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 University of Sheffield 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 2023 cohort) 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:
- Unpacking the Disability Employment Gap, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which looked at the factors that contribute to the disability employment gap in the UK.
- Estimating the causal impact of health status on labour market outcomes, which was part of the social and economic value of health programme funded by The Health Foundation.
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.
Cristina is the School's Student Experience Academic Lead. She creates and supports opportunities that elevate student voice and build learning communities within the programmes we offer in the School of Economics. She also works closely with the Employability Hub and Career Services to help embed employability skills across our programmes in all years of study.
- 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
- Mental health and labour productivity. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 236. View this article in WRRO
- The role of education in the disability employment gap. Oxford Economic Papers. View this article in WRRO
- Exploring mental health disability gaps in the labour market: the UK experience during COVID-19. Labour Economics, 78. View this article in WRRO
- Mental health and employment: a bounding approach using panel data. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 84(5), 1018-1051. View this article in WRRO
- Measuring research excellence amongst economics lecturers in the UK. Bulletin of Economic Research, 74(2), 386-404. View this article in WRRO
- The share of satisfied individuals : a headcount measure of aggregate subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 186, 373-394.
- Pay and job rank amongst academic economists in the UK: Is gender relevant?. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 58(1), 82-113. View this article in WRRO
- Job satisfaction amongst academic economists in the UK. Economics Letters, 182, 55-58.
- Household location in English cities. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 75, 120-135. View this article in WRRO
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. View this article in WRRO
All publications
Journal articles
- Mental health and labour productivity. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 236. View this article in WRRO
- The role of education in the disability employment gap. Oxford Economic Papers. View this article in WRRO
- Exploring mental health disability gaps in the labour market: the UK experience during COVID-19. Labour Economics, 78. View this article in WRRO
- Mental health and employment: a bounding approach using panel data. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 84(5), 1018-1051. View this article in WRRO
- Measuring research excellence amongst economics lecturers in the UK. Bulletin of Economic Research, 74(2), 386-404. View this article in WRRO
- The share of satisfied individuals : a headcount measure of aggregate subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 186, 373-394.
- Pay and job rank amongst academic economists in the UK: Is gender relevant?. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 58(1), 82-113. View this article in WRRO
- Job satisfaction amongst academic economists in the UK. Economics Letters, 182, 55-58.
- Household location in English cities. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 75, 120-135. View this article in WRRO
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. View this article in WRRO
- The role of education in the disability employment gap. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series, 2023010. View this article in WRRO
- Mental health and productivity: evidence for the UK. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2022023. View this article in WRRO
- Mental health and employment : a bounding approach using panel data. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2020006. View this article in WRRO
- 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. View this article in WRRO
- Household location in English cities. View this article in WRRO
- Mental health and labour productivity. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 236. View this article in WRRO
- 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)