Dr Cristina Sechel
School of Economics
Lecturer in Economics
+44 114 222 6105
Full contact details
School of Economics
Room D37
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU
- Profile
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Cristina is a Lecturer in the School of Economics and leads the School’s Applied Microeconometrics research group. She joined the ±¬ÁÏTV in 2016 as a Research Associate, having previously been a Research Fellow in the Health Economics Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen. She was appointed as a Lecturer in 2022.
Her research uses advanced econometric techniques to study the relationship between health and labour market, with a particular focus on mental health and disability. She recently completed a UKRI Policy Fellowship (part of the ) in the Joint Work and Health Directorate, hosted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Her project looked at NHS Talking Therapies and benefits receipt using a novel linked dataset that includes anonymised mental health records and DWP benefits data.
She has previously worked on the following projects:
- , funded by the , which looked at the factors that contribute to the disability employment gap in the UK.
- , which was part of the social and economic value of health programme funded by .
Cristina’s earlier work touched on subjective well-being, urban location choices, and gender issues in economics.
In addition to her academic research, Cristina is interested in shaping public policy and producing accessible materials that help to communicate research findings to policy makers and the wider public, and to improve public understanding of economic concepts. See, for example, the video below explaining different measures of labour market status that are frequently used in economics research (and especially salient now considering recent changes in the UK labour market) but often misunderstood.
- Qualifications
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- BA Hons (Economics and English) 2006, McMaster University
- MA (Economics) 2007, McMaster University
- PhD (Economics) 2016, University of York
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- Research interests
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Cristina's research interests are in applied microeconomics and applied econometrics.
Her PhD focused on the use of Subjective Well-Being information in Economics. It proposed a methodology for measuring aggregate Subjective Well-Being across nations motivated by Cognitive Dissonance Theory, and examined the evidence for cognitive dissonance in reported life satisfaction data using objective indicators of well-being.
She is broadly interested in issues surrounding the interaction between health and labour market decisions/outcomes, as well as the economics of well-being.
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Journal articles
- . Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 236.
- . Oxford Economic Papers.
- . Labour Economics, 78.
- . Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 84(5), 1018-1051.
- . Bulletin of Economic Research, 74(2), 386-404.
- . Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 186, 373-394.
- . British Journal of Industrial Relations, 58(1), 82-113.
- . Economics Letters, 182, 55-58.
- . Regional Science and Urban Economics, 75, 120-135.
Working papers
- The geography of the disability employment gap: Exploring spatial variation in the relative employment rates of disabled people. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2024002.
All publications
Journal articles
- . Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 236.
- . Oxford Economic Papers.
- . Labour Economics, 78.
- . Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 84(5), 1018-1051.
- . Bulletin of Economic Research, 74(2), 386-404.
- . Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 186, 373-394.
- . British Journal of Industrial Relations, 58(1), 82-113.
- . Economics Letters, 182, 55-58.
- . Regional Science and Urban Economics, 75, 120-135.
Reports
- A feasibility study for building a health and work model. Report prepared for Public Health England
Working papers
- The geography of the disability employment gap: Exploring spatial variation in the relative employment rates of disabled people. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2024002.
- The role of education in the disability employment gap. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series, 2023010.
- Mental health and productivity: evidence for the UK. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2022023.
- Mental health and employment : a bounding approach using panel data. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2020006.
- Pay and Job Rank Amongst Academic Economists in the UK: Is Gender Relevant?. IZA Discussion Papers, No. 12397.
- Happier than them, but more of them are happy: Aggregating subjective well-being. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2019008.
- Household location in English cities.
- Teaching activities
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Cristina currently teaches three modules:
- Public Economics (ECN21001)
- Policy Analysis and Programme Evaluation (EDC206)
- MSc dissertation/project supervision (ECN6800/ECN408)