Mphatso is a PhD student in the Applied Economics program at the University of Minnesota, focusing on topics in public economics, labor economics, and development economics, especially in sub–Saharan Africa.
His research interests:
1. Public Economics. Mostly tax policy (tax capacity, structure, compliance, and taxation of informal sector), and government financed programs.
2. Economic demography. Understanding demographic forces in sub-Saharan Africa.
3. Poverty and welfare inequalities.
4. Labor force participation and productivity.
Mphatso has vast professional experience in public economics, trade, demography, and labor topics having worked several years as economist at the Ministry of Finance, Malawi Revenue Authority, and the U.S Mission in Malawi. He has worked as a teaching assistant for courses at the University of Minnesota, specifically in the Applied Economics Department. He also previously worked as a research and teaching assistant at Williams College, USA, where he obtained his master’s degree. Mphatso has hands-on experience using several data analysis packages and programs including Stata, R, python, e-Views, GAMS, and SPSS both at the U and before joining the U. He also has experience working with both macro and micro data including primary and secondary data. He has experience designing and implementing primary data collection tools. At the U, among others, he completed PhD level courses in econometrics, big data & programming for economists.