About

Trade economist. PhD in Economics from Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024, under Tibor Besedes and Usha Nair-Reichert. Primary research field international trade; secondary fields geospatial economics, microeconomic theory, and networks.

Education

• PhD, Economics — Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024. Primary: international trade. Secondary: geospatial economics, microeconomic theory, networks. Advisors: Dr. Tibor Besedes, Dr. Usha Nair-Reichert.
• MS, Geographic Information Science and Technology — Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022. Primary research: remote detection of economic growth and environmental health; multi- and hyper-spectral remote sensing. Secondary research: "smart city" design and urban planning. Advisor: Dr. William Drummond.
• MS, Economics — Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019. Research area: network effects in gravity models of international trade.
• MA, Economics — Indiana University Bloomington, 2017. Research areas: international trade, game theory, financial networks.
• MSc, Economics and Public Policy — Barcelona School of Economics, 2015. Thesis: The Effects of Pico y Placa Driving Restrictions on Pollution in Quito, Ecuador. Finalist, Public Policy Thesis Competition (Class of 2015).
• Summer School — London School of Economics, July-August 2013. Coursework in International Economics and European Economic Integration.
• BA, Economics (with secondary BA in Political Science) — UNC Chapel Hill, 2014. Took 18 credits of Transatlantic Masters Program courses by invitation from the UNC Department of Political Science. Special recognition from Chancellor Carol Folt for exceptional service to the school.

Research

Active research is organized around two threads. The first, on which most of my doctoral work was concentrated, is on the structure of international trade through the lens of networks, geospatial heterogeneity, and optimal transport. Working papers in that thread include a unifying framework for economic equilibrium and optimal transport in infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces (SSRN 4772016), and joint work with Dr. Elizaveta Gonchar on satellite-calibrated bilateral trade-cost measures (the 2025 SSRN preprint Trade in the Spotlight and the forthcoming Effective Distance panel for the Journal of International Economics).

The second thread is a smaller, more applied line of work that uses the same intermediary-network methods in domestic-policy settings. Helfrich (2026, in preparation) decomposes the apparent rural-urban leverage gap in the U.S. New Markets Tax Credit using Community Development Entity fixed effects. The decomposition exposes the between-intermediary share of the aggregate variation as the structurally interesting one. The same approach is being extended (with Katia Antunes) to the European blended-finance setting.

The umbrella program covering both threads is documented at /program. The full list of papers and datasets is at /research and /datasets.

Teaching

Instructor of record at Georgia Tech (Econ 2106 Principles of Microeconomics, Econ 2100 Economics and Policy Problems). Graduate teaching assistant across the Georgia Tech Economics department (Econ 2100, 2105, 2106, 3110, 4180 Game Theory, 4357 Law and Economics, 4520 Economics of Sports, 7023 Econometrics II) and at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department (ECE 6250 Advanced Digital Signal Processing, ECE 6271 Adaptive Filtering). Earlier graduate TA appointments at Duke University's Global Executive MBA (STRATEGY 835, MGRECON 780, STRATEGY 836) and Indiana University (ECON 201, 327, 425). Instructor at Campus / Campuswire (online university partnership with MTI College) since July 2022.

Inaugural cohort of Graduate Teaching Fellows at the Georgia Tech Center for Teaching and Learning, 2018-19; co-led the new-TA orientation. The teaching pipeline is documented at /teaching. Open teaching sites built and maintained: Inference Lab, Macro Prep, and Pictures of Inference (in draft).

Service and honors

Senator of the Year, Georgia Institute of Technology Graduate Student Government, 2020. Vice President for Campus Services in Graduate Student Government, 2019-20. Graduate Senator (2018-20), representing the Economics department and then serving as a senator-at-large. Finalist, Public Policy Thesis Competition, Barcelona School of Economics, 2015. UNC-selected Student Keynote Speaker, Savannah Conference on Informational Literacy, 2011.

Skills

Programming and statistical: STATA, Python, R, Julia, Node.JS, LaTeX. Geospatial: ArcGIS Pro and Online, QGIS, Erdas IMAGINE, Gephi, GRASS, GDAL, Google Earth Engine. Visualization and design: Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Unreal Engine 5, Blender, Julia (DataVoyager, Makie, Pluto), D3. Audio and media: Adobe Audition and Premier Pro, Ableton Live, T.E. OP-Z, OBS, voice work. Languages: English, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian. Third-degree black belt and instructor in Sin Moo HapKiDo (since 2007).

Contact

Email: ianthelfrich@gmail.com. Tutoring slots via the booking page. Based in Smyrna, Georgia.