Publications

Can Expanding Contraceptive Access Reduce Adverse Infant Health Outcomes?  Journal of Human Resources. (Forthcoming). 

 Previous version: IZA DP No. 17146

When Beer is Safer than Water: Beer Availability and Mortality from Water-Borne Illnesses. with Francisca Antman.  Journal of Development Economics. Volume 171, October 2024.  103343.

Previous version: IZA DP No. 17164

Soda Taxes, Consumption, and Health Outcomes for High School Students.  Economics Letters. Volume 234.  January 2024.  Article 111507.

Do Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes Improve Public Health for High School Aged Adolescents?  Health Economics.  Volume 32 (1). January 2023. Pages 47– 64.

Media Coverage: Medical Xpress, US News

Salary Disclosure and Individual Effort: Evidence from the National Hockey League.  Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Volume 202, October 2022, Pages 471-497. 

Media Coverage: The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Journal (podcast), Fortune, Wired

Expanded Contraceptive Access Linked to Increase in College Completion Among Women in Colorado, with Sara Yeatman, Amanda Stevenson, Katie Genadek, Jane Menken and Stefanie Möllborn. Health Affairs.  Volume 41:12. December, 2022.  Pages 1754-1762.

Media Coverage: The Hill, Medical Xpress, ScienMag

Working Papers

Subscriptions to Prescriptions: Louisiana's Progress Toward Eliminating Hepatitis C. with Barton Willage and Bethany Lemont. NBER WP No. 33617.

Media Coverage: NBER Digest

Abstract: Hepatitis C is a major public health concern due to its high rates of infection and mortality. Recent breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals not only have the potential to cure hepatitis C but could also cause large positive health externalities through reduced transmission. The high cost of these drugs under traditional reimbursement schemes create large obstacles to care, but a recent first-of-its-kind two-part tariff system in Louisiana aims to circumvent these obstacles using a modified subscription model with an exclusive pharmaceutical provider. Under this model, the medication is provided at no marginal cost to the state to cover the state's Medicaid and incarcerated population. This creates an incentive for Louisiana to aggressively test and treat as many patients as possible in order to maximize the benefits of this agreement. Using a number of different data sources, we implement synthetic control and event-study specifications, and find that detection and treatment of hepatitis C increased dramatically, with meaningful reductions in hepatitis C-related mortality and liver transplants after this agreement. Finally, after calculating the Marginal Value of Public Funds of this agreement, we find that the program more than pays for itself.

Contraceptive Access and Infant Health Outcomes. IZA DP No. 17320. Revisions requested at the Journal of Health Economics.

Abstract: This paper documents an important unintended consequence of expanding contraceptive access; it reduces the rates of adverse infant health outcomes.  I use a family planning intervention which gave thousands of long-acting reversible contraceptives to reproductive-age women in the St. Louis metropolitan area as a source of plausibly exogenous variation in contraceptive access to demonstrate that it reduced the rates of both extremely preterm births and infant mortality.  I use a synthetic difference-in-differences design, with my estimates suggesting that this program led to reductions of 2.4 extremely preterm births and 1.7 infant deaths per 1,000 live births across St. Louis County, reductions of approximately 22% and 20% respectively.  I find large reductions for both Black and White mothers.  The coefficients on Black mothers are larger in raw magnitude, though I cannot statistically rule out that the coefficients for Black and White mothers are equal.

Soccer's Record on the Road: The Effect of Late-Night Sporting Events on Fatal Car Accidents, IZA DP No. 18050, with Peter Nencka and Noah Meyers-Richter.

Abstract: Sleep deprivation imposes significant public health and economic burdens. While researchers studying events like daylight saving time have quantified the impacts of population-wide sleep shifts, less is known about the consequences of acute, voluntary, and recreation-driven sleep loss. This paper investigates this gap by studying the 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted in South Korea and Japan. The extreme time difference meant that US-based fans sacrificed significant sleep to watch live matches. We track fatal accidents in areas with large German populations on days when the German national soccer team played early morning games. Germany has by far the largest number of Americans who trace their ancestry to a foreign country, and they made it to the final of this World Cup. Areas with greater than 30% German heritage experienced increases in fatal car accidents of 35% relative to control areas after German games. The effects are dose-dependent and rise as the share of the German population increases. Our results are larger for crucial tournament games and non-alcohol-related incidents, consistent with sleep-deprived driving. Effects are driven by male drivers, mirroring World Cup viewer demographics. Placebo tests using the 2006 World Cup, where no games were played during normal U.S. sleeping hours, confirm that sleep disruption, not the sporting event itself, drives our findings.

