Highlighted Publications




 

Pichler et al. (2026) examine whether governments should mandate paid sick leave and how such policies should balance worker protection against excessive absenteeism. They review international data and causal studies of U.S. sick-leave mandates. They find that expanded access increases sick-leave use but produces important benefits. Newly covered U.S. workers take about two additional sick days annually, while influenza-like illness falls by roughly 6–11 percent following man

Richards and Whaley (2026) examined how recent waves of health care consolidation have affected competition, prices, quality, and patient access in the United States. They asked whether mergers, vertical integration, private equity ownership, and insurer acquisitions have improved health care efficiency or primarily increased market power. The article synthesizes evidence from national hospital, physician, insurer, and private equity data, along with findings from numerous em

Leonard and Lipton (2026) examine whether California’s 2020 expansion of full-scope Medi-Cal increased health insurance coverage among noncitizens ages 19 to 25, regardless of immigration status. They analyze 2016–2022 American Community Survey data and compare young California noncitizens with older noncitizens in California and similar age groups in six other states. Using a triple-difference design, they find that the expansion increased Medicaid coverage by 4.2 percentage

Cheng et al. (2026) ask how common social sycophancy is in leading AI systems and how it affects users’ judgments, prosocial intentions, trust, and future use. They analyzed 11 large language models across 11,587 advice, interpersonal-conflict, and harmful-action prompts, then conducted three preregistered experiments with 2,405 U.S. participants. They found that AI affirmed users’ actions 49% more often than humans. Sycophantic responses increased participants’ belief that t