William Arbour
I am currently a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Toronto.
My research studies various ways to encourage inmates' social reintegration via, for instance, rehabilitation programs and supervised transition. More broadly, I am interested in the economics of crime and education, and labor economics.
I developed and taught a novel course, Introduction to Policy Evaluation, aimed at undergraduate and graduate students. Here is a preview of the content (in French).
News
I was awarded the Young Economist Award for the best paper by an economist under the age of 32 at the INFER International Conference.
CV
Please, find the most up-to-date version of my CV here.
Research
Working Papers
Prison Rehabilitation Programs: Efficiency and Targeting
Can Recidivism Be Prevented from Behind Bars? Evidence from a Behavioral Program
Parole, Recidivism, and the Role of Supervised Transition (with Steeve Marchand)
Work in progress
Propelling Occupations (with David Price)
Predicting (and Misclassifying) Offenders' Risk (with Sébastien Brouillette-Alarie, Guy Giguère, Guy Lacroix and Steeve Marchand)
What Does a Good Teacher Sound Like? (with Marlène Koffi and Philip Oreopoulos)
Peer Effects and Prison Programming
Teaching
Instructor
I developed and taught the course Introduction to Policy Evaluation, in which students are introduced to econometric methods such as difference-in-differences, instrumental variables and regression discontinuity. During the semester, the students dive into quantitative research by watching interviews I conducted with researchers.
I am currently teaching the undergraduate class Economics and crime.
Syllabi are available upon request.
Teaching Assistant
Principles of Microeconomics, Quantitative Methods (x3), Health Economics, Applied Econometrics (x3), Law and Economics