Sara Wray Enns
I am an Assistant Professor at Memorial University Newfoundland and finishing off my PhD at the University of Victoria. I am a settler originally from Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg, MB).
I acknowledge that the lands on which Memorial University’s campuses are situated are in the traditional territories of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province.
I acknowledge the labour theft extracted from people of African descent and used to build European wealth and economies globally and in the Canadian nation state—including Newfoundland and Labrador’s shipbuilding and cod fishery industries—through the violence of trans-Atlantic enslavement.
Research Focus
My research focuses on the economies of Arctic and sub-Arctic North America. I work in the fields of Indigenous, development and labour economics. My technical background is in micro-econometrics and causal inference.
My PhD work is supervised by Dr. Donn Feir (University of Victoria), Dr. Rob Gillezeau (University of Toronto) and Dr. Maggie Jones (Emory University), who have expertise in Indigenous economics, economic history, labour economics, and public policy.
Current projects
Road development, income, unemployment and crime: evidence from Arctic Canada
A Synthetic Control Analysis of New All-Season Road Development in Arctic Canada
From 1974 to 2017, a winter ice road was the only ground transportation from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, to Inuvik, the regional centre and subsequently the rest of Canada. On November 15, 2017, the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) opened, allowing people to travel to the community year-round (Government of the Northwest Territories, 2010). I use a synthetic control analysis to study the impact of the causal effect of the opening of the ITH on crime, income, employment and population. I find non-positive results for income and employment outcomes and mixed results for crime outcomes. Data is obtained from the Canadian Census, the Northwest Territories Community Survey, Canadian Vital Statistics and the T4 Family file – made available through the Northwest Territories Bureau of Statistics.
Labour market shocks and Indigenous participation in traditional economic activity in Canada
Traditional harvesting is an important part of cultural practices for Indigenous people in Canada. 85% of Inuit participated in at least one traditional land-based activity in 2017, and 27% participated to supplement their income (Statistics Canada, 2019). This paper explores the relationship between traditional harvesting activities in the form of hunting, trapping, fishing and wild plant gathering and western labour markets across Canada. Data comes from the Canadian Census and the Indigenous Peoples Survey from 2001 to 2021. I use a Bartik (1991) style shift-share instrument to understand how exogenous local labour demand affects participation in these traditional activities.
Co-authored works in progress
“Self-Administered Policing in First Nations Communities” with Jamein Cunningham, Rob Gillezeau, and Drake Rushford.
“Do Lethal Control Interventions Reduce Human-Wildlife Conflict? Evidence from Black Bears in British Columbia” with Felix Pretis, Jason Hicks, Prasun Ghimire and Sumeet Gulati. [Working paper]
sarawrayenns.com 