Biography
Sergey Alexeev is an economist–statistician specialising in trial-based and quasi-experimental evaluation, predictive modelling, and cost–benefit analysis. His training spans GSOM–St Petersburg (BFin, Trinity College Dublin exchange), Université Paris-Dauphine (MSc, Finance & Control, cum laude), York University (MA Economics), and a PhD in Economics at UTS. Early-career work at NDARC with Prof Don Weatherburn and BOCSAR used linked...view more
Sergey Alexeev is an economist–statistician specialising in trial-based and quasi-experimental evaluation, predictive modelling, and cost–benefit analysis. His training spans GSOM–St Petersburg (BFin, Trinity College Dublin exchange), Université Paris-Dauphine (MSc, Finance & Control, cum laude), York University (MA Economics), and a PhD in Economics at UTS. Early-career work at NDARC with Prof Don Weatherburn and BOCSAR used linked administrative data to study drug and alcohol policy, shaping public debate and reform. At the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, he was methodological lead on the ENCORE cluster RCT (International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2024) and co-authored the CARE protocol for robust cluster-trial inference; an ARC DECRA program on innovative randomised experiments is proposed.
Sergey currently leads HOPE (judge-leniency IV to estimate the causal health effects of imprisonment) and EVIDENCE (evaluating drug policy and harm reduction at scale), and builds AI-enabled evidence-synthesis pipelines and place-based decision dashboards for small Australian towns. He partners with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through advisory and lived-experience panels, serves on the NSW Population & Health Services Research Ethics Committee (PHSREC), and is committed to Indigenous data sovereignty and open, replication-ready science (via I4R). His service includes the editorial board of the International Journal of Drug Policy and supervision of HDR and master’s students. His research has been featured in 7 News, The Age, and The Guardian. He is of Ingrian-Finn heritage. More about his research and publications is available at alexeev.pw, and his full CV is available here.
My Grants
My Qualifications
- Academic qualifications
- PhD in Economics, University of Technology Sydney (2015–2020).
- Master’s in Economics, York University (2013–2014).
- Master’s in Organisational Sciences (Finance & Control), Université Paris-Dauphine, cum laude (2009–2011).
- Bachelor’s in Finance (Honours), Graduate School of Management, Saint Petersburg State University (2005–2009).
- Exchange semester, Trinity College Dublin (University of Dublin).
- Research governance & service
- Member, NSW Population & Health Services Research Ethics Committee (PHSREC).
- Editorial Board, International Journal of Drug Policy; cross-disciplinary peer reviewer.
- Contributor, Institute for Replication (I4R) and open-science initiatives.
- Professional memberships
- Econometric Society; European Association of Labour Economists; allied health-economics and policy networks.
- Awards & scholarships
- Recipient of competitive scholarships and fellowships across Europe, North America and Australia.
- Compliance & training
- Human research ethics, privacy & data security (NHMRC frameworks); experience with data-custodian approvals (e.g., BOCSAR, AIHW); full onboarding for PLIDA, HILDA and LSAC.
My Awards
2019: The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute APR Scholarship
2015: International Research Scholarship; Ross Milbourne Research Scholarship in Economics; UTS Top Up Scholarship
2013: York Graduate Scholarship for Academic Excellence; York International Tuition Fee Scholarship
2008: GSOM stipend for studying abroad
2006: Best second-year research paper at GSOM
My Research Activities
- Risky alcohol use and violence against women: cause or consequence?
- Dual-edged benefits of drug policing: a quarter century’s lesson from a heroin drought
- A closer look at Doleac and Mukherjee (2022) and the effects of naloxone access laws on opioid ER admissions
- Transforming nursing assessment in acute hospitals: A cluster randomised controlled trial of an evidence-based nursing core assessment (the ENCORE trial)
- Harm reduction or amplification? The adverse impact of a supervised injection room on housing prices
- Wage equation misrepresents gay wage discrimination: overlooked evidence from Russia
- Fines for illicit drug use do not prevent future crime: evidence from randomly assigned judges
- Technical change and wage premiums amongst skilled labor: evidence from the economic transition
- Changes in and correlates of Australian public attitudes toward illicit drug use
- The Australian ready-to-drink beverages tax missed its target age group
- The role of imputed rents in intergenerational income mobility in three countries
My Research Supervision
Areas of supervision
- Levels: Honours, MPhil/Master’s, PhD (co-supervision welcome across health, economics, data science, law/policy). Hybrid/remote OK.
- Themes for supervise
- Causal program evaluation: IV, DiD/event-study, RDD, synthetic control; policy trials and natural experiments.
- Trials & methods: cluster/stepped-wedge design, analysis and simulation; protocol development (incl. CARE).
- Health economics & HTA: cost–benefit/cost-effectiveness; service redesign; deprescribing/medication policy.
- Linked administrative data: justice–health linkages; youth and AOD epidemiology; cohort harmonisation.
- Indigenous health & co-design: community-led evaluation, Indigenous data governance, place-based dashboards.
- Meta-research & replication: reproducibility, robustness audits, AI-assisted evidence synthesis (e.g., wearables).
- Economic history & archives: text/data extraction from historical records; institutional legacies and modern outcomes.
- Data products for decision-makers: automated reporting, small-area analytics, geospatial access and equity.
- Methods & tools: R, Stata, Python, SQL; reproducible pipelines (Git/Quarto), secure ETL, causal ML where appropriate; survey/administrative linkage; geospatial (ArcGIS/QGIS).
- Supervision style: Regular meetings, written milestones, preregistration where feasible, and replication-ready code from day one. Strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement, ethics/data governance, and translation to policy briefs.
- How to pitch: Email a 1-page concept note (question, dataset(s), proposed identification, outcomes), CV + transcript, and (if available) a short code sample. Currently open to 1–2 new HDR students
Currently supervising
- Current students
- Alexandra Gallagher — PhD Candidate in Nephrology
Overview: Net Zero Hub medical lead (NSW Ministry of Health) and National Hypertension Taskforce lead. Our work focuses on cutting-edge trial designs, including Bayesian adaptive trials. - Jessica Cornish — PhD Candidate in Criminology
Overview: Studies police responses to family violence, using systematic reviews and advanced causal methods to evaluate interventions such as arrest and safety notices.
- Alexandra Gallagher — PhD Candidate in Nephrology
- Past students
- Oscar Ninou — MPhil in Engineering
Overview: Contributed to the HOPE Pilot Study. Now admitted to the graduate program at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
- Oscar Ninou — MPhil in Engineering
Location
Lower Ground, Electrical Engineering Building (G17)
Balnaves Place, UNSW Sydney NSW 2052
Map reference (Google map)