Research Fields
Research Fields
Labor economics, Urban Economics, Economic history
Labor economics, Urban Economics, Economic history
Housing the Homeless: The Effect of Placing Single Adults Experiencing Homelessness on Future Homelessness and Socioeconomic Outcomes with Ran Abramitzky, Philip Ager, Leah Boustan, and Casper Worm Hansen
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16(2): 130-75, 2024.
This study measures the impact of rapidly placing single adults experiencing homelessness in housing programs on future homelessness, crime, and health. Using a caseworker placement tendencies design and a novel dataset constructed by linking administrative records from multiple public agencies in Los Angeles County, I estimate that rapidly placing individuals in housing programs significantly reduces the likelihood of future return to the homeless support system, crime, and reliance on emergency cash assistance, yet it does not have a detectable effect on health services utilization. These findings demonstrate that rapid housing placements can have both rehabilitative and potentially cost-saving impacts.
The Effect of Immigration Restrictions on Local Labor Markets: Lessons from the 1920s Border Closure with Ran Abramitzky, Philip Ager, Leah Boustan, and Casper Worm Hansen
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 15(1): 164-91, 2023.
Summary in Bloomberg
In the 1920s, the United States substantially reduced immigration by imposing country-specific entry quotas. We compare local labor markets differentially exposed to the quotas due to variation in the national-origin mix of their immigrant population. US-born workers in areas losing immigrants did not benefit relative to workers in less exposed areas. Instead, in urban areas, European immigrants were replaced with internal migrants and immigrants from Mexico and Canada. By contrast, farmers shifted toward capital-intensive agriculture, and the immigrant-intensive mining industry contracted. These differences highlight the uneven effects of the quota system at the local level.
Economic Benefits and Social Costs of Legalizing Recreational Marijuana with Jason Brown and Alison Felix
We analyze the effects of legalizing recreational marijuana on state economic and social outcomes (2000–20) using difference-in-differences estimation robust to staggered timing and heterogeneity of treatment. We find moderate economic gains accompanied by some social costs. Post-legalization, average state income grew by 3 percent, house prices by 6 percent, and population by 2 percent. However, substance use disorders, chronic homelessness, and arrests increased by 17, 35, and 13 percent, respectively. Although some of our estimates are noisy, our findings suggest that the economic benefits of legalization are broadly distributed, while the social costs may be more concentrated among individuals who use marijuana heavily. States that legalized early experienced similar social costs but larger economic gains, implying a potential first-mover advantage.
Immigration Disruptions and the Wages of Unskilled Labor in the 1920s with Jeff Biddle
An era of mass immigration into the United States ended with the onset of World War I in Europe, followed by the passage of restrictive immigration laws in 1921 and 1924. We analyze various sources of wage data collected in the 1910-1929 period to explore the impact of this significant disruption of the flow of immigration on the wages of unskilled labor. Our approach to identification entails examining differences in wages across local labor markets and industries differentially exposed to the disruptions in immigration due to different ethnic compositions of their immigrant populations in the pre-war era. We find evidence strongly suggesting that during the 1920s, industries and regions more affected by the disruptions in immigration experienced larger reductions in flows of immigrants that resulted in increased wages of unskilled labor.
The Effects of Homeless Housing Sites on Local Communities: Evidence from Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County's homeless population has increased by approximately 40 percent in the past five years. While county voters have supported the goal by approving billions of dollars in bonds that would provide tens of thousands of affordable housing units and services for the homeless, there remains a substantial gap in affordable housing for the homeless and low-income individuals who are at risk of homelessness, driven by fears and stigma in local communities. I investigate the effect of such housing sites on street homelessness, crime, and property values. I construct comprehensive data that geocode the locations of all homeless housing sites in Los Angeles County. Using spatial and time variation in homeless housing sites, I estimate the exposure of a community to homeless housing sites over time and use changes in this exposure to recover the causal relationship. I find that communities with an increase in homeless housing exposure, proxied using distance to the closest site, experience a sizable decline in street homelessness and homeless-related crimes and that housing values in these communities were not affected.
Post-Pandemic Labor Shortages Have Limited the Effect of Monetary Policy on the Labor Market
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Bulletin, September 2023
Do Immigration Restrictions Affect Job Vacancies? Evidence from Online Job Postings with Samantha Shampine
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Review Article, August 2023
Immigration Shortfall May Be a Headwind for Labor Supply with Samantha Shampine
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Bulletin, May 2021