David H. Buller

Ph.D. Candidate in Economics

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

I am an applied microeconomist interested in urban, public, labor, and development economics. My research primarily focuses on how place-based policy, firm location, commuting patterns, and migration shape the geography of economic opportunity and affect labor and housing outcomes of local populations. I give particular attention to the distributional impacts on disadvantaged workers and communities. I use novel data and spatial processing alongside methodologies such as synthetic control, nested propensity score matching, and instrumental variables to assess the causal effects of policy and worker movement.

I am on the job market for 2025-2026.

My CV can be downloaded here.