Highlighted Publications




 

Bhai and Hughes (2026) ask whether individuals who enroll in Medicare Advantage at age 65 are systematically different, especially in health, from those who do not. They use administrative claims data (2007–2017) tracking commercially insured individuals transitioning into Medicare, leveraging the age-65 eligibility cutoff. They find strong advantageous selection: healthier individuals are more likely to enroll in Medicare Advantage. For example, having diabetes without compl

Burdick-Will and Stein (2026) ask how commute complexity, especially bus transfers, affects high school students’ attendance, school mobility, and academic performance. They analyze administrative data on all Baltimore City high school students in 2016–17 and 2017–18, exploiting a system-wide transit overhaul as a natural experiment. They find that total travel time has no meaningful effect on outcomes, but requiring a bus transfer increases absenteeism and school switching.

Persico (2026) asks whether prenatal exposure to industrial pollution causes worse long-term economic, educational, and health outcomes. She uses geocoded longitudinal data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), comparing siblings exposed in utero to pollution from nearby Toxic Release Inventory sites with unexposed siblings  . She finds large negative effects: exposed children have about 23% lower wages, 0.76 fewer years of education, and ar

Aboaba et al. (2026) ask whether a low-cost messaging intervention can deter crime among high-risk parolees. They analyze data from a randomized controlled trial in New York, using administrative records on arrests, parole violations, and neighborhood crime. The authors find no meaningful reduction in arrests or violent crime. However, they report a 3 percentage point decline in parole violations—a 15% reduction—and a 2 percentage point decline in absconding violations, a 25%