Miriam Okafor

Profile

Senior Economist with 11 years of experience in labor markets, fiscal policy, and applied microeconometrics across federal agencies and private research institutions. Specializes in causal inference methods — difference-in-differences, IV regression, and RDD — applied to workforce development and tax policy questions. Led research that informed a $2.4B federal workforce grant reallocation and reduced model runtime by 60% through pipeline modernization.

Work Experience

Senior EconomistMar 2020 - Present

Meridian Policy Institute, Washington, DC

Designed a difference-in-differences study on minimum wage effects across 14 states, producing findings cited in 3 Congressional Budget Office briefs and covered by the Wall Street Journal.
Built a Python-based microsimulation model of the federal EITC program that cut analysis turnaround from 6 weeks to 9 days, enabling real-time legislative scoring for 4 Senate offices.
Managed a 5-person research team and $1.1M annual project budget, delivering all 7 contracted reports on schedule and securing a $600K contract renewal.

EconomistJun 2016 - Feb 2020

U.S. Department of Labor — Chief Evaluation Office, Washington, DC

Conducted impact evaluations of 4 workforce training programs using administrative earnings records linked to UI wage data, identifying a 12% average earnings gain for participants 18 months post-enrollment.
Authored the quantitative sections of the 2018 and 2019 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Annual Reports, synthesizing data from 50 state agencies into actionable performance metrics.
Developed an R Shiny dashboard that gave program officers interactive access to grantee outcome data, reducing ad-hoc data requests to the analytics team by 40%.

Research AnalystAug 2013 - May 2016

Hargrove Economic Consulting, Chicago, IL

Supported antitrust litigation for 3 Fortune 500 clients by constructing regression-based damages models in Stata, with estimates ranging from $18M to $340M that withstood expert cross-examination.
Cleaned and merged 15+ years of CPS and SIPP panel data to produce labor supply elasticity estimates used in a peer-reviewed Journal of Labor Economics submission.
Delivered client-facing presentations translating econometric findings into plain-language policy recommendations for audiences with no quantitative background.

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