Research in progress

Working Papers/manuscripts

"Racial Disparities in Costs of Employment Protection: Evidence from Exceptions to Employment-at-Will in the United States"

• Abstract: State court decisions from the 1970s to 1990s provided exceptions to the long-standing employment-at-will doctrine in the United States.  Prior research has suggested that these decisions may have increased employment costs, decreased employment, decreased re-employment transitions and increased the use of temporary help workers.  This paper shows that these average effects mask important differences across racial and ethnic groups.  Using data from the Current Population Survey and difference-in-difference methods, this paper finds that negative labor market effects disproportionately fall on minorities.  Minorities experience large employment declines and earnings losses from these exceptions while white individuals experience smaller negative, and sometimes even positive, effects.  Further evidence shows that negative effects are particularly large for younger and less-educated minorities.  Finally, the exceptions may have increased occupational segregation as there are negative employment effects for minorities in historically White occupations and in occupations with high levels of post-hire training.

• Manuscript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m4g_6XIq7PJEq7JlvUuhOdXRI9JUnzHX/view?usp=sharing

Harris, Timothy F. and C. Lockwood Reynolds, 2023.  "COVID-19 Diagnoses and University Student Performance: Evidence from Linked Administrative Health and Education Data"

• Abstract: We analyze the impact of COVID-19 diagnoses on student grades, retention, and on-time graduation at a large public university. Even though COVID-19 rarely causes major health complications for a typical university student, diagnosis and quarantine may cause non-trivial disruptions to learning. Using event study analysis, we find that a COVID-19 diagnosis decreased a student's term grade point average (GPA) modestly by 0.08 points in the semester of diagnosis without significant effects afterward. The results were the most pronounced for male students, individuals with face-to-face instruction, and those with higher GPAs before the pandemic. We do not find a significant increase in the incidence of failing or withdrawing from a course due to diagnosis. In addition, we find no general evidence that the diagnoses delayed graduation or significantly altered first-year retention. However, the University experienced significant grade inflation during the pandemic, which exceeded the estimated effects of any COVID-19 diagnoses.

• Manuscript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WzZBWWyoQB-CdO2_3cJiAwfH3Z9sNRVM/view?usp=sharing

• Annenberg EdWorkingPaper series: https://edworkingpapers.com/ai23-810 

Greenhalgh-Stanley, Nadia and C. Lockwood Reynolds, 2019. "Housing Wealth, Bequests and the Elderly" 

• • Abstract: There has been little consensus on why individuals do not spend down their wealth by death.  Competing theories debate whether assets are bequeathed intentionally or are unplanned.  Combining data on expectations of future bequests in the Health and Retirement Study with changes in housing wealth during the housing boom, we aim to estimate whether an exogenous wealth shock changes expected bequests.  We find exogenous wealth shocks lead to an increase in planned bequests.  However, we do not find complete pass through of the wealth increase, and find larger responses for individuals with lower baseline wealth, health and risk aversion.

  • Manuscript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hQ3ssaqA3hmlXATNIf6TIZ6mC68o5oYm/view?usp=sharing

Work in Progress 

• Spillover Effects of On-campus Students (with Kiara Carter)

• Dormitory Locations and Student Success 

• The Effect of Political Representation on Local Economic Growth