Moved to Poverty? A Legacy of the Apartheid Experiment in South Africa This study investigates the effects of the forced relocation of Black people to homelands during the South African apartheid era in the 1960s and 1970s. The research reveals that moving to these homelands during childhood significantly reduces educational attainment, labor earnings, and employment…
Public and Private Options in Practice: The Military Health System Recent debates on healthcare reform, including in military and veterans’ healthcare, have focused on public versus private provision of services. This study uses unique data on childbirth claims in the Military Health System (MHS) to compare the impact of receiving obstetrical care on military bases…
Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle Two separate analyses were conducted to examine whether age discrimination becomes more prevalent during economic recessions. The first analysis, using confidential EEOC data, found that during periods of higher unemployment, there was a 3.3% increase in age-related firing charges and a 1.6% increase in age-related hiring charges. The second…
Contagious Dishonesty: Corruption Scandals and Supermarket Theft This study investigates whether corruption scandals influence the likelihood of supermarket customers engaging in dishonest behavior, specifically stealing while using self-service checkout systems. These systems enable shoppers to underreport the value of their purchases. The research, based on random audits of shoppers, reveals that the probability of stealing…
Coming Apart? Cultural Distances in the United States over Time This study examines how different groups in the United States, including those defined by income, education, gender, race, and political ideology, have evolved in terms of their cultural differences over time. Cultural distance is measured by various factors, such as media consumption, consumer behavior, social…
Temporal Instability of Risk Preference among the Poor: Evidence from Payday Cycles This study explores how the income fluctuations experienced by low-income individuals affect their risk preferences. The researchers focused on the impact of payday cycles in the United States and found that those heavily reliant on social security became more risk-tolerant before payday. This…
How Do Households Respond to Job Loss? Lessons from Multiple High-Frequency Datasets Researchers have used data from a large bank and government sources to understand how households cope with job loss. Over a two-year period, households reduce their spending by 30% of the income they lose due to job loss. The primary method of self-insurance…
The Unequal Consequences of Job Loss across Countries This study analyzed the effects of job loss in various countries using a consistent research approach with seven employer-employee datasets. Workers in Denmark and Sweden had the smallest earnings reduction after losing their jobs, whereas those in Italy, Spain, and Portugal experienced earnings losses three times greater….
Reducing Frictions in Health Care Access: The ActionHealthNYC Experiment for Undocumented Immigrants In 2016, New York City initiated a program aimed at making it easier for undocumented immigrants to access healthcare. They did this by randomly scheduling primary care appointments for 2,428 individuals. A unique data combination of surveys and administrative records revealed that this…
The Long-Run Impacts of Mexican American School Desegregation This study conducted a quantitative analysis to understand the impact of ending legal segregation of Mexican American schoolchildren in the United States, specifically focusing on the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster court decision. The study examined its effects on the long-term educational achievements of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic…
