Research Papers

We evaluated the impact of implementing Restorative Practices (RP) in Chicago Public Schools. Using a difference-in-differences design, we analyzed how RP affected student behavior, arrests, suspensions, attendance, school climate, and academic performance. The study focused on 73 high schools and assessed how these interventions influenced both in-school and out-of-school student outcomes.

Traditional punitive discipline methods, like suspensions, can harm long-term student outcomes. We aimed to assess whether restorative approaches could improve student behavior, reduce disciplinary incidents, and enhance school climate without sacrificing academic achievement. Understanding these effects is crucial for shaping equitable school discipline policies.

RP led to an 18% reduction in out-of-school suspensions and a 19% decline in juvenile arrests, particularly benefiting Black students. Student perceptions of school climate improved, with no significant harm to academic performance. These findings suggest RP can promote safer, more supportive learning environments while reducing reliance on exclusionary discipline.

We analyzed how political competition influences state capture when business leaders fund campaigns for economic rents. Based on three African countries, we modeled (1) a unified business sector lobbying for a fixed rent and (2) multiple firms competing for rents. Capture rises with more candidates before declining, but when firms share rents, outcomes depend on politicians’ credibility and business rivalry.

We aimed to understand the unintended consequences of political liberalization, particularly how increased political competition may facilitate or mitigate business-driven state capture. Given that standard democratic theories often assume liberalization reduces corruption, our study investigates conditions under which political reforms might actually increase elite influence over policymaking.

Political liberalization does not automatically reduce state capture; its effects depend on economic structures and political incentives. Delaying liberalization until economic transformation is underway may better limit capture. This challenges conventional governance assumptions and provides insights for policymakers managing transitions in developing economies.

We analyzed a generalized mobility model using administrative data from Denmark to examine the roles of family selection and locational characteristics in generating spatial heterogeneity in intergenerational mobility across nearly 300 larger and 2,000 smaller neighborhoods.

We aimed to understand why intergenerational mobility varies across neighborhoods, an essential issue for shaping economic and social policies.

Understanding the mechanisms behind spatial differences in mobility helps policymakers target interventions to improve equality of opportunity across different neighborhoods.

The article reviews two significant 2022 works on economic growth, How the World Became Rich by Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin, and Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong, analyzing their approaches to understanding modern economic development.

We aimed to assess how these books contribute to the understanding of economic growth by integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence with historical reasoning, offering a deeper insight into growth mechanisms.

Understanding economic growth through these complementary works helps clarify the historical contingencies that shaped modern growth, offering valuable perspectives beyond formal models.

We find COVID rises in states with higher re-employment rates due to UI cuts: case, hospitalization, and death rates more than double. Additional wages of $1.1B offset only one-eighth of UI losses, while UI savings are offset by $14.8B in hospitalization costs. Illness-related work time losses are valued at $1.5B. Beyond monetary and morbidity costs, UI cuts are estimated to cause an additional 27,000 deaths.

No previous research has addressed the possibility that, during a pandemic, unemployment insurance (UI) may have externalities for health.

The results suggest an important role for UI during infectious stages of pandemics that should be considered for future policy design.

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 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 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.