Working Papers
We estimate the intergenerational effects of compulsory schooling (CS) laws in the United States (1875 to 1940), exploiting the staggered roll-out of state CS laws and using difference-in-differences and instrumental variable (IV) approaches in a linked panel of full-count US census data. Exposure to CS laws led to comparable increases in education levels for both directly affected individuals and their children, suggesting a strong intergenerational persistence of schooling gains. These gains were largely concentrated among whites, with no significant intergenerational effects for black Americans. Within families, parental exposure to CS had the greatest effect on the eldest and least educated children. We identify several mechanisms that could explain persistence in the effects of CS: i) parental labor market outcomes (e.g. mothers sorting into higher education and higher income occupations) ii) assortative mating on education, and iii) geographic mobility to higher human capital neighborhoods.
|
|
Publications
|
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.
|
|
"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 Effect of High School Majors - with Robert Ainsworth, Rajeev Dehejia, Cristian Pop-Eleches and Miguel Urquiola
- The Equilibrium Implications of Identity Choice: Education, Passing, and Perceptions of the Roma People - with Margareta Matache, Gabriel Kreindler, Andreea Mitrut and Cristian Pop-Eleches
- 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
- The Determinants of Ability Tracking and Its Effects - with Ofer Malamud, Andreea Mitrut, Cristian Pop-Eleches and Miguel Urquiola
- The Unintended Consequences of Shorter Curriculum Length - with Xian Zhang
