Bio
I am a Senior Lecturer at Kyoto University, Japan. My research interests include applied economics with focus on Environmental Economics and Health Economics.
Featured Project
Wildfires and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Lightning Strikes
Selected for the runner-up of the 27th Moriguchi prize by ISER
This study estimates the causal effect of wildfires on health at birth by using lightning strikes as an instrumental variable. In the birth month, a one standard deviation increase in natural-caused wildfire size from its sample mean increases the incidence of low birth weight by 1.1 per 1,000 births. Alongside the existing evidence on wildfire smoke, the results provide suggestive evidence of a local-disruption channel, including stress-related responses. Finally, the estimated adverse birth-weight effect is smaller in counties where more land had previously been treated to reduce wildfire fuels through prescribed burning or mechanical vegetation removal.
Upcoming Presentations
[2026/6] World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (WCERE), Lisbon, Portugal- [2026/10/22–23] Heartland Environmental and Resource Economics Workshop, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA
- [2026/12/5] Young JADE Conference, The University of Osaka (Toyonaka Campus), Japan