I am a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Notre Dame. As an applied microeconomist, my research focuses on health economics at its intersection with public economics, with a special emphasis on studying preventable causes of death. I am also a Graduate Student Affiliate at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and a Junior Researcher at REDNIE.
I am on the 2026/2027 academic job market.
You can find my CV here.
Abstract: The United States opioid epidemic has killed more than one million Americans since 1999. Its deadliest phase was driven by illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a synthetic opioid characterized by low production costs and extreme potency. Annual fentanyl deaths rose from roughly 3,000 in 2013 to over 70,000 by 2022, a more than twentyfold increase now accounting for the majority of U.S. overdose deaths. Despite its severity, the drivers behind the fentanyl wave remain understudied. In this paper, I show that the Sinaloa Cartel played a key role in where and when the fentanyl wave hit hardest. Among Mexican trafficking organizations, Sinaloa was uniquely positioned to produce and distribute fentanyl at scale, with synthetic-drug labs, precursor supply chains, and U.S. wholesale networks already built for heroin and methamphetamine. Using DEA intelligence on cartel control across 78 U.S. field offices, I classify counties by pre-2014 Sinaloa dominance and compare them to counties dominated by rival drug trafficking organizations in an event-study difference-in-differences design to estimate the effect on overdose mortality. After 2014, fentanyl mortality in Sinaloa-dominated counties increased by 5.5 deaths per 100,000 relative to rival-dominated counties, significant under state-clustered standard errors and at the 10% level under a wild cluster bootstrap that accounts for the small number of state clusters. This surge is specific to fentanyl exposure, showing no impact on non-fentanyl mortality or violent crime. It accounts for roughly 30% of the overall rise in fentanyl mortality in my sample. The health burden is concentrated among non-college-educated populations. Unlike the first two waves, which disproportionately affected non-Hispanic White populations, this wave’s mortality burden rises across all racial and ethnic groups, with the largest increase among Hispanic residents.
Draft coming soon.
Average instructor rating: 4.8/5
Instructor: Spring 2024
TA: Spring 2023
Instructor: Fall 2022