Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna

Associate Professor of Economics, Emory University

I am an applied econometrician working on causal inference, with a particular focus on difference-in-differences and related methods for learning credibly from real-world data.

Much of my recent work studies how difference-in-differences designs work, how they can be improved, and how applied researchers can use them more transparently. I also work on broader questions in causal inference and policy evaluation.

I also work as an Amazon Scholar, thinking about econometric and causal inference questions in large-scale applied settings. That work is a useful complement to my academic research because it highlights how these methods behave in practice.

I currently serve as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Econometrics, the Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, and the Journal of Causal Inference.

Outside of work, I love spending time with my wife, Renata, and our five kids.

Recent Updates:

I have been exploring Claude Code and how it can help us do research and better organize our teaching. A summary of how I used it is here
A new and much more practical version of our paper "Difference-in-Differences with a Continuous Treatment," joint with Brant Callaway and Andrew Goodman-Bacon, is out. Check also our R Companion package, contdid.
If you want to get the most precise DiD and ES estimates, check my paper with Xiaohong Chen and Haitian Xie, "Efficient Difference-in-Differences and Event Study Estimators."
Triple Differences estimators are fun and useful, but they require careful implementation! Check "Better Understanding Triple Differences Estimators" , joint with my Ph.D. student Marcelo Ortiz-Villavicencio.