Highlighted Publications




 

Christakis et al. (2026) examine whether adult attitudes—especially parental attitudes—support banning student smartphone access during the school day. They ask whether support for school smartphone bans is widespread across countries and which individual characteristics predict that support. They analyze cross-sectional survey data from 35,018 adults across 35 countries, using logistic regression to adjust for demographics, parental status, life satisfaction, and digital beh

Matter and Hodler (2024) ask whether Google’s web search personalization creates ideological segregation in election-related search results during the 2020 U.S. election. They study this using a large-scale field experiment with 150 synthetic users (“bots”) assigned different partisan browsing habits and locations across 25 U.S. cities, issuing identical election-related Google searches over several months. They find substantial personalization in search results, driven mainl

McBain et al. (2025) ask how often U.S. adolescents and young adults use generative AI for mental health advice and how helpful they find it. They analyze nationally representative survey data from 1,058 youths ages 12–21. They find that 13.1 percent reported using generative AI for advice when sad, angry, or nervous, and usage rose to 22.2 percent among those ages 18–21. Among users, 65.5 percent sought advice at least monthly and 92.7 percent rated it somewhat or very helpf

Allcott et al. (2024) ask whether deactivating Facebook or Instagram improves users’ emotional well-being during the 2020 U.S. election period. They analyze survey data from more than 30,000 adult users who were randomly assigned to deactivate for six weeks (treatment) or one week (control). They find that Facebook deactivation increased an emotional state index by about 0.060 standard deviations, while Instagram increased it by about 0.041 standard deviations. They report th

The study asks whether ransomware attacks on hospitals disrupt care and harm patients. Using a linked dataset of 74 hospital ransomware attacks (2016–2021) combined with Medicare claims, the authors examine changes in hospital operations and patient outcomes during the attacks. They find that hospital volume drops sharply in the first week: ER, inpatient, and outpatient visits fall by 17–24%, and Medicare revenue declines by 19–39%. Most importantly, patients already admitted

This study asked whether different trajectories of addictive screen use—specifically social media, mobile phone, and video game use—were...

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

The research explores whether rapid AI advancement should continue despite its potential existential risks. It examines economic models...