Paige Ouimet: I am very fortunate to be joining such a great team at the Kenan Institute. I am so impressed with how talented and passionate the group is about their mission. This makes my job very easy. I see my role as to facilitate connections between the Kenan Institute and the research faculty at Kenan-Flagler. I expect my new role will be complementary to my research and teaching responsibilities as a finance professor. I will hear from businesses and policymakers about the most pressing questions as well as keep up to date with research across broad topics, providing me with insights that I can then bring to my teaching and research agenda.

Paige Ouimet: Everything! I think this is the best job, hands down. I love academic research and the opportunity to investigate important questions. But academic research is slow. So very slow. Papers that are published in our top journals go through an extensive vetting process to ensure that all conclusions are robust. This is important for the integrity of published research, but results in papers spend years at journals going through multiple rounds of revisions where the authors produce countless additional results to satisfy the journal. What is great about this job is that I can think and write about ideas and topics that interest me without committing to a multiyear process on any specific topic. This job gives me the chance to be an omnivore. And I am especially excited to have the opportunity to weigh in on more timely topics. Academic research is always looking backward, given the speed of publication. I am thrilled to get to be part of the current debate, involved in the issues of the day and, hopefully, to be playing a part in coming up with solutions.

Paige Ouimet: I am committed to the mission of the Kenan Institute to promote market-based solutions to current issues. There are many problems facing our society — such as inflation, rising income inequality, climate change, housing affordability — and market-based solutions will be important to addressing these concerns. Economics is a powerful tool. Economics can provide us with insights into the behavior of firms and individuals and how to design systems that incentivize desired outcomes.

Paige Ouimet: I work at the intersection of finance and labor economics. Probably the best way to think about my work is that I focus on feedback loops between firms and the labor market. I spend a lot of time thinking about how firms impact U.S. labor markets and how changes in the labor market impact firms. Currently I am working on two new projects focused on nonwage benefits, such as health insurance, retirement benefits and paid leave. In one project we look at how our understanding of income inequality shifts if we include nonwage benefits, which now account for more than 30% of total compensation but are not included in standard measures of income inequality. In the second project, we document the employment effects of paid sick leave mandates.

Paige Ouimet: If your Lego collection is large enough, you would be amazed at all the different ways you can use them. Lego build-offs with family and friends are a favorite activity. We pick a theme and then all compete for the best build. What has struck me the most after doing this with kids for years is how they think outside of the box. For example, it never would have occurred to me to tape Legos together, but why not? We also use Legos to solve all sorts of problems in the house. We have Lego play structures, Lego cake stands, even a Lego skateboard — well, at least we did for a while.