Kyle Kost, Ph.D.

Kyle Kost is an Economist at Intensity with expertise in macroeconomics, financial analysis, policy evaluation, and econometrics.

Dr. Kost has conducted deep research into identifying how uncertainty in economic trade policy can influence financial investments and outcomes.  For example, in one research paper, Dr. Kost provides the first general examination of the real effects price control threats can have on pharmaceutical firm pipeline R&D through drug phase delays.  Interestingly, he finds significant evidence of drug project delays in response to price control discussions for the most expensive approval phase, Clinical Phase III. Further, that there is also evidence of delays before starting a new approval phase.  In another paper, Dr. Kost empirically investigates how US and China trade policy uncertainty influences firms’ lobbying and investment decisions, and how these decisions can potentially complement each other.  Using a difference-in-differences design leveraging firms’ differential exposure to trade with China and the timing of China’s entry to the WTO in the early 2000s, he finds that firms more exposed to trade with China have significantly higher trade-related lobbying expenditures in the years prior to China’s WTO entry.

Dr. Kost has authored many articles, one of which is under revision for the Journal of Financial Economics. In this paper, he develops a text-based measure of stock market volatility using newspaper sources to better understand the drivers of volatility.  He has also been a referee for the Journal of Applied Economics and Review of World Economics.

Dr. Kost earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. Dr. Kost also served as a lecturer and teaching assistant in the department of economics.

Dr. Kost earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Mathematics, Magna Cum Laude, from Harvard University.