Publications
- "Health Insurance and Hospital Supply: Evidence from 1950s Coal Country," with Erin Troland. Accepted for publication in American Journal of Health Economics. Abstract
Abstract: The United States government spends billions on public health insurance and has funded a number of programs to build health care facilities. However, the government runs these two types of programs separately: in different places, at different times, and for different populations. We explore whether access to both health insurance and hospitals can improve health outcomes and access to health care. We analyze a coal mining union health insurance program in 1950s Appalachia with and without a complementary hospital construction program. Our results show that the union insurance alone increased hospital births and reduced infant mortality. Once the union hospitals opened, however, the insurance and the hospitals together substantially increased the net amount of hospital beds and health care employees, with limited crowd-out of existing private hospitals. Our results suggest that hospitals can complement health insurance in underserved areas.
- "Bringing Health Care to Appalachia: The Long Run Impact of a Rural Health Care System," with Erin Troland. Economic Development Quarterly 36(3), 2022, pp.261-275. Abstract
Abstract: The U.S. government has supported rural hospitals through direct subsidies and staff recruitment programs. However, little is known about the long-run impact of large-scale changes to rural health care. The authors explore the long-run trajectory of Appalachian counties where a coal mining union introduced a pioneering rural health care program in the 1950s, anchored by a chain of high-quality hospitals. Hospital beds per capita in counties where the union built its hospitals are persistently high through 2006, even when compared to similar counties and accounting for a variety of supply- and demand-side factors. In particular, union counties defied a national hospital consolidation trend starting in the 1980s. Results are consistent with a supply-side explanation where the scale and/or innovation of the union's investment allowed hospital markets to thrive and attract patients from a broad geography.
- "The Risk of Financial Hardship in Retirement: A Cohort Analysis," with Jason Brown and Karen Dynan. In: Remaking Retirement, Debt in an Aging Economy, Olivia Mitchell and Annamaria Lusardi (eds.), 2020, pp. 60-85. Abstract
Abstract: This paper explores the likely prevalence of hardship in old age for individuals now nearing retirement. We use two decades of longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study to determine what observable demographic, socioeconomic, and financial factors in late middle age predicted economic hardship in old age for the cohort that was nearing retirement age in the mid-1990s. It then uses these findings to predict economic hardship in old age for the cohort nearing retirement age in the mid-2010s. Our analysis suggests that the more recent cohort is likely to realize higher economic insecurity, particularly among men.
- "Why Retirement, Social Security, and Age Discrimination Policies Need to Consider the Intersectional Experiences of Older Women," with Ian Burn, Patrick Button, and Joanne Song McLaughlin. Public Policy & Aging Report 30(3), 2020, pp. 101-106. Advances in Econometrics 40A, 2019, pp. 293-318. Abstract
Abstract: We provide an overview of research that indicates that older women face unique challenges and opportunities with respect to work, retirement, Social Security, and age discrimination law. We present estimates of poverty by age and sex, showing that poverty increases with age for women due to older women often outliving their spouses and becoming widowed. We discuss research that shows that women benefit more than men from working longer. We then note that older women face intersectional discrimination that can unfortunately be a barrier to older women working longer. We detail how older women often "fall between the cracks" of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and are thus not well protected against this intersectional discrimination. As a final example of how women face different circumstances, we summarize research on how older women were differentially negatively impacted by the elimination of Social Security's Retirement Earnings.
- "Does Getting Health Insurance Affect Women's Fertility? Evidence from the United Mine Workers' Health Insurance," with Erin Troland. American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings 109, 2019, pp. 511-515. Abstract
Abstract: Does health insurance affect fertility decisions? Fertility may increase if insurance lowers the costs of having a child. Fertility may decrease if children are more likely to survive into adulthood (quality-quantity tradeoff). We study a largely permanent United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) insurance program. A large group of women of childbearing age gained pregnancy coverage for the first time. The insurance also covered children. We use a trend break specification with county-level variation in insurance. We find new evidence of the quality-quantity tradeoff. Fertility rates declined by about one percent per year in counties with average levels of insurance.
- "New Evidence on the Effect of Compulsory Schooling Laws," with Alicia Lloro and Phillip Li. Advances in Econometrics 40A, 2019, pp. 293-318. Abstract
Abstract: This study provides new evidence on the effect of compulsory schooling laws on educational attainment and earnings. First, we re-examine the effect of compulsory schooling laws for cohorts born between 1900 and 1964 ("older cohorts") using newly available data that match administrative earnings records with the survey data. Second, we provide among the first evidence on cohorts born between 1977 and 1996 ("younger cohorts"). Our findings suggest that compulsory schooling laws increased the educational attainment of older cohorts, but had no economically significant effect on the educational attainment of younger cohorts. We are unable to find consistent evidence that compulsory schooling laws increased the earnings of older cohorts – a finding which adds to growing evidence that compulsory schooling laws are less beneficial than earlier studies suggest.
