Highlighted Publications




 

Wright, Arora, and Wright (2025) examine whether a non-binding commitment pledge combined with goal setting affects student achievement  . They ask if having students state a target grade, identify study actions, and sign a pledge improves academic performance. The study uses a randomized field experiment in four Principles of Macroeconomics sections at a public university, analyzing survey responses and official course records. Although treated students pledged higher grades

Gagliarducci, Paserman, and Patacchini (2025) examine whether hurricanes influence legislators’ support for climate-related environmental policy. They analyze data on federal disaster declarations (1989–2020) matched to U.S. House districts, combined with records of sponsorship and cosponsorship of “green” bills. They find that representatives from hurricane-hit districts are more likely to support environmental legislation, especially in the year after a storm. The effect is

Ebinger et al. (2025) investigated how the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires affected local residents’ health. They asked whether emergency department encounters for specific illnesses increased during and after the fires. The study analyzed Cedars-Sinai emergency encounter data from 39 affected or adjacent zip codes, comparing the 90 days post-fire with the same calendar periods in 2018–2024 using interrupted time series models. They found significant excesses in acute pulm

Orr (2026) asks whether evidence-based policy clearinghouses give reliable advice to local policymakers when program impacts vary across places. He examines data from six large multisite randomized controlled trials in education and youth programs, drawing on site-level impact estimates and cross-site variation reported in prior studies. Using a Bayesian model, he evaluates how often a clearinghouse rule based on statistically significant average effects leads to correct loca