Mahta Ghafarianghadim

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, and I am on the 2026–2027 job market. I study how environmental exposures and policy changes affect health outcomes and economic wellbeing.

I use instrumental variables and difference in differences designs to identify these effects credibly, focusing on the populations who bear the largest costs of pollution and regulatory change.

In my job market paper, I show that the common way of measuring thermal inversions misses about 30 percent of U.S. counties, mostly at higher elevations, while measuring temperature relative to the local ground covers every county. Using this measure, I estimate that a one unit increase in PM2.5 raises cardiovascular mortality by 3.8 percent, with larger effects among Black individuals, women, the elderly, low income counties, and rural counties. I also study the health consequences of smoking, the effects of air pollution on childcare attendance in early childhood, and the economic burdens of abortion access restrictions.

I have served as instructor of record at Georgia State University, teaching Principles of Microeconomics and Environmental Economics and Policy, with strong student evaluations (see my Teaching page for details).

Research Interests: Environmental Economics  ·  Health Economics  ·  Education Economics  ·  Applied Microeconomics  ·  Causal Inference