Hi! I’m a Georgetown University economics PhD candidate (CV), RSPA elite professional coach, and former college player. I combine serve and volleying with heavy topspin counterpunching, am always up for singles or doubles, and would love to see balldogs on tour one day. I also do sports economics research for tennis, football, and baseball. Some of my research is featured below:
Disequilibrium Play in Tennis. With Axel Anderson, John Rust, and Kin-ping Wong. (Forthcoming at the Journal of Political Economy)
- Analyze Match Charting Project serve data with econometrics and game theory
- Contrary to previous research, find that the serve strategies of elite players are suboptimal
- Our dynamic best-response strategies may significantly increase their odds of holding serve
- Featured in Istanbul Ticaret (2024), Reading (2024), James Madison (2023), Australian National (2022), Toronto (2022, 2020), Binghamton (2022), Arizona (2022), Norwegian School of Economics (2021), Stanford (2021), Barcelona School of Economics (2021), Copenhagen (2021), Syracuse (2021), and Georgetown (2021) (slides, video)
“Are Points in Tennis IID?” Revisited. With Nicolas Legrand. (Working paper)
- Test the null hypothesis that points are independent and identically distributed (iid)
- Investigate if there is a “hot hand” effect and if servers struggle on important points
Data-Driven Drafting: Applying Econometrics to Employ Quarterbacks. With Alexandre Olbrecht. (Published in Contemporary Economic Policy, 38(2), 2020, 313-326)
- Use college quarterbacks’ statistics to accurately predict their NFL performance
- Find that functional mobility predicts NFL success, but pro-style experience doesn’t
- Featured in ESPN (2023, 2022, 2021), Football Outsiders (2023, 2022a, 2022b, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018), The Q Factor: The Elusive Search for the Next Great NFL Quarterback by Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick, and the 2017 Eastern Economic Association Conference
What NFL Quarterbacks Are Worth. With Satyam Anand. (Working paper)
- Estimate the marginal win productivity of NFL quarterbacks
- Provide evidence of teams possibly misvaluing quarterbacks between 2013 and 2022
- Featured in Football Outsiders and the 2019 EEA Conference (slides)
Investigating Sign Stealing in Major League Baseball. With Alexandre Olbrecht. (Working paper)
- Uncover patterns of the Houston Astros’ sign stealing in 2017, 2018, and possibly 2019
- Show how to detect sign stealing, which may deter other teams from cheating in the future
- Featured in Baseball Prospectus and Sign Stealing Scandal
