About Me

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Colorado State University, on the 2026–2027 academic job market. My research sits at the intersection of labor economics, health economics, and macroeconomics, examining how labor-market institutions, financial structure, and income distribution shape population health, and how the resulting health dynamics feed back into macroeconomic performance.

My job market paper, “Labor Market Deregulation and Deaths of Despair,” asks whether policies that make it easier for employers to dismiss workers carry measurable public-health costs. Using OECD employment protection indicators and WHO mortality data for 26 advanced economies from 1998–2019, I find that major deregulation reforms are followed by a significant rise in drug- and suicide-related mortality within five years, with no corresponding rise in alcohol-related mortality — effects that are consistently smaller where health systems are more effective, while income support protects against suicide and violence but unexpectedly amplifies the alcohol-mortality response. You can read the full abstract on my Publications page and download the paper from my CV.

In a second dissertation chapter (with Marwil J. Dávila-Fernández), I build a macroeconomic growth-cycle model in which substance-use behavior responds to the wage share, generating an additional channel of instability beyond the standard Goodwin cycle. A third, early-stage chapter examines local financialization and financial distress as a separate pathway to deaths of despair.

Alongside my research, I have taught as a Graduate Teaching Instructor and Graduate Teaching Assistant at CSU since 2021, most recently as instructor of record for Principles of Macroeconomics, and I received the department’s Outstanding Graduate Teacher Award for 2025–2026. More on my teaching is on the Teaching page.

Fields: Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Health Economics Topics: Deaths of Despair · Employment Protection Legislation · Growth Cycles · Financialization

Feel free to reach out at nara.chung89@gmail.com or [nara.chung@colostate.edu].