Highlighted Publications




 

Schneider and Harknett (2026) examine whether state and local paid sick leave laws affect workers who are not legally covered through spillovers within large, multi-state firms. They ask whether firm-level exposure to paid sick leave mandates leads companies to extend paid sick leave to workers in non-mandate locations. They analyze linked employer–employee survey data from the Shift Project, combined with administrative data on firm locations and mandate coverage. They find

The study asks which neighborhoods in the United States give children the best chances of rising out of poverty. Using Census and IRS data on more than 20 million children born between 1978 and 1983, the researchers link childhood Census tracts to adult outcomes such as income, incarceration, and teen birth rates. They find large neighborhood gaps: for children from families earning $27,000, adult household income differs by about $12,850 across nearby tracts. Quasi-experimen

This study asks whether sending people who commit financial crimes to prison reduces future offending and whether these sentences also discourage their coworkers from committing similar crimes. The authors use detailed administrative data from Finland, linking court records, workplace information, and criminal histories. Using random assignment of judges to identify causal effects, they find that a prison sentence reduces a defendant’s likelihood of reoffending by about 43 pe

The study asks whether countries that are more connected to global financial markets recover more quickly from natural disasters. The authors use quarterly data from 61 advanced and emerging economies between 1970 and 2018, including detailed information on floods, storms, earthquakes, and other sudden disasters. They compare economic outcomes—GDP, consumption, and investment—between countries with high versus low levels of cross-border financial assets and liabilities. They

The study asks whether immigration increases local innovation and wage growth in U.S. counties. Using census, ACS, patent records, and wage data from 1975–2010, the authors link immigration shocks to changes in patenting and earnings. They find that an influx of 10,000 immigrants raises patenting by about 1.22 patents per 100,000 residents over five years (a 25 percent increase) and boosts annual wages by roughly $150 per capita (about 8 percent higher wage growth). More educ

This study asks whether changes in state NAEP math scores predict long-term economic and social outcomes for the students who experienced them. The authors link state-level 8th-grade NAEP math results from 1990–2019 to later-life data from the Census, American Community Survey, and FBI crime records. They find that a one–standard deviation increase in 8th-grade math scores is associated with about an 8% rise in adult earnings, higher educational attainment, and lower rates of

This article asks why Nordic countries maintain much lower income inequality than the U.S. and U.K. Using cross-country comparisons, OECD...

This study asks whether Code Louisville, a federally supported sectoral-style training program in computer coding, improves participants’...

This article examines how lowering the vote threshold to approve local school bonds affects education funding. Using a...

This study investigates whether more frequent property tax reassessments improve tax equity in Philadelphia following the 2013 Actual...

This study investigates whether the quality of aid project management affects violent conflict in Africa. Using geo-coded data on all...

This paper investigates whether increases in local government spending benefit all racial groups equally, focusing on labor market and...

This study explores whether perceptions about how tax dollars are spent influence taxpayers’ willingness to comply, focusing on property...

This study examines how the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA) will affect state compliance with federal work requirements under the...

This study investigates whether the 2002 Bush steel tariffs protected steel industry jobs or harmed employment in steel-consuming...

This study asks whether the introduction of television reduced labor supply by increasing the value of leisure. Using Social Security...

This study examines how gender wage gaps have changed across the life cycle and birth cohorts in the U.S. Using 1961–2019 Current...

This study investigates whether human-centered text message reminders can improve compliance with mandatory interviews and increase SNAP...

The study examines how worker voice, through board representation, impacts productivity, job stability, and job quality. Using a...

The study investigates why the health and human capital of Americans declined after 1947. Using data on wages, educational attainment,...