwood
Collective Bargaining Rights, Policing, and Civilian Deaths, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Forthcoming, with Jamein Cunningham
Railroads, Land Cessions, and Indigenous Nations: Evidence from Canada, Canadian Journal of Economics, 2025, with Jeff Chan and Azim Essaji.
The Slaughter of the Bison and Reversal of Fortunes on the Great Plains, Review of Economics Studies, 2024, with Donn Feir and Maggie Jones.
Policing, Lethal Force, and the Struggle for Equal Treatment,Canadian Public Policy, September 2023.
Policing and Indigenous Civilian Deaths in Canada, Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, August 2022, with Drake Rushford and David Weaver.
Law Enforcement Officers' Bills of Rights and Police Violence, AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2022, with Jamein Cunningham, Donna Feir, Matt Harvey, and Abdul Rad.
Don’t Shoot! The Impact of Historical African American Protest on Police Killings of Civilians, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 2021, with Jamein Cunningham.
Expenditures, Efficiency, and Distribution: Advice for the 43rd Canadian Parliament, Canadian Tax Journal, March 2020, with Trevor Tombe.
A Ferguson Effect, the Drug Epidemic, Both, or Neither? Explaining the 2015 and 2016 U.S. Homicide Rises by Race and Ethnicity, Homicide Studies, May 2019, vol. 23, No: 3: Pages 285-313 with Jamein Cunningham and Shytierra Gaston.
The Effects of the Neighborhood Legal Services Program on Riots and Wealth of African Americans, RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. October 2018, vol. 14, No 6: Pages 144-157, with Jamein Cunningham.
Return to the Homeland? The Impact of the Great Recession on Employment Outcomes and Labor Mobility for Native Americans, Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy. September 2018, vol. 1, No 2: Pages 60-67, with Donna Feir.
Racial Differences in Police Use of Force: Evidence from 1960s Civil Disturbances, American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings. May 2018, vol. 108: Pages 217-221, with Jamein Cunningham.
The Impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Ethnic Stratification in Africa, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings. May 2011, vol. 101, No. 3: Pages 571-576, with Warren Whatley.
The Fundamental Impact of the Slave Trade on African Economies in Economic Evolution and Revolution in Historical Time, ed. P. Rhode, J. Rosenbloom and D. Weiman, 2011. Pages 86-110. Stanford: Stanford University Press, with Warren Whatley.
Major Research Grants Canadian Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund and Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence & Security Ontario Research Fund, Assimilation and Un-assimilation: Indigeneity across the Canadian Censuses from 1861 to the Present, 2026 - 2031, $113,000
School of Cities: Urban Challenge Grant, West Indians in New York City, 1900-1950: Convergence, Divergence, and Economic Mobility, with Alexander Persaud, 2023-2026, $46,500
NSERC CREATE Grant, Coastal Climate Solutions Leader, with J. Baum and several dozen other faculty, 2023-2029 $1,650,000
Aspiration Research Cluster, The Indigenous Economics Research Cluster (IERC), with D. Feir, S. Thiessen, V. Napoleon, R. Hancock, T. Krawhchenko, and M. Murphy, 2023-2025, $100,000
SSHRC Insight Development Grant, The Economic Impact of Historical Treaties, Land Cession, and Land Occupation on Indigenous Outcomes, with D. Feir and M. Jones, 2021-2023, $72,914
SSHRC Connection Grant, Banff Empirical Microeconomics Conference 2022, with J. Laliberté, A. Magesan, D. Feir and M. Jones, $10,000
SSHRC Insight Development Grant, Racial Uprisings and the Responsiveness of Government, with J. Cunningham, 2017-2021, $62,865
SSHRC Connection Grant, Blueprint for an Inclusive and Sustainable Recovery, with L. Gagne, K. Rhodes, N. Kosoy, and A. Weaver, 2019-2020, $24,966
Recognition Research Excellence Award, Department of Management, University of Toronto
Fred Bateman Award for Best Paper, Economic and Business History Association, The Slaughter of the Bison and Reversal of Fortunes on the Great Plains, 2017, with D. Feir and M. Jones
Board Memberships and Significant Internal/External Service Co-Chair, CEA Canadian Economics Diversity Committee, 2026 - Member, J-PAL North America Racial Equity Advisory Committee, 2024- Steering Committee Member, CCPA Ontario, 2023 - Executive Member, University of Toronto Faculty Association, 2023 - Co-Chair, CEA Affinity Groups Committee, 2022 - 2026 Committee Member, CEA Canadian Economics Diversity Committee, 2022 - Advisory Committee, Indpsire Research Knowledge Nest, 2020 - 2024 Scientific Advisory Council, the Canadian Northern Corridor Research Program, 2020 - 2024 Board Member, Sierra Club BC, 2020 - Secretary/Treasurer, University of Victoria Faculty Association, 2020 - 2022 Co-founder and Co-Chair, CEA Indigenous Economics Study Group, 2019 - Treasurer and Board Member, Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group, 2019 -