Kairon Shayne D. Garcia

I am a PhD candidate in Economics at Washington State University and on track to complete my degree in May 2024. My areas of interest are applied microeconomics and econometrics, with focus on labor economics and economics of education.

My dissertation chapters explore the impact of school closures in years 2020-21 on the parental labor outcomes, and the educational outcomes of secondary and post-secondary students. While at WSU, I have also contributed to research projects involving the collection and analysis of COVID-19-related datasets and the examination of water rights and streamflow management policies in response to climate changes in the Western United States. I currently have working papers outside of my dissertation with two sets of collaborators: first with my PhD Advisor, Dr. Ben Cowan, to investigate changes in time use of parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the second with Dr. Greg Galinato of WSU and Dr. Asif Islam of the World Bank, to estimate the effect of extreme temperatures on various employment types in the manufacturing and services sectors in the Philippines.

At WSU, I have been an instructor for undergraduate courses on Fundamentals of Microeconomics, Fundamentals of Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Industrial Organization, and Managerial Economics. Before pursuing my PhD at WSU, I have worked as an Economic Development Specialist at the National Economic and Development Authority, and a research consultant at the Asian Development Bank and World Bank in the Philippines.