Dr Cristina Sechel

School of Economics

Lecturer in Economics

Cristina Sechel profile
Profile picture of Cristina Sechel profile
c.sechel@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6105

Full contact details

Dr Cristina Sechel
School of Economics
Room 518
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT
Profile

Cristina joined the School of Economics in October 2016, having previously been a Research Fellow in the Health Economics Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen. She worked as a Research Associate for the School before being appointed as a Lecturer in 2022.

She is a 2023 UKRI Policy Fellow in the Joint Work and Health Directorate, hosted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), where she is leading a project looking at the relationship between health, work and benefits receipt, using a novel linked dataset that includes mental health records and DWP benefits data.

Her recent research centres around the relationships between health and labour market, with a particular focus on mental health and disability. She is currently working on Unpacking the Disability Employment Gap, a project funded by the Nuffield Foundation aimed at understanding the factors that contribute to the disability employment gap in the UK. Previously, she worked on a project aimed at 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. She has also worked on urban location choices and gender issues in economics.

In addition to producing academic research, Cristina is interested in 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
  • BA Hons (Economics and English) 2006, McMaster University
  • MA (Economics) 2007, McMaster University
  • PhD (Economics) 2016, University of York
Research interests

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

Show: Featured publications All publications

Journal articles

Working papers

  • Roberts J, Sechel C, Rice N & Huo D (2022) Mental health and productivity: evidence for the UK. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2022023. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Bryan M, Rice N, Roberts J & Sechel C (2020) Mental health and employment: a bounding approach using panel data. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2020006. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sechel C & Mumford K (2019) Pay and Job Rank Amongst Academic Economists in the UK: Is Gender Relevant?. IZA Discussion Papers, No. 12397. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sechel C (2019) 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 RIS download Bibtex download
  • Roberts J, Cuberes D & Sechel C (2019) Household Location in English Cities. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2019001. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

All publications

Journal articles

Reports

  • Hill J, Sechel C, Mukuria C, Brennan A, Roberts J & Bryan M (2018) A feasibility study for building a health and work model. Report prepared for Public Health England RIS download Bibtex download

Working papers

  • Bryan M, Bryce A, Roberts J & Sechel C (2024) 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. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Bryan M, Bryce A, Roberts J & Sechel C (2023) The Role of Education in the Disability Employment Gap. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series, 2023010. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Roberts J, Sechel C, Rice N & Huo D (2022) Mental health and productivity: evidence for the UK. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2022023. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Bryan M, Rice N, Roberts J & Sechel C (2020) Mental health and employment: a bounding approach using panel data. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2020006. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sechel C & Mumford K (2019) Pay and Job Rank Amongst Academic Economists in the UK: Is Gender Relevant?. IZA Discussion Papers, No. 12397. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Sechel C (2019) 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 RIS download Bibtex download
  • Roberts J, Cuberes D & Sechel C (2019) Household Location in English Cities. The Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS), 2019001. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Teaching activities

Cristina teaches second year undergraduate Public Economics (ECN21001).