Research

I study development economics, with a focus on human capital formation, the role of technology in education, and how households and institutions make decisions under constraints. My work combines causal inference with field-based empirical research.

My research originates in the Himalayan region, where families navigate constraints in schooling, gender norms, access to opportunities, and growing climate risks. A core goal of my work is to generate empirical evidence that can inform policy and contribute something meaningful to the region that made it possible for me to pursue an academic path.

My dissertation committee at the University of Washington is chaired by Rachel Heath and includes Alan Griffith, Isabelle Cohen, and André Punt.

Research in Progress

SHERPA: Solukhumbu Himalayan Education & Research on Pathways and Assessment

An independent, field-based research project examining the impacts of NGO-provided educational programs on educational trajectories and vocational aspirations among Sherpa youth in Nepal. The first paper from the project asks how the installation of school computer labs in Solukhumbu affects students’ academic achievement, exploiting the staggered rollout of labs across schools in partnership with the Himalayan Trust Network’s Quality Education Programme. I conducted dissertation fieldwork at sites in the Khumbu and Junbesi clusters in March 2026. See the Fieldwork page.

Sherpa, T. (2026). “Hardware Without Pedagogy: Computer Labs and Student Learning in Remote Nepal Schools.” Working draft available upon request.

Other Experience

In addition to dissertation research, I have worked as an applied policy consultant with Delphy AgAdvisory on regional economic impact analysis (2026), as a research assistant with Northwest Economics LLC in Seattle on payroll and wage-and-hour litigation (Summer 2025), and as an undergraduate research assistant in the University of Colorado Department of Economics on subjective well-being measurement (2022).