About

I am an applied microeconomist with research interests in economic history, political economy, and public economics. 

I am currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Central Arkansas and earned my PhD in Economics at UC Irvine in 2026.

My research examines the role of government in early American transportation. In my job market paper, "Public Investment and the Social Returns of American Canals," I provide the most comprehensive evaluation of state-led public enterprise for the nineteenth-century United States. 

The main finding is that state canal investments, although privately unprofitable, were in the aggregate socially beneficial. However, this is due to a couple of exceptional projects whose benefits offset the many socially wasteful canals that states pursued. 

JMP: Public Investment and the Social Returns of American Canals

CV: Edwards_CV_26

Email: ledwards22@uca.edu