- "Do Employers Favor those with Military Experience in the U.S. Reserve Forces? Evidence from a Field Experiment," Defence and Peace Economics 30(2), 2019, pp.213-226.
Abstract
Abstract: This study examines whether completed service in the military reserves results in a civilian labor market benefit. Reservists are not completely absent from the civilian labor market during their military service, possibly allowing them to receive the benefits associated with military experience without forgoing valuable civilian labor market experience. Using a resume study, the results suggest that completed service in the military reserves, relative to no military experience, increases the probability of receiving a request for an interview by 19 percent.
"Does Eliminating the Earnings Test Increase the
Incidence of Low Income Among Older Women?" with David
Neumark. Research on Aging 40(1), 2018, pp. 27-53.
Abstract
Abstract: Reducing or eliminating Social Security's Retirement Earnings Test (RET) can encourage labor supply of older individuals receiving benefits. However, these reforms can encourage earlier claiming of Social Security benefits, permanently lowering future benefits. We explore the consequences, for older women, of eliminating the RET from the Full Retirement Age to age 69 (in 2000), relying on the inter-cohort variation in exposure to changes in the RET to estimate these effects. The evidence is consistent with the conclusion that eliminating the RET increased the likelihood of having very low incomes among women in their mid-70s and older - ages at which the lower benefits from claiming earlier could outweigh higher income in the earlier period when women or their husbands increased their labor supply.
- "The Effect of Potential Activations on the Employment of
Military Reservists: Evidence from a Field Experiment," ILR
Review 70(4), 2017, pp. 1037-1056. Abstract
Abstract: Military reservists are primarily employed in the civilian labor market. During periods of military conflict, such as the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, reservists can (exogenously) be called to full-time military service, requiring them to leave their civilian jobs. Federal law requires civilian employers to rehire reservists called to full-time military service once their full-time military service ends and also prohibits employers from discriminating against reservists because of their military membership. This study uses a resume study to examine how the labor market protections provided to reservists and the potential labor market absences affect the employment outcomes of reservists. The results indicate current membership in the Reserves, compared to previous membership, reduces the probability of receiving a request for an interview by 10.7 percent.
Working
Papers
- "Expanding Opportunity? Tax Based Educational Aid,
the American Opportunity Tax Credit and College Enrollment."
- "Long Run Effects of Food Assistance: Evidence from the Food Stamp Program," with Marianne Bitler.
- "Mapping the American Rescue Plan," with Sydney Keenan, Richard Sweeney, and Jason Sockin. Abstract
Abstract: The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, enacted as part of the fiscal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was the second largest federal stimulus package on record. Because the ARP provided funding to overlapping state and local entities and through various allocation formulas, the geographic distribution of the ARP’s funds is complicated and not yet unraveled. In this paper, we document the geographic distribution of the ARP’s funds. Compiling data on 31 ARP programs totaling $1.15 trillion and mapping that funding to the county-level, we find significant variation in the allocations not visible at the state level. The ARP sent more funds per capita to counties in low-population states, with higher levels of poverty, with a majority-minority population, and that experienced greater increases in their unemployment rates. Additionally, we identify which programs led to the differences in the funds per capita between counties, concluding that allocating funds to food assistance for needy households, SNAP and Pandemic EBT simultaneously, targeted economic need and labor market slack.
- "Revisiting the Effect of Education on Later Life Health," with Alicia Lloro and Avinash Moorthy. Abstract
Abstract: We provide new evidence on the effect of education on later life health. Using variation in state compulsory schooling laws, we examine education's effect on a range of outcomes encompassing physical health, decision-making, and life expectancy. We employ under-utilized Health and Retirement Study data linked to restricted geographic identifiers, allowing us to match individuals more accurately to compulsory schooling laws. While positively related to educational attainment, compulsory schooling laws have no significant effect on later life health outcomes. Our results suggest that increased educational attainment has no significant causal effect on health.
- "Targeted Relief: Geography and Timing of Emergency Rental Assistance Funds," with Sydney Keenan, Richard Sweeney, and Erin Troland. Abstract
Abstract: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress established the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, which provided nearly $45 billion to prevent evictions and increase housing stability. We provide new evidence on the implementation of ERA by examining the fine grained geographic distribution of ERA funds and the timing of ERA expenditures by state and local governments. Using administrative data on ERA transactions, we find that ERA sent more funds per renting household to census tracts with higher pre-pandemic eviction filing rates, higher poverty rates, higher shares of Black renters, higher shares of renting households with children, and higher shares of renting single mothers. Our results suggest that ERA was largely successful in reaching communities that were most likely to have the highest risk of eviction. We also document that ERA spending increased substantially around the expiration of the federal eviction moratorium and at a time when eviction filings were increasing, which may confound quasi-experimental analysis of ERA.
- "Women and the Social Security Earnings Test."
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