About

I am a PhD candidate at the University of California, Irvine, on the 2025-2026 job market. I am an applied microeconomist with research interests in economic history, political economy, and public economics. 

My research examines the role of government in early American transportation. In my job market paper, "Public Investment and the Social Returns of American Canals," I provide the most comprehensive evaluation of state-led public enterprise for the nineteenth century United States. 

The main finding is that state canal investments, although privately unprofitable, were in the aggregate socially beneficial. However, this is due to a couple exceptional projects whose benefits offset the many socially wasteful canals that states pursued. 

JMP: Public Investment and the Social Returns of American Canals

CV: Edwards_CV_25

Email: levie1@uci.edu