The Fertility Reduction Effect of the Colorado Family Planning Initiative by Age and Parity, with Amanda Stevenson, Sara Yeatman, Katie Genadek, Jane Menken, Stefanie Möllborn, and Leslie Root. Revisions requested at Health Economics.

Abstract:  We use restricted-access birth records from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) to document the full age and parity fertility effects of the Colorado Family Planning Initiative (CFPI).  Funded by an anonymous donor in 2008, the CFPI provided access in Title 10 clinics to every FDA approved method of contraception for free to anyone living below 200% of the federal poverty line.  Previous research has demonstrated important effects on the fertility at ages 15-29.  We separately estimate the statewide fertility effect of the CFPI across all ages (15-44) for all births and for first and non-first births using the synthetic control method.  We find large and statistically significant reductions in birthrates for 15-24-year-olds that largely line up with other recent studies, but we find important heterogeneity across parity. For teenagers, we find reductions in first birthrates of about 9%, but much larger reductions in non-first birthrates of 17-25%.  We also find reductions in overall fertility for 20-24 and 25-29-year-olds, but these are entirely driven by reductions of 5-9% in non-first birthrates, with no significant changes in first births.  For 30-39-year-olds, we find small but statistically significant reductions in fertility of 3-7% across parity levels, and we find a 6% reduction in fertility for 40-44-year-olds, likely driven by a combination of long-acting reversible contraceptives and sterilizations. 

Tobacco 21 Laws, Prenatal Smoking, and Birth Outcomes. IZA DP No. 17705.

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of Tobacco 21 laws, which raise the minimum age for tobacco purchases to 21, on prenatal smoking and birth outcomes using restricted access data from the National Vital Statistics System.  Using both the synthetic difference-in-differences and stacked event-study designs, I fail to find evidence that these laws reduced prenatal smoking or cause any improvement on birth outcomes.  I am able to rule out even modest decreases in prenatal smoking of greater than 6% on the extensive margin and greater than 5% on the intensive margin.  Results are unchanged if I focus only on non-high school graduate mothers, who smoke at much higher rates at baseline, or if I focus solely on states which passed the toughest laws.  My findings suggest that T21 laws may not be an effective policy tool to prevent prenatal smoking. 

For the Love of the Game?  The Effect of Financial Incentives on Student-Athlete Performance, with Tanja Kirmse.

Abstract: Performance may be motivated by monetary incentives, notions of fairness, or intrinsic motivation. However, empirically testing the role of performance motivators is difficult due to a lack of randomized experiments in the real world. We use novel and granular data on more than 37,000 unique athletes following the change in the NCAA's Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rule to examine the role of monetary incentives in college basketball, and hockey. This quasi-natural experiment  created a $1 billion market for domestic, but not international student-athletes. We use a difference-in-differences strategy to test whether the increased financial incentive for domestic student athletes led to changes in their performance relative to international students.  Results across sports are mixed, but we find important evidence that financial incentives impacted performance, particularly in basketball and hockey, where the financial incentives are arguably the largest.

Soda Taxes, BMI, and Obesity: Evidence from Seattle. with Anja Gruber. IZA DP No. 17617.

Abstract: This paper uses restricted-access data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey to assess whether the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax levied in Seattle in 2018 led to declines in body mass index (BMI) and the rate of obesity. We implement an event-study design which compares these outcomes in the treated region to those of untaxed areas. We find no evidence of divergence in trends prior to the tax, followed by large declines in both outcomes after the tax was implemented. We estimate that the tax led to a reduction of .61 BMI points and reduced the obesity rate by 4.5 percentage points. Declines were largest for individuals with lower incomes, those without a college degree, and younger people, which are all groups who tend to consume more SSBs at baseline. We address concerns that our results are driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and provide suggestive evidence that SSB taxes improved these outcomes in other SSB-taxed jurisdictions as well. Our study adds to the growing evidence that SSB taxes can improve public health, rather than only affecting prices, purchasing, or consumption of taxed beverages.