Highlighted Publications




 

Almås, Drange, Meghir, and Zachrisson (2026) examined whether attending childcare at an earlier age improves academic performance later in childhood and adolescence. They used Norwegian administrative registry data covering entire national birth cohorts from 2002–2007, along with standardized math and reading test scores in grades 5 and 9. They found that starting childcare one year earlier increased ninth-grade math scores by about 9.7% of a standard deviation overall. The e

Kouchekinia, Neumark, and Bruckner (2026) examined whether staying employed slows cognitive decline among older adults before retirement age. They asked whether losing work because of local labor market shocks causes faster declines in memory and cognitive functioning. The authors analyzed 1996–2018 data from the Health and Retirement Study, combined with local labor market and industry employment data across U.S. commuting zones. Using a Bartik labor-demand instrument to est

Slaughter and Weiss (2026) examined whether evidence-based community college interventions can “pay for themselves” from the college perspective through added tuition revenue and state funding. They analyzed cost and outcome data from 19 randomized controlled trial interventions and simulated implementation across 857 community colleges in 41 states. The interventions averaged about $2,100 in costs per student but generated only about $200 in new revenue, leaving colleges wit

Gonçalves, Jácome, and Weisburst (2026) examined whether immigration enforcement policies reduce public safety by discouraging crime victims from reporting crimes to police. They studied the Secure Communities program, which increased cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. The authors used data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, Immigration and Customs Enforcement records, FBI crime data, Census data, and police department re