Taylor “T.J.” Canann
Director of the Policy Research Laboratory
Dr. Taylor Canann is the Director of the Policy Research Laboratory with the Salem Center in the McCombs School of Business. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Finance Department at McCombs where he studies cyber policy, the economics of information and cybersecurity, and computational economics. He is also a Distinguished Scholar at the Strauss Center and a Lecturer in both the School of Law and the Department of Information, Risk, and Operations Management (IROM) in McCombs. The current focus of Dr. Canann’s research is at the intersection of game theory and cybersecurity. For example, he studies how policies impact the hacker labor market and how both software user decision making and hacker decision making should impact the optimal vulnerability disclosure policy. Dr. Canann graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Economics and received a B.S. in both economics and mathematics from Brigham Young University.
T.J.’s Recent Work
View AllAcademic
Postdoctoral Fellow, Salem Center for Policy, Austin, TX. 2019-
Adjunct Professor, University of St. Thomas, St Paul, MN. 2018-2019
Education
PhD, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. 2019
MA, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. 2018
BS, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. 2013
BS, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. 2013
Research Experience
Research Assistant, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA. Dr. Kenneth Judd. 2013-2019
Research Assistant, MCL, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Dr. Richard Evans, Dr. Kerk Phillips, and Dr. Brennan Platt. 2010-2014
Research Assistant, Mathematics Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Dr. Rodney Forcade. 2013-2014
Teaching Experience
Lecturer, University of Texas, IROM, Austin, TX. 2019-
Lecturer, University of Texas, School of Law, Austin, TX. 2019-
Instructor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. 2015-2019
Teaching Assistant, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. 2014-2015
Assistant Head Grader, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. 2015
Teaching Assistant, MCL, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. 2014
Teaching Assistant, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. 2013-2014
Publications
“Toward a Theory of Vulnerability Disclosure Policy: A Hacker’s Game”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2019
“Determinants of Short-Term Lender Location and Interest Rates”, with Richard W. Evans, Journal of Financial Services Research, 2014
Working Papers
“Industry-Level Baseline Risk of COVID-19 Infection”, with Carlos Carvalho and Richard Lowery, Mercatus Working Paper, June 2020
Papers in Progress
“Solving Large Systems of Equations from Economics via the Modular Gröbner Basis Approach”, with Kenneth Judd
“Rethinking Optimal Liver Transplantation: Position-Indexed Dynamic Matching with Type-Specific Wait-lists”
“Comparing Commodity-to-Fiat Based Risk Within Competing Cryptocurrencies”, with Samuel Kaplan
“Cyber Systemic Risk in Cases of Strategic Contagion”, with Samuel Kaplan
Presentations
Toward a Theory of Vulnerability Disclosure Policy: A Hacker’s Game. GameSec, Stockholm, Sweden. 2019
Toward a Theory of Vulnerability Disclosure Policy: A Hacker’s Game. Midwest Economic Association Meetings, Evanston, IL. 2018
Software Vulnerability Disclosure Policy: A Hacker’s Game. BYU Graduate Student Research Conference, Provo, UT. 2018
Rethinking Optimal OPO and Liver Transplant Regions. BYU Graduate Student Research Conference, Provo, UT. 2018
Solving Polynomial Systems of Equations. New Innovations in Computational Economics, Stanford, CA. 2018
Software Vulnerability Disclosure Policy: A Hacker’s Game. IHS Summer Graduate Research Colloquium, Towson, MD. 2017
Solving Large Polynomial Equations with Gröbner Bases. Innovations in Computational Economics, Stanford, CA. 2016
Parallel Implementation of the Modular Approach to Gröbner Bases. Innovations in Computational Economics, Stanford, CA. 2014
Blood in the Water: Where do Loan Sharks Locate? Mary Lou Fulton Poster Conference, Provo, UT. 2013
Local Minima in Lattice-Simplex Coverings: New Results and Conjectures. BYU Math Department Student Research Conference, Provo, UT. 2013
Honors and Awards
Department of Economics, University of Minnesota, Distinguished Instructor, Minneapolis, MN. 2016-2018
Department of Economics, University of Minnesota, Edward Coen Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN. 2014-2015
Workshop on Economic Applications of Algebraic Geometry, Invited Participant, Stanford, CA. 2013
Two Dimensions of Short-Term Consumer Credit Lender Deci- sions: Where to Locate and What Interest Rate, ORCA Grant, Provo, UT. 2012-2013
Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, Economics Department Scholarship, Provo, UT. 2012-2013
Computer Skills
Programming Languages: Python, Matlab, Mathematica, Maple, Singular, Bertini, C++, Java, C, Stata
Languages
English: Native
Chinese (Mandarin): Fluent