Working Papers
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We examine the impacts of assignment to STEM vs. humanities-focused curricula in Romania’s high school system. We apply a regression discontinuity design to administrative and survey data to estimate effects on educational pathways, desired careers, and non-cognitive outcomes. An overarching theme of our findings is the malleability of students to what they study. Assignment to STEM increases STEM college enrollment and technology or engineering career intentions by 25 pp. Exploring mechanisms, we find that STEM assignment changes students’ self-perceived academic abilities and their preferences over academic subjects and job tasks. STEM assignment is risky for low-achieving students, reducing their chances of passing a high school exit exam and enrolling in college. A final finding is that STEM makes boys more conservative, while shifting some of girls' views to the left. Our results identify a strategy for promoting STEM higher education and careers, but also highlight potential tradeoffs.
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We estimate the intergenerational effects of compulsory schooling (CS) laws in the United States (1880 to 1940), exploiting the staggered roll-out of state CS laws and using a panel of linked full-count censuses. We find that parental exposure to CS expansion had significant positive effects on child outcomes, including educational attainment and later-life labor market outcomes. Intergenerational gains were largely concentrated among whites. Within families, parental exposure to CS had the greatest effects on the eldest and least educated children. We identify several mechanisms that plausibly account for persistence in these effects, including i) parental labor market outcomes (e.g. mothers attaining more education and higher income occupations), ii) assortative mating, iii) geographic mobility to neighborhoods with better human capital-related resources.
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How does ethnic identification vary with education among disadvantaged minorities? We study this question for Roma people, Europe's largest ethnic minority, using linked Romanian census data and birth records. We measure how individuals change reported ethnicity over time, or “pass.” Roma identification strongly declines with education, from 80% for those with no education to 40% for postsecondary graduates. We estimate a model with persistent individual heterogeneity and find 3-6 times more Roma postsecondary graduates than in official data. Survey data we collect shows that most Romanians are unaware of these patterns. Such selective passing may reinforce stereotypes about marginalized groups.
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Can schooling be shortened without harming students? We study a policy in Ontario, Canada, which cut secondary schooling from five years to four while redesigning the curriculum to preserve instructional intensity. Using difference-in-differences supported by birth-date regression discontinuity designs, we find that affected students graduated high school and enrolled in postsecondary education earlier, but were less likely to complete either, and earned less in early adulthood. This was not driven by academic difficulty: course failure and measured learning were unchanged. Earlier educational decisions, interrupted postsecondary enrollment, slower work-experience accumulation, and sorting into lower-paying occupations explain these results. Effects were larger for lower-income students, and earnings penalties more persistent for women.
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Publications
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media coverage: Palladium
This study examines the impact of school choice on academic achievement. I use differences in the number of schools across similar Romanian towns, generating variation in school choice for local students, who compete for seats via test scores. I find that more school choice results in increased sorting of students by admission scores across different schools. Sorting widens achievement gaps between high- and low-admission score students. High-scorers having access to better teachers and peer effects are the primary factors explaining these widening gaps. Lastly, between-school competition via school choice does not increase average achievement levels. |
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"How cooperative is “cooperative federalism”? The political limits to intergovernmental cooperation under a de facto concurrency rule." (with Christa Scholtz) Constitutional Political Economy 34.1 (2023): 111-134.
In progress...
- The Effects of Attending a Higher Value-added High School - with Robert Ainsworth, Rajeev Dehejia, Cristian Pop-Eleches and Miguel Urquiola
- Survival of the Fittest? School Closures and Expansions in a Centralized Choice System - with Robert Ainsworth, Rajeev Dehejia, Cristian Pop-Eleches and Miguel Urquiola
- Ability Tracking Across Classrooms: Rising Tide or Deepening Divide? - with Ofer Malamud, Andreea Mitrut, Cristian Pop-Eleches and Miguel Urquiola
- The Unintended Consequences of Shorter Curriculum Length - with Xian Zhang
