Economics · Mathematics · UC San Diego

I study how capital, technology and policy shape markets.

I'm a senior at UC San Diego studying economics with a minor in mathematics. I work at the intersection of economic research and investing: health care spending, deep-tech markets, and the data work that ties them together.

NowEconomics TA, UCSD

Last summerDeepsense, Berlin

ResearchingHealth economics

NextMaster's, Fall 2027

On this site

About

Background, what I care about, and where I'm headed.

Experience

Deepsense, teaching at UCSD, education and skills.

Research

Independent work on U.S. health care spending and GLP-1 markets.

Investing

Sectors I follow, how I research them, and tools I've built.

Contact

holdenmacavoy@gmail.com LinkedIn add profile URL Résumé (PDF) add link

About

About me

I grew up in Norwell, Massachusetts, just south of Boston, and moved across the country for UC San Diego. I'm finishing a B.S. in Economics at Muir College with a minor in mathematics.

My coursework leans quantitative. Alongside economics, I've taken proof-based math, nonlinear optimization and data science, so I'm comfortable going from a model on paper to an estimate in R or Python. I like problems where the economics and the numbers have to agree.

In summer 2026 I studied abroad in Berlin and interned at Deepsense, where I did market research and technology due diligence for early-stage investment work. That summer made it concrete for me: I want a career that combines rigorous analysis with real capital decisions.

Outside of work I played varsity tennis, and I train regularly. I've also spent a lot of time teaching. Leading review sessions for UCSD economics courses has made me better at explaining ideas simply, which I think is underrated in research.

What I care about

Why U.S. health care costs so much more than peer countries, and what that means for growth
Deep tech that changes cost curves: AI infrastructure, space, energy
Investing with a model behind it, built from scenarios rather than single-point guesses
Teaching economics clearly

Where I'm headed

I'm applying to master's programs in economics and finance for Fall 2027. Longer term I'm aiming for investment research: venture capital, equity research or economic research roles where analysis drives decisions.

Experience

Work, teaching and education

Work

Summer 2026

Growth & Operations Intern

Deepsense · Berlin, Germany

Ran market research, competitive analysis and technology due diligence across small modular reactors, satellite communications, space situational awareness (SSA) and data center cooling.
Built segment maps for Earth observation, SATCOM and SSA, laying out each sector's value chain and competing technology approaches.
Built a company landscape of the SSA and orbital sustainability sector for a sustainability-focused venture fund, with defense-contract screening and climate-fit ratings for each company.

Due diligenceMarket mappingDeep tech

2026 – present

Teaching Assistant, Economics

UC San Diego, Department of Economics

Lead weekly review sessions for undergraduate economics students.

add course name

Fall 2025

Peer Learning Assistant, ECON 1

UC San Diego, Department of Economics

Ran exam review sessions and office hours for introductory microeconomics.
Helped students adapt to Uflo, an AI-based learning platform used in the course.

Education

2023 – 2027

B.S. Economics, Minor in Mathematics

University of California San Diego · Muir College

GPA 4.0. Relevant coursework: Econometrics (ECON 120B), Intermediate Macroeconomics (ECON 110B), Economics of Health Care (ECON 140), Mathematical Reasoning (MATH 109), Nonlinear Optimization (MATH 171B), Statistical Methods (MATH 189), Data Science (DSC 30, DSC 40).

Summer 2026

Study Abroad, Berlin

CIEE / UCEAP

Coursework in data science alongside a full-time internship.

Skills

RPythonStataExcelSQL / SQLiteStreamlit

Methods

Regression & econometricsGrowth modelsOptimizationScenario modelingMarket sizing

Research

Independent research

Self-directed projects in health economics. My interests sit where macroeconomics, health care markets and empirical methods overlap.

2026 – present

Why U.S. health care spending diverged from the OECD

In progressMacroeconomicsHealth economics

The U.S. spends far more on health care per person than other rich countries, and the gap has widened for decades. This project adapts the Solow and Romer growth models to ask whether that divergence looks like a difference in inputs, in technology adoption, or in how efficiently spending turns into health output.

Y = A · K^α · L^1−α → health output as a function of medical capital, labor and technology

add paper or slides link

2026 – present

GLP-1 drugs: markets, prices and spillovers

In progressEconometricsFinance

GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide and tirzepatide are among the fastest-growing drug classes ever sold. This project studies their economics from both sides: the market and financial impact on manufacturers and adjacent industries, and the econometric evidence on demand, pricing and downstream health spending.

add link when ready

Research interests

Health care spending, pricing and productivity
Economic growth and technology diffusion
Applied econometrics and causal inference
The economics of deep-tech and frontier industries

Investing

How I invest and what I follow

I manage my own portfolio with a long-term, buy-and-hold approach. I'd rather understand a few businesses deeply than trade many. Every position has a model behind it.

Sectors I follow

Sector	Why it interests me	Research I've done
AI infrastructure	Compute, data centers and cloud capacity are the bottleneck for the AI buildout.	Scenario models for neocloud providers covering dilution, debt structure and revenue-to-market-cap. Treats correlated names as one scenario, not independent bets.
Space	Launch costs are falling, opening markets in communications, Earth observation and orbital safety.	Value-chain maps and an SSA company landscape from my Deepsense work.
Energy & cooling	Data center power and heat are becoming the binding constraint on AI growth.	Due diligence on small modular reactors and data center cooling technologies.
Fintech	Digital banks can grow deposits and lending at a far lower cost per customer.	Ongoing coverage of consumer fintech.
Health care	The GLP-1 class is reshaping pharma revenue and downstream spending.	See my GLP-1 research.

How I research a company

Build scenarios, not a single target. Bear, base and bull cases with explicit revenue, margin and share-count assumptions.
Stress the capital structure. Dilution, debt maturities and GAAP losses matter most for high-growth companies.
Model correlation. Positions exposed to the same driver get analyzed together.
Look after tax. For income strategies like covered-call ETFs, I compare yield after California and federal tax.

Tools I've built

Python

Personal finance dashboard

A local app that pulls prices with yfinance, stores holdings and trades in SQLite, and shows performance in Streamlit. I parsed two years of brokerage trade confirmations to backfill the history, including closed positions.

PythonStreamlitSQLiteyfinance

JavaScript

Portfolio projection dashboard

An interactive browser tool that projects portfolio value under different growth scenarios and contribution schedules.

Chart.jsHTML / JS

add GitHub link

Nothing on this page is investment advice.