Ph.D. (Princeton, 1989), M.A. (Princeton, 1986), B.Sc. (Toronto, 1984)

Email address: dwayne.benjamin@utoronto.ca

Research fields: Labour economics, Economics of higher education, Personnel and defence economics.

CV: Downloadable pdf

Dwayne Benjamin is Professor of Economics and Vice-Provost, Strategic Enrolment Management at the University of Toronto. A labour economist by training, his current research focuses on the economics of higher education. Ongoing collaborative projects include a study of the economic returns (opportunity costs) of PhD education in Canada, new approaches to institutional financial aid design, and emerging work on personnel and defence economics with potential applications to the Royal Canadian Navy.

About

Dwayne Benjamin is a Professor of Economics and currently serves as the Vice Provost, Strategic Enrolment Management at the University of Toronto. Prior to this, he was Vice-Dean, Graduate Education in the Faculty of Arts & Science from 2017 to 2020. He also held various leadership roles in the Economics Department, including Chair (2015 to 2017), Associate Chair (undergraduate, 2010 to 2015) and Associate Chair (Graduate, 2003 to 2006). He also served as the Editor of the Canadian Journal of Economics and Associate Editor of Economic Development and Cultural Change .

Research Interests

Dwayne is a labour economist whose research has focused on questions in economic development, inequality and poverty, as well as public policy in a Canadian labour market context. More recently, and complementary with his administrative roles, he has turned his research attention to the economics of higher education, including the labour market for PhD graduates. In this vein, he was a member of the Canadian Council of Academies' Expert Panel on the Labour Market Transition of PhD Graduates and contributed to the final report, Degrees of Success. Building on this trajectory, his current work emphasizes three collaborative projects:

• Opportunity costs of PhD education (with Boriana Miloucheva and Natalia Vigezzi): examining the career and earnings trajectories of doctoral graduates in Canada. See the working paper.
• Financial aid and enrolment management (with Angelique Saweczko and Annabel Thornton): applying a strategic enrolment management lens to institutional financial aid design, with a focus on how funding structures affect access and student success.
• Economics of defence and military personnel: a lifelong interest that he has discovered is congruent with his research in labour and personnel economics combined with his current work in strategic enrolment management, with potential applications to recruitment, retention, and career outcomes in the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Armed Forces more broadly.

Dwayne's: Discover Research Profile