Highlighted Publications




 

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

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

Cordova-Ramos et al. (2026) examine how U.S. preterm birth rates vary over time by household income and whether racial and ethnic disparities persist across income groups. They analyze nationally representative Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data covering 411,469 mother–infant dyads from 2011–2021. They find that preterm birth rates increased among households below 200% of the federal poverty level but remained stable among higher-income households. Overa

Bloom, Dahl, and Rooth (2025) examine whether the post-pandemic rise in working from home causally increased employment for people with physical disabilities. They ask whether expanded access to remote work explains the sharp increase in disability employment after COVID-19. They use U.S. Current Population Survey data from 2018–2019 and 2022–2024, combined with occupation-level measures of work from home. They find that a 1 percentage point increase in work from home raises

Dahl and Knepper (2025) examine why workplace sexual harassment is frequently underreported and whether fear of employer retaliation plays a central role. They use administrative data on sexual harassment charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1995 to 2016, combined with county-level unemployment data and major reductions in unemployment insurance benefits, especially in North Carolina. They find that weaker labor market conditions discourage repo

Papanicolas et al. (2025) study how premature mortality varies by race across U.S. states and what that implies for unrealized Medicare benefits. They ask whether Black and White adults differ in mortality before age 65. They use CDC Vital Statistics and CDC WONDER population data linked with Medicare Beneficiary Summary Files for 2012 and 2022. They find that premature mortality rose 27.2% overall (243 to 309 deaths per 100,000). Black adults had higher rates in both years,

Brouillette, Jones, and Klenow (2024) examine how large the Black–White welfare gap is in the United States when welfare is measured across multiple life dimensions. They analyze life expectancy, incarceration, consumption, leisure, and inequality using CDC mortality data, BJS incarceration statistics, CEX consumption data, and CPS labor data from 1984–2022. They find that Black welfare was about 40% of White welfare in 1984 and 59% in 2022, showing progress but leaving a lar

Benson, Li, and Shue (2025) study whether subjective “potential” ratings help explain why women are promoted less often than men. They use personnel data from 29,809 management-track employees in a large North American retail firm and track performance, potential ratings, promotions, and turnover. They find that women receive higher performance ratings but lower potential ratings, and that potential ratings predict promotions more strongly than performance ratings. Difference

Carpenter, Feir, Pendakur, and Warman (2025) examine whether nonbinary and transgender people experience earnings penalties compared to cisgender workers, and what explains those gaps. They use restricted 2021 Canadian Census data linked to tax records, covering earnings from 2019–2020 for adults ages 25–59. They find large earnings disparities relative to cisgender men. Nonbinary people assigned female at birth earn about 44–49 percent less in basic models and about 27 perce

Bucher-Koenen, Hackethal, Koenen, and Laudenbach (2024) examine whether financial advisors treat male and female clients differently when providing investment advice. They ask whether client gender affects fees and product recommendations, independent of actual client characteristics. Using administrative data from nearly 27,000 advisor–client meetings at a large German bank, along with client surveys, advisor surveys, and experiments, they find systematic gender differences.

Dupas et al. (2025) examine whether men and women are treated differently when presenting research in economics seminars. They ask whether presenter gender affects how often and how negatively audience members interrupt speakers. They analyze detailed data on thousands of seminars, job talks, and conference presentations, combining human-coded observations with machine learning analysis of audio recordings. The authors find that women receive about 10–20 percent more interrup

Uzzi et al. (2025) examine whether neighborhood conditions shaped by past redlining and present-day racialized economic segregation are associated with fatal opioid overdose deaths. They analyze census-tract–level data from Chicago, combining Cook County Medical Examiner overdose records with historical redlining maps and contemporary census data from 2017–2019 and 2020–2022. They find that neighborhoods experiencing high levels of disadvantage in the past and/or present had

This study asks whether court-appointed attorneys achieve different outcomes for low-income defendants based on whether they share the same race. Using administrative data on more than 17,000 misdemeanor cases in Travis County, Texas, the authors examine quasi-random attorney assignment to compare results for Black and White defendants. They find that Black defendants represented by White attorneys are 14–16 percent more likely to have their charges dismissed and 15–26 percen

This study asks why Black and Hispanic homeowners earn lower housing returns than White homeowners. The authors use nationwide administrative data linking race, home purchases, and later sale prices for more than 13 million ownership spells. They find that minority homeowners earn about 2.3 percentage points lower unlevered annual returns mainly because they face far higher rates of distressed sales, such as foreclosures and short sales. When a sale is distressed, homeowners

The study asks whether homeowners are more likely to move when a new next-door neighbor is of a different race. The authors use national housing transaction data matched with mortgage records, allowing them to observe both household race and the exact timing and location of moves. They compare move rates for homeowners who receive a different-race neighbor immediately next door versus two or three doors away on the same block. Both Black and White homeowners are more likely t

This study asks whether Black children in the United States are more likely than equally at-risk White children to be placed in foster care. Using data from over 23 million child maltreatment investigations in 45 states between 2008 and 2020, the researchers compare placement rates while accounting for each child’s risk of future maltreatment. They find that Black children are placed in foster care at significantly higher rates—about 1.2 percentage points more, or 21% higher—

This study asks whether the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges , which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, increased mortgage demand among same-sex couples. Using data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act covering nearly all U.S. mortgage applications between 1998 and 2019, the authors compared same-sex and different-sex couples before and after the ruling. They found that mortgage demand by same-sex couples rose by about 12% in states newly affected b

This study investigates how abortion restrictions following the 2022 Dobbs decision affected rates of intimate partner violence (IPV)...

This study investigates whether predictive algorithms used in higher education exhibit racial bias that disadvantages Black students....