Highlighted Publications




 

Patel, Liu, and Jena (2026) examined whether the launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in July 2022 was associated with changes in suicide mortality among adolescents and young adults ages 15–34. They analyzed national mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System from 1999–2024 and compared observed suicide deaths after the launch of 988 with deaths expected based on prior trends. They found that suicide mortality was significantly lower than expected afte

Egede et al. (2026) examined whether African American or Black race, historic redlining, and contemporary structural racism are associated with diabetes prevalence in U.S. neighborhoods and what pathways explain those relationships. They analyzed data from 15,190 census tracts across 157 counties using CDC diabetes prevalence estimates, census data, historical redlining maps, and a multidimensional measure of contemporary structural racism. They found that contemporary struct

Mejia, Wigul, Hsieh, and Johnson (2026) examined whether the benefits of earning a college degree outweigh the costs for California students. They drew on labor market, higher education, financial aid, and student debt data from California and national sources to compare earnings, employment outcomes, college costs, and borrowing patterns across educational levels. They found that college graduates earn substantially more than non-graduates, with bachelor’s degree holders ear

Sacerdote, Staiger, and Tine (2025) examined whether test-optional college admissions policies help or harm high-achieving applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds. They analyzed admissions and enrollment data from Dartmouth College covering more than 99,000 applicants across test-required and test-optional years. Their primary question was whether withholding SAT or ACT scores affects admission outcomes. They found that high-achieving disadvantaged students often failed to

Lofstrom, Martin, and Susanto (2026) examined whether racial disparities in law enforcement stops in California narrowed between 2019 and 2023. They analyzed more than 15 million traffic and pedestrian stops reported by California’s 15 largest law enforcement agencies under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). They found that overall stops declined sharply after the pandemic, remaining about one million below pre-pandemic levels by 2023. The Black-white gap in police

Leifheit et al. (2026) examined which state-level factors were associated with rising homelessness across U.S. states between 2019 and 2024. They analyzed annual state-level data on homelessness counts, rents, unemployment, eviction moratoria, emergency rental assistance, overdose deaths, immigration, and climate-related property damage. Their primary finding was that eviction moratoria and climate-related disasters were the factors most consistently associated with year-over

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

Han, Heblich, Timmins, and Zylberberg (2025) examined whether urban trees increase property values and reduce heat, pollution, and energy use in cities. They analyzed detailed land-cover data, satellite temperature records, energy consumption data, pollution measures, and more than 450,000 housing transactions in Toronto between 2007 and 2020. They used the spread of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer beetle, which killed large numbers of ash trees, as a natural experiment to mea

Gabbay et al. (2026) examined whether children living above the standard Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) income eligibility threshold still experience food insecurity. They analyzed data from the 2024 National Survey of Children’s Health, focusing on more than 33 million US children living in households above 200% of the federal poverty level. They found that about 659,000 children in these households experienced food insecurity, with nearly half living betwe

Wu and Meyer (2025) examined how automating welfare caseworker services affected enrollment in SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid programs in Indiana. Their primary research question asked what happens to welfare participation and program targeting when automated systems replace face-to-face caseworker assistance. They analyzed administrative records covering nearly 3 million welfare recipients linked to IRS income data during Indiana’s phased rollout of an IBM automation system betwee

Susanto and Harris (2026) examined how California’s prison population has changed in recent years and what those changes reveal about incarceration patterns by race, gender, age, offense type, and prison spending. They analyzed California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) prison population data and California state budget data from 2010 through 2025. They found that California’s prison population fell to about 90,600 inmates in 2025, a 27% decline since 2019

Halpern-Meekin et al. (2026) ask how financial resources shape the emotional and relational rewards of motherhood among low-income mothers. They analyze semi-structured interviews with 80 mothers from the Baby’s First Years study; 40 received $333 per month and 40 received $20. They find that mothers used money not only for needs, but also to create meaningful moments of connection with children. The most common positive parenting experiences were spending time with children

Avdeev (2025) examines whether exposure to international students affects the long-term outcomes of native students. He uses administrative and survey data from the Netherlands covering about one million students over three decades. The study finds that a 10 percentage point increase in international student share raises natives’ likelihood of cohabiting with non-natives by 5.9%, marrying a non-native by 4.2%, and emigrating by 4.0%. It also increases pro-migration attitudes

Bloem, Hu, and Hurwitz (2026) ask how post-college earnings vary across colleges when using the full earnings distribution and how college selectivity relates to those outcomes. They analyze U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard data covering nearly all four-year colleges, including earnings percentiles 6, 8, and 10 years after entry. They find that rankings change substantially across percentiles, with about 40% of colleges shifting more than 150 places. Earnings ov

Mbekeani, Papay, Mantil, and Murnane (2026) examine how much high schools affect students’ long-term outcomes, including college enrollment, graduation, and earnings. They use longitudinal data from Massachusetts following five cohorts of ninth-grade students, combining administrative records and survey data. They find large differences across schools: students attending higher value-added schools are 11% more likely to enroll in college, 31% more likely to graduate from a fo

Chan and Chen (2025) examine how the productivity of nurse practitioners compares to physicians in emergency departments. They study 1.1 million patient visits from Veterans Health Administration emergency departments, using quasi-random assignment of patients to providers. They find that nurse practitioners use more resources, increasing length of stay by about 11 percent and costs by 7 percent. They also raise 30-day preventable hospitalizations by roughly 20 percent, with

Nelissen and De Witte (2026) examine whether raising the compulsory schooling age from 17 to 18 improves long-term educational and labor market outcomes. They use Dutch administrative microdata tracking individuals from adolescence into adulthood, exploiting a quasi-experimental reform. They find the policy reduced dropout by about 1.3 percentage points and increased high school completion by roughly 0.5 points, with stronger effects for vocational students. By age 31, employ

Singer (2026) examines whether the duration of remote learning in 2020–21 affected student attendance after the pandemic. He uses longitudinal administrative data on nearly one million Michigan students from 2017–18 through 2023–24, combined with district-level measures of remote learning duration. Using difference-in-differences and instrumental variables, he finds that each additional month of remote learning reduced post-pandemic attendance by about 0.46 percentage points.

Najam and Thompson (2026) examine whether adopting a four-day school week affects juvenile crime. They analyze incident-level crime data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System across six states, combined with longitudinal data on school schedule adoption from 2005–2019. Using a difference-in-differences design, they find that four-day school weeks increase juvenile crime by about 12%, driven by a 20% rise in property crime and a 9% rise in violent crime. They also

Bueno, Mawi, Page, and Smith (2026) examine how place-based scholarships affect student borrowing and early academic outcomes. They ask whether receiving the Achieve Atlanta scholarship changes loan use and first-semester performance. Using linked administrative data from Atlanta Public Schools, Achieve Atlanta, and Georgia’s public college systems, they compare recipients to similar non-recipients. They find recipients are 7 percentage points less likely to borrow (18% reduc

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