Research Papers

We examined the impact of the federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) program on teacher employment decisions and borrower behavior.

Our study aimed to understand if access to student debt relief influences teacher retention in high-need schools, and if providing targeted information affects application and receipt rates among eligible teachers.

This research is crucial as it reveals that while teachers generally value potential debt relief, program complexity and administrative hurdles significantly limit its uptake. Understanding these dynamics is essential for improving the efficacy and accessibility of student debt relief programs in education.

We estimated the labor supply response to the 2021 Child Tax Credit using Current Population Survey microdata, comparing labor supply outcomes among households with varying income increases due to their income level and household size.

We conducted this study to understand the impact of the Child Tax Credit on labor supply, assessing if the additional income influenced families’ decisions to work more or less.

We aim to inform policymakers about the labor market effects of the Child Tax Credit, helping to evaluate the effectiveness of such financial support measures on family labor supply decisions.

We investigated the impact of the early withdrawal penalty on Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) by examining withdrawal behavior shortly before and after the penalty is lifted.

We aimed to understand how the expiration of the early withdrawal penalty affects withdrawal behavior, particularly the timing and magnitude of withdrawals, and to explore the influence of liquidity constraints.

Our goal was to inform policymakers about the effects of the early withdrawal penalty on retirement savings behavior, which can guide decisions on adjusting or temporarily removing such penalties.

We measured the impact of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend on price levels using a synthetic control method to compare Alaska with similar states before the dividend’s introduction.

We aimed to determine whether unconditional cash transfers, like the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, stimulate consumer spending and increase price levels.

Our findings help us understand the inflationary effects of unconditional cash transfers, informing policymakers about potential economic impacts and guiding future decisions on similar programs.

We explored the contributions of Black economists to research on major economic and social policy issues in the United States, focusing on education, poverty, economic mobility, and public finance to identify common themes.

We aimed to highlight the unique perspectives and critical engagement of Black economists on economic policy issues, examining both individual and structural explanations for economic outcomes.

Our findings underscore the significance of diverse viewpoints in economic research, emphasizing the impact of race and discrimination, and the need for inclusive frameworks in policy discussions.

We used the Current Population Survey and a synthetic control method to examine the impact of the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend on employment and part-time work.

We aimed to assess whether the annual cash dividend influenced overall employment levels and part-time work, providing insights into the economic effects of universal cash transfers.

Our findings suggest that a universal and permanent cash transfer can stimulate the local economy without significantly decreasing aggregate employment, offering valuable evidence for policymakers considering similar programs.

We estimated the elasticity of consumption with respect to typical labor income shocks using firm-wide changes in monthly pay, and analyzed how this elasticity varies by wealth and race, using administrative bank account data.

We sought to understand the consumption responses to typical income fluctuations and explore how wealth and racial disparities affect consumption smoothing, addressing an open question about heterogeneity in consumption responses.

Our findings reveal significant racial disparities in consumption smoothing, with black and Hispanic households experiencing higher welfare costs from income volatility than white households, primarily due to differences in liquid wealth, offering insights into economic inequality and its impact on welfare.

We conducted a 2-year randomized clinical trial involving 4834 employees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to evaluate the effects of a comprehensive workplace wellness program on health, health beliefs, and medical use.

We aimed to determine whether such programs improve employee health and reduce medical costs, as randomized evaluations of workplace wellness program efficacy are rare.

Our study provides evidence that while the program did not significantly impact clinical health outcomes or medical use, it positively influenced health beliefs and increased the number of employees reporting having a primary care physician, offering insights for employers considering similar initiatives.

We investigated the impact of the Social Security Annual Earnings Test (AET) on employment decisions of older Americans using a differences-in-differences design.

We aimed to understand how the AET, which reduces benefits for earnings above a certain amount, affects employment rates among older Americans nearing retirement age.

Our findings indicate that the AET significantly decreases employment rates among those aged 63-64, providing critical insights for policymakers on the labor market effects of Social Security policies.

We introduced a method to estimate the cost of adjusting earnings and the earnings elasticity with respect to the net-of-tax share, using bunching in the earnings distribution at convex budget set kinks before and after policy changes.

We sought to explore the relationship between tax policy changes and earnings adjustments, specifically focusing on the Social Security Earnings Test, to provide a clearer understanding of the behavioral responses to tax rate changes.

Our results highlight that adjustment costs can significantly dampen the short-run effects of changes in effective marginal tax rates, offering crucial insights for policymakers on the efficiency and impact of tax policy adjustments.