The Charging Bull • New York, NY • December 2023
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Ph.D. Candidate • 2025–26 Economics Job Market
David A Criss
"Understanding a question is half an answer."
- Socrates
AEA Annual Meeting • New Orleans, LA • January 2023
Hello and welcome!
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics and Urban Sustainability at Wayne State University.
My research focuses on Sustainable Finance, ESG, and Health Economics.
Feel free to explore my work and check back for updates.
Research Insights
I am committed to understanding how businesses and institutions shape economic and environmental outcomes.
Featured Research
My dissertation examines the relationship between capital markets and firms' environmental and social footprints. Grounded in ESG performance analysis, this research provides key insights for investors, corporate leaders, and policymakers.
Henry Ford Health
In collaboration with Henry Ford Health, we study the health trajectories of food-insecure patients involved within a hospital-based intervention program, evaluating how access to whole food nourishment shapes patient outcomes and investment approaches in healthcare.
Lean & Green Michigan
Through my partnership with Lean and Green MI, we assess the financial outcomes of PACE-funded projects. This work strengthens my approach to evaluating sustainable investments and sharpens my understanding of financial strategy's role in advancing sustainability goals.
Job Market Paper
"Capital Markets' Response to ESG"
with Drs. Liang Hu and Hiu Lam Choy
Abstract • This study examines whether firms’ Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance influences their cost of capital (CoC) in U.S. markets. Using panel data on U.S. firms from 2014 to 2022, I assess the relationship between firms' ESG performance scores and both the cost of equity (COE) and cost of debt (COD). By analyzing both financing channels within the same research setting, this study contributes to the literature by offering a more complete view of how ESG is priced in the capital markets. The analysis combines four forward-looking valuation models to construct the implied COE estimates and uses corporate bond yield spreads to proxy COD. Results from the baseline two-way fixed effects (TWFE) regressions and instrumental variable (IV) models suggest that ESG performance is negatively associated with COD, while its relationship with COE depends on the specification. IV results offer limited support for a negative ESG–COE association and underscore the importance of industry-adjusted expectations when pricing ESG-related information.
Academic Training
Michigan State University
James Madison College
"The JMC curriculum, with its multidisciplinary perspective and focus on applied social science, prepares students to face real-world challenges with maturity, creativity, and responsibility. Consequently, the College's name garners considerable respect. Across Michigan, throughout the Midwest, and increasingly, throughout the country and world, new graduates find many opportunities available to them based on previous contact by employers with Madison students and graduates" (MSU JMC).
Wayne State University
Graduate School
Department of Economics
"Wayne State University is among the nation's top public universities for research expenditures, with more than $220 million spent annually, has been awarded the Carnegie Foundation's top classifications in research and community engagement, and is a member of the University Research Corridor along with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, generating 95 percent of research in the state and supporting economic growth throughout Michigan" (WSU Graduate School).
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