David Molitor

Associate Professor of Finance and Director of Gies Health Initiatives and Conrad W. and Shirley A. Hewitt Fellow and Deloitte Scholar

Contact

4048 Business Instructional Facility

515 Gregory Dr

Champaign, IL 61820

217-244-0504

dmolitor@illinois.edu

Google Scholar

Website

Listings

Educational Background

Ph.D., Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012
B.S., Mathematics & Economics, University of Minnesota, 2007

Positions Held

Director of Gies Health Initiatives, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023 to present
Associate Professor of Finance, Finance, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021 to present
Affiliated Professor, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), 2019 to present
Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2014 to present
Assistant Professor of Finance, Finance, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013-2021
Assistant Professor (by courtesy), Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 to present
Research Associate, Center for Business and Public Policy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 to present
Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, 2012-2013

Recent Publications

Borgschulte, M., Molitor, D., & Zou, E. Forthcoming. Air Pollution and the Labor Market: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke. Review of Economics and Statistics.
Molitor, D., & White, C. Forthcoming. Do Cities Mitigate or Exacerbate Environmental Damages to Health? Regional Science and Urban Economics. link >
Molitor, D., Mullins, J., & White, C. (2023). Air Pollution and Suicide in Rural and Urban America: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. link >
Deryugina, T., & Molitor, D. (2021). The Causal Effects of Place on Health and Longevity. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 35 (4), 147–170.

Other Publications

Articles

Heutel, G., Miller, N., & Molitor, D. (2021). Adaptation and the Mortality Effects of Temperature across US Climate Regions. Review of Economics and Statistics, 103 (4), 740–753. link >
Deryugina, T., Miller, N., Molitor, D., & Reif, J. (2021). Geographic and Socioeconomic Heterogeneity in the Benefits of Reducing Air Pollution in the United States. Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, 2. link >
Deryugina, T., & Molitor, D. (2020). Does When You Die Depend on Where You Live? Evidence from Hurricane Katrina. American Economic Review.
Deryugina, T., Heutel, G., Miller, N., Molitor, D., & Reif, J. (2019). The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction. American Economic Review, 109 (12), 4178-4219.
Jones, D., Molitor, D., & Reif, J. (2019). What Do Workplace Wellness Programs Do? Evidence from the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1747-1791.
Jones, D., Molitor, D., & Reif, J. (2019). A Reason to be Skeptical of the Workplace Wellness Industry. Scientific American.
Agha, L., & Molitor, D. (2018). The Influence of Pioneer Investigators on Technology Adoption: Evidence from New Cancer Drugs. Review of Economics and Statistics, 100 (1), 29-44.
Molitor, D. (2018). The Evolution of Physician Practice Styles: Evidence from Cardiologist Migration. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 10 (1), 326-356.
Jena, A., Olenski, A., Molitor, D., & Miller, N. (2017). Feeling it in your bones: A retrospective claims analysis of the association between rainfall and diagnosis of joint or back pain British Medical Journal, 359 j5326.

Honors and Awards

Conrad W. and Shirley A. Hewitt Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023 to present
Deloitte Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023 to present
Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2022-2023
RC Evans Data Analytics Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020-2023
2021-2022 Faculty Fellow, The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, 2022
Disruption & Innovation Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021-2022
NCSA Faculty Fellow, University of Illinois, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, 2021-2022
ORMIR Faculty Fellow, University of Illinois, 2020-2021

Grants

Worksite Wellness: A Field Experiment on Participation Incentives and Selection into Wellness Programs, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2016-2018
Worksite Wellness: A Field Experiment on Participation Incentives and Selection into Wellness Programs, National Institute of Health/National Institute on Aging, 2015-2018

Current Courses

Big Data Analytics in Finance (FIN 550) Examines methods in big data analytics for financial and economic analysis. Students design and conduct independent empirical research using tools such as machine learning, regression, randomized trials, and quasi-experiments. Emphasis is on distinguishing correlation from causation, developing reproducible workflows, and critically evaluating analytic strategies. Prepares students for advanced professional and research roles requiring independent judgment and defense of methodological choices in data-rich environments.