Siobhan O'Keefe Assistant Professor of Economics

I am an applied microeconomist whose scholarly work focuses on the effects of government policies on children and families. Across my projects I investigate the impacts for short-run (fertility, infant health) and long-run (education and labor-market) outcomes in both modern and historical settings. My dissertation explored how mass incarceration affects communities, with a focus on childbearing, marriage, and infant health. I have several projects that investigate the intergenerational effects of War on Poverty programs. Additionally, I am working with historical US Census data to better understand within-family and racial inequality in labor market outcomes. 

At Davidson, I teach introductory economics and microeconomic theory, as well as elective courses focused on public policy topics. I love introducing students to the fundamental tools of economic analysis and then guiding them to apply those tools for their own questions. Before graduate school, I worked for the Office of Tax Analysis in the US Treasury Department.