He holds a PhD in economics and public policy from the University of Michigan. Born and raised in South Africa, Garlick studied economics, mathematics and philosophy at the University of Cape Town and managed a small education nonprofit. He currently studies education and labor economics in developing countries and is working on peer and network effects in education, determinants of education investments by households, and transitions between education and the labor market. This work spans empirical and methodological topics and includes primary data collection in and analysis of secondary data from Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.