Prior to the University of Pennsylvania, Park was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale (2022), an Assistant Professor of Economics in UCLA’s Department of Public Policy (2018-2022) and held dual post-doctoral positions at Harvard University, in the Kennedy School of Government and the Center for the Environment (2017). Park holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard, two MScs from Oxford University (Rhodes Scholarships) in Development Economics and Environmental Change and Management and a BA in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University. 

Park’s research combines data, quasi-experimental methods, and economic analysis to better understand the implications of environmental change for human flourishing, and how effective policy responses may be designed. His work on heat and learning uses data from millions of test scores to understand how the physical environment in which learning occurs may affect educational achievement gaps, how climate change may influence economic inequality, and what this might imply for public policy regarding climate mitigation and adaptation. Ongoing work examines such topics as the effects of extreme heat on workers and labor market inequality, the consequences of natural disasters for human capital, and the process by which workers and firms adapt to a changing environment. Park’s recent book, Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World (Princeton University, 2024) explored the effects of climate change and its social and economic costs. 

At RSF Park (with collaborator Anna Stansbury) is investigating the extent to which the availability and quality of workers’ outside labor market options affect their health and safety in the workplace. Using data from approximately 15 million workers’ compensation claims from California workplaces, Park finds that better outside-occupation options are associated with reductions in the workplace injury rate.