Sarah Akyena is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.
Her research interests include labor, public economics, education economics, and development economics.
Her research agenda centers on understanding how public policies shape job creation, job quality, and labor market outcomes.
She is currently working on various projects examining how the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—a program that supplements the earnings of low- and moderate-income families while encouraging work—shapes occupational choice, job match quality, and workers’ job satisfaction. The summary of her EITC project findings is that the program both expands the labor supply and shifts workers’ job choices. For single women with less education, the program facilitates access to flexible work but also generates mismatch distortions that lower wages and job satisfaction. The negative effects of mismatch ultimately outweigh the benefits of flexibility, complicating the efficiency case for the EITC.
She previously worked as a Data Strategy Fellow at Georgia Policy Labs and as a Research Associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (Atlanta Fed). During her time at the Atlanta Fed, she contributed to economic research projects focused on U.S. labor market disparities and the effects of tax policy, including the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. She has conducted econometric analysis with large confidential datasets, gaining expertise in managing sensitive data and delivering timely insights to policymakers. At Georgia Policy Labs (Achieve Atlanta), she worked on projects addressing postsecondary education inequality, leading an evaluation of completion grants for low-income students.
She holds a Master of Science in Mathematical Science from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Ghana. She is a recipient of the 2024 Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Equity and Inclusion Student Fellowship, the 2024 National Tax Association (NTA) Equity and Inclusion Travel Fellowship, and the 2018 Mastercard Foundation Scholar Award at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in South Africa.