Bentley Coffey

About

Dr. Bentley Coffey is a clinical assistant professor in the Economics Department of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina (USC). Duke University awarded Coffey a PhD in economics with major fields in econometrics and public economics, including a special emphasis on environmental economics. His research interests span a broad swath of topics within economics, from macroeconomic growth to inequality and competition in labor markets. He is perhaps best known among researchers for his ongoing work with Patrick McLaughlin and Pietro Peretto on structural models of the effects of regulations on economic growth, using new quantitative measures of regulation generated by machine learning.

His work in regulation is informed by five years spent as a consultant at the Cadmus Group and its largest client, the EPA, for whom he primarily served as an econometrician in support of rule-making on water utilities; his second-largest set of clients was for-profit power utilities. Prior to joining Cadmus, Coffey was an assistant professor in the John E. Walker Department of Economics at Clemson University. Throughout his time in academia, Coffey has periodically conducted small consulting side projects such as providing support for injury and antitrust litigation, performing inferences from novel surveys, creating custom economic modeling, and supporting public comments on government actions such as proposed rules and facilities siting. Coffey’s research projects have benefited from funding awarded by the government of Canada, the National Academy of Sciences, Resources for the Future, and the Mercatus Center.