David A. Rivers

Department of Economics Phone: (519) 661-2111 ext. 80446
University of Western Ontario Fax: (519) 661-3666
Social Science Centre, Room 4071 E-mail: drivers2@uwo.ca
London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2 Webpage: http://economics.uwo.ca/faculty/rivers_d

Citizenship: USA, Canadian Permanent Resident


ACADEMIC POSITION



Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario, 2018-present
Director, Centre For Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP), July 2021-present
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario, 2010-2018
Visiting Fellow, Collegio Carlo Alberto, April-June, 2012 and April-May, 2019


EDUCATION



Ph.D., Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010
M.S., Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007
B.S., Economics, Mathematics, and Philosophy, Vanderbilt University, 2001
Magna Cum Laude
High Honors in Economics


HONORS AND AWARDS

SSHRC Insight Research Grant: $100,000, 2020-2025
SSHRC Insight Research Grant: $137,000, 2017-2021
SSHRC Insight Research Grant: $263,000, 2012-2016
SSHRC Insight Development Grant: $28,000, 2012-2014
SSHRC Internal Travel Grant, 2012
USC Teaching Honour Roll, 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, 2015-2016, 2016-2017 (last year of award)
Alice Gengler Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in Economics, 2009-2010
Christensen Award in Empirical Economics, 2008
Lerner Scholarship Award, 2007
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Fellowship, 2004-2005
Philip Loring Allen Fellowship, 2004-2005
Phi Beta Kappa


RESEARCH INTERESTS



Industrial Organization, Productivity, Economics of Crime, Applied Econometrics, Applied Microeconomics


PUBLICATIONS



“The ABCs of Firm Heterogeneity when Firms Sort into Markets: The Case of Exporters,” Accepted by the Journal of Political Economy (with Bernardo S. Blum, Sebastian Claro, and Ignatius Horstmann).

“On the Identification of Gross Output Production Functions,” Journal of Political Economy, 128(8), 2020 (with Amit Gandhi and Salvador Navarro).

“Optimizing Criminal Behavior and the Disutility of Prison,” The Economic Journal, 129(619), 2019 (with Giovanni Mastrobuoni).
        Featured by Marginal Revolution, May 29, 2017.
        Featured by Quartz, June 1, 2017.

“Separating State Dependence, Experience, and Heterogeneity in a Model of Youth Crime and Education,” Economics of Education Review, 54, 2016 (with Maria Antonella Mancino and Salvador Navarro).

“Model Uncertainty and the Effect of Shall-Issue Right-to-Carry Laws on Crime,” European Economic Review, 81, 2016 (with Steven N. Durlauf and Salvador Navarro).

“Understanding Aggregate Crime Regressions,” Journal of Econometrics, 158(2), 2010 (with Steven N. Durlauf and Salvador Navarro).

“On the Use of Aggregate Crime Regressions in Policy Evaluation,” in Understanding Crime Trends, A. Goldberger and R. Rosenfeld eds., Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2008 (with Steven N. Durlauf and Salvador Navarro).


WORKING PAPERS



“Financial Shocks, Productivity, and Prices,” Revision requested by the Review of Economic Studies (with Simone Lenzu and Joris Tielens).

“The Heterogeneous Impact of Referrals on Labor Market Outcomes” Revision requested by the Review of Economic Studies (with Benjamin Lester and Giorgio Topa).

“Criminal Discount Factors and Deterrence,” working paper (with Giovanni Mastrobuoni).
        Featured by the Economist, March 29, 2016.
        Featured by Indian Newslink, July 12, 2017.

“How Heterogeneous is Productivity? A Comparison of Gross Output and Value Added,” working paper (with Amit Gandhi and Salvador Navarro).

“Are Exporters More Productive than Non-Exporters?” working paper.


WORK IN PROGRESS



“Nonparametric Identification and Estimation of the Bias of Technological Change” (with Salvador Navarro).

“Ex-Post Merger Analysis Using Production Data” (with Bernardo S. Blum, Sebastian Claro, and Ignatius Horstmann).

“Technology Choice, Capital Intensity, and Productivity” (with Ananth Ramanarayanan).


PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES



Conference Organizing:
International Association for Applied Econometrics (IAAE) Annual Conference (Scientific Committee Member), 2019,2020,2021
North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society-Montreal, QC (Scientific Committee Member), 2021
North American Productivity Workshop (Session Organizer), 2020, 2023
North American Winter Meetings of the Econometric Society-Atlanta, GA (Session Organizer), 2019
Conference on Firm-Level Productivity-London, ON (Co-Organizer), 2014

Invited Seminar and Conference Presentations:
International Industrial Organization Conference, North American Productivity Workshop, 2023
UNLV, University of Miami, 2022
Vanderbilt University, International Industrial Organization Conference, NASM Econometric Society, 2021
ASSA Meetings: AEA Session-Atlanta, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, HEC Montreal-RIIB Conference on Industrial Organization-Montreal, Collegio Carlo Alberto, RCEA Growth, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference, 2019
Workshop on the Applications of Industrial Organization-Montreal, University of Georgia, 2018
Waterloo Economics Workshop, Society of Labor Economics, NBER Summer Institute, Bank of Canada, HCEO Conference on Social Interaction and Crime--University of Chicago, University of Kentucky, 2017
NASM Econometric Society, Empirical Microeconomics Workshop in Banff, Canadian Law and Economics Association, American Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Southern Economic Association, 2016
Canadian Econometric Study Group, World Congress of the Econometric Society, 2015
University of Toronto, 2014
Canadian Economic Association, 2013
International Industrial Organization Conference, University of Michigan, University of Cambridge, Aarhus University, Tilburg University, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Society for Economic Dynamics, NASM Econometric Society, Vanderbilt University, 2012
University of Calgary, 2011
DOJ, FTC, University of Georgia, University of Toronto,
University of Western Ontario, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010
International Industrial Organization Conference, 2009

Referee Activity:
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Canadian Journal of Economics, Criminal Justice Review, Criminology, Econometrica, Economic Inquiry, Economic Journal, Economics Business Letters, Economics Letters, Economics of Education Review, European Economic Review, International Economic Review, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Mathematical Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Productivity Analysis, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Labour Economics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, RAND Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Economic Studies, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Southern Economic Journal


TEACHING EXPERIENCE



University of Western Ontario
Industrial Organization (Ph.D.), 2011-2013, 2015-2021
Advanced Methods in Applied Economics (Ph.D.), 2019-2020
Probability and Statistics (Ph.D.), 2012-2017
Empirical Industrial Organization (Honors undergraduate), 2011-2013, 2016-2018
Senior Research Seminar in Economics (Honors undergraduate), 2012-2013

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Teaching Assistant, Probability and Statistics, 2008
Teaching Assistant, Principles of Microeconomics, 2005-2006


STUDENT SUPERVISION



Ph.D. Thesis Supervisor
David Fieldhouse (co-supervisor): 2014, 1st placement: Moody's Analytics
Zhuang Liu (co-supervisor): 2019, 1st placement: Charles River Associates
Cecilia Diaz Campo: 2022, 1st placement, Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School
Curtis Aquino (co-supervisor), expected graduation 2023
Emmanuel Murray Leclair, expected graduation 2023
Charlotte Ursenbach, expected graduation 2023
F. Javier Martinez Hernandez, expected graduation 2023

Ph.D. Thesis Committee Member
Kai Xu: 2011, 1st placement: Zhejiang University
Wenya Wang: 2017, 1st placement: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Maria Antonella Mancino: 2018, 1st placement: Wilfrid Laurier University
Diego Salazar: 2020, 1st placement: National University of Singapore
Zinaida Kalinina-Foltin: 2021, 1st placement: Social Research and Demonstration Corporation
Aldo Sandoval Hernandez: 2021, 1st placement: University of Sussex
Charles Gauthier: 2022, 1st placement: Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Ph.D. Thesis External Examiner
Mihaela Alina Nastasoiu: 2016, Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario
Angelos Theodorakopoulos: 2017, Ghent University
Eduardo Ferraz: 2018, Sao Paulo School of Economics - FGV
Nhial Nathaniel Kuch, 2021, Queens University
Jun Hyun (Joseph) Ryoo, 2021, Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario

Ph.D. Summer Paper Advisor: 9 students

Honors Undergraduate Thesis Supervisor: 9 students


UNIVERSITY SERVICE



Director, Center for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP), 2021-present

Appointments Committee, 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2014-2015, 2019-2020, 2022-2023

Committee on Academic Policy, 2019-2020

Graduate Affairs Committee, 2012-2013, 2014-2015, 2016-2017

Alumni Portal Co-Director, 2012-2013

Graduate Studies Awards Committee, 2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2020-2021 (chair)

Applied Economics/Econometrics Workshop Coordinator, 2011-2012, 2017-2018

PhD Comprehensive Exam Committee, 2020-2021


WORK EXPERIENCE



University of Wisconsin-Madison
Project Assistant, 2006-2009

Charles River Associates (Washington, DC)
Research Analyst/Associate, 2001-2004




Updated February 2024