Michael Kotrous

Michael is a Ph.D. candidate in the John Munro Godfrey, Sr. Department of Economics at the University of Georgia. He is an empirical IO economist with interest in labor economics and franchising.

Michael will be on the job market for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Michael is also an assistant with the James C. Bonbright Center for the Study of Regulation at the University of Georgia and was a Bastiat Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

• BA, Economics and Journalism–Advertising, Creighton University, 2015
• MA, Economics, University of Georgia, 2023
• PhD, Economics, University of Georgia, Expected May 2026

• Empirical Industrial Organization
• Labor Economics
• Franchising

Working Papers

• “The Labor Market Effects of No-Poach Clauses in the Quick-Service Restaurant Industry” (Job Market Paper)
• “Multi-Unit Ownership in U.S. Fast Food Franchising” with Peter Newberry

Journal Articles

• “The FCC’s High-Cost Programs, Rural Broadband Penetration & Rural Broadband Service Quality” with Brent Skorup, December 2020 (presented at TPRC48: The 48th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy)
• “Broadband Speeds in Fibered US Markets: An Empirical Analysis” with James Bailey, 2021, Journal of Information Policy 11(2021): 478-522.
• “The Benefits of Coronavirus Suppression: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Response to the First Wave of COVID-19 in the United States” with James Broughel, 2021, PLOS ONE 16(6): e0252729.
• “Narrowing the Rural Digital Divide with Consumer Vouchers” with Brent Skorup, Mercatus Center Policy Brief, October 2020
• “Rural Broadband Deployment in Florida: Recommendations for Reform” with Brent Skorup, The Journal of the James Madison Institute 64, Fall 2021
• form477-panels, assemble a panel of FCC Form 477 U.S. fixed broadband and Census/ACS demographic data from Dec. 2014 – Dec. 2019
• daedalus, convert National Transportation Safety Board eADMS tables on aviation accidents to research-friendly formats
• tfr-data, web scraping tool for collecting FAA Temporary Flight Restrictions data

• Swift Undergraduate Teaching Fellow, John Munro Godfrey, Sr. Department of Economics at University of Georgia, 2025
• Outstanding TA Award, Center for Teaching & Learning at University of Georgia, 2025
• Assistant, Bonbright Center for the Study of Regulation at University of Georgia, 2021 - present
• Bastiat Fellow, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 2021-2022
• Winner, Carl Menger Essay Contest, Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, 2015
• Omicron Delta Epsilon, Creighton University, 2015
• Werner-Robertson Fellow, Institute for Economic Inquiry at Creighton University, 2014-2015