Research Papers

In the context of Health and Human Resource outcomes, we developed and exemplified comparison instruments for ordered categorical data that don’t require artificial Cantril or Likert scaling of outcomes to facilitate level and variation comparisons.

Artificial cardinal scaling of ordered categorical data has been heavily criticized recently because of the inherent ambiguity it engenders (different, equally valid scales can result in substantially different conclusions). These new instruments resolve the issue by providing scale independent comparators that have an unambiguous probabilistic basis.

The generation and use of ordered categorical data has proliferated in the modern era in all areas of the empirical sciences and there is a need for analysis tools which are not subject to ambiguity critiques.

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 evaluated the hypothesis that neighborhood effects on academic achievement are mediated or interact with school quality using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.

We aimed to explore the mechanisms through which neighborhood poverty affects academic achievement, focusing on the role of school quality. By examining diverse measures of school effectiveness, resources, and climate, we sought to provide insights into whether and how these factors mediate or interact with neighborhood effects.

Our findings indicate that living in a disadvantaged neighborhood reduces academic achievement, but find little evidence that this effect is mediated by measures of school quality. These results challenge prevailing hypotheses and suggest that neighborhood effects operate independently of school quality factors. Addressing concentrated poverty directly may therefore be crucial in reducing educational inequalities.

We developed and tested a model explaining how growing up in a poor neighborhood impedes cognitive development, focusing on early life exposure to neurotoxic air pollution. We analyzed data from a national sample of American infants, examining their exposure to over 50 pollutants known or suspected to harm the central nervous system, using causal inference methods and supervised machine learning.

We aimed to uncover the mechanisms by which neighborhood poverty affects cognitive development. By identifying specific factors, such as neurotoxic air pollution, that mediate these effects, we sought to provide insights that could inform interventions and policies aimed at mitigating the adverse impacts of growing up in impoverished neighborhoods.

Our study shows that living in a high-poverty neighborhood increases exposure to harmful air pollutants during infancy, reducing cognitive abilities at age 4 by about one-tenth of a standard deviation. Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for developing targeted interventions to improve cognitive outcomes for children in poor neighborhoods and addressing environmental health disparities.

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 followed 1,266 children in Chicago from birth through school entry, tracking their risk of lead exposure and neighborhood socioeconomic composition to estimate the joint effects on receptive vocabulary ability.

We aimed to address the gap in research on the impact of disadvantaged neighborhoods on cognitive development during early childhood, as most studies focus on school-age children or adolescents.

Our findings show that sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods reduces vocabulary skills in early childhood through lead contamination. Understanding this causal pathway is crucial for developing interventions to improve cognitive outcomes for children in impoverished neighborhoods and addressing environmental health disparities, promoting better long-term educational and developmental prospects.

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.