Spencer Sween

Biography

Spencer Sween is a Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also received his Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degrees in Economics. His research interests lie in applied econometrics, causal machine learning, and the economic effects of financial access. His current work focuses on integrating machine learning methods with panel-data techniques, such as difference-in-differences, to study non-standard treatment regimes. On the applied side, he examines how federal credit access policies affect local labor markets and entrepreneurship rates in underserved communities. Outside of research, he serves as the Head Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Econometrics at UCSB. When not in the office, he can often be found on a tennis or pickleball court.