New Professor Applies Economics to Education, Unemployment
24 October 2014 12:44PM
There can be many barriers to an individual’s economic success, such as access to schooling or jobs. Professor Robert Garlick is interested in how people, particularly those in developing countries, make decisions about both.
“I use statistical methods and economic tools to study why education outcomes differ across countries, and why people’s abilities to get jobs and the types they do get differ,” Garlick said. Ultimately, his goal is to determine how those can be improved.
Garlick recently joined the Department of Economics as a member of the faculty after completing his postdoctoral appointment at the World Bank’s Development Research Group. He will be teaching two Ph.D.-level modules in the spring (ECON 881-25 and 881-26) that examine development economics alongside human capital and labor economics.
Garlick received a Ph.D. in economics and public policy, in addition to master’s degrees in economics and statistics, from the University of Michigan. Hailing from Cape Town, a majority of the South African’s research has been in his home country, though he has started to branch out in other Sub-Saharan African countries. His work has encompassed development economics, the economics of education, and labor economics, and his current research focuses on the role of limited information in schooling decisions, job search, and employment outcomes.
One particular project he’s excited about is based in South Africa. Garlick and his coauthors from Cambridge and Stellenbosch Universities are trying to understand how limited information about worker skills can affect youth employment outcomes. The goal is to inform job seekers and employers to help both parties make “confident decisions” in their respective job searches or hirings.
“When people struggle to get jobs, that has a long-term effect on them,” Garlick said. “Moreover, high levels of youth unemployment are potentially associated with other negative outcomes at a country level. Figuring out ways to fix that is potentially very important.”
With any luck, the assistant professor will gather useful insight from his new colleagues for this and other projects. During his tenure at the World Bank, Garlick said he learned that there are many models for success – a philosophy the Duke Department of Economics also espouses. This is largely what drew Garlick to the university.
“What’s really exciting about Duke Economics is that it feels like a department where stuff is happening and it’s happening fast,” he said. “People are willing to try new things; it’s a department where people are very open to a wide range of tactics for solving problems.”
When he’s not working laboriously in the Social Sciences Building, Garlick enjoys hiking and running. After years of living in Michigan, he said he looks forward to being able to run through the winter.
Learn more about Professor Garlick at his profile page.