University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
330 Orchard St., Madison, WI 53715
Office: WID 4241
Email: clint.harris@wisc.edu
Scientist II, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2023-Present
Lecturer, Department of Risk and Insurance, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2023
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019-2023
Ph.D., Economics, Purdue University, 2019
Committee Chair: Victoria Prowse
M.S., Economics, Purdue University, 2016
B.A., Economics, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 2014
B.A., Marketing, Taylor University, 2009
Applied Econometrics, Labor Economics, and Economics of Education
Estimating the Perceived Returns to College (Under Review)
Abstract: College financial aid increases college attendance for recipients who believe their returns to college are near zero and increases government costs for all recipients. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, I estimate perceived private returns to college by leveraging exogenous variation in tuition within a model that allows for systematic misperceptions about both costs of college and returns to college. The estimated distribution of perceived returns has low variance relative to estimates of pecuniary lifetime returns, implying large responses to unconditional financial aid offers. I show that the cost-minimizing financial aid policy for an aggregate attendance target makes aid offers conditional on observables, extending more aid to individuals who are less likely to attend college. Relative to unconditional aid increases, policies designed to reduce costs also reduce racial and parent-educational inequality, and policies designed to reduce inequality also reduce costs.
Correcting Nonresponse Bias Using Panel Data on Data Requests and Responses, with Jon Eckhardt, and Brent Goldfarb
Abstract: When subjects who respond to requests for data, such as in surveys or post-treatment follow-up, are unrepresentative of the population of interest, inferences drawn from the data can be misleading. We show that if subjects' accumulated requests and responses over time are recorded and organized as panel data, requests can be used as instruments in standard nonresponse corrections. Randomizing total requests between subjects is insufficient for identification when responses depend on time and is unnecessary when they do not. We demonstrate our method by estimating an 18-percentage-point gender gap in entrepreneurial career intentions using a survey of undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Effects of Peer Diversity on Entrepreneurship: Evidence from University Residence Halls, with Jon Eckhardt, and Brent Goldfarb
Abstract: We estimate the effects of peer academic diversity and peer gender diversity within college dorms on student entrepreneurship at a large public research university over a period of 4 years. To obtain causal estimates, we instrument for realized peer traits with simulated peer traits determined by the peers students would have been assigned had they been assigned to rooms by a room allocation mechanism that we select, while controlling for the expected peer traits implied by the same mechanism. We find that exposure to peer gender diversity differentially affects men and women and contributes to the gender gap in entrepreneurial intentions. We also find that exposure to peer verbal skill diversity reduces entrepreneurial ideation. Our findings suggest that residentially clustering students by gender and academic strengths can increase student entrepreneurship and reduce the entrepreneurship gender gap.
Peer Effects in University Housing: Evidence from Fuzzy Central Assignment, with Chao Fu, Jesse Gregory, and Victoria Prowse
Abstract: We estimate effects of roommates, neighbors, and dorms on academic outcomes at a large public four-year university. To address selection, we instrument for realized room assignments with simulated offers generated by a room assignment mechanism, while controlling for expected offers implied by the same mechanism. Our candidate assignment mechanisms fail to perfectly replicate the assignment offers made by the central planner, so we select the mechanism that best replicates assignments via a data-driven model selection procedure. We find that living in a fully gender-integrated dorm increases 4-year graduation by 10 percentage points for men, with no significant effects on women, while finding consistent (statistically insignificant) results for exposure to female neighbors within dorms. At the roommate level, we find that STEM roommates have significantly smaller negative effects on four-year graduation for other STEM students than they do for non-STEM students. Our findings suggest that universities with 70% gender-integrated housing (such as the university we study) could increase their male 4-year graduation rates by 3 percentage points by implementing full gender-integration in all dorms, with no offsetting negative effects on women.
Abstract: Many treatment variables used in empirical applications nest multiple unobserved versions of a treatment. I show that instrumental variable (IV) estimands for the effect of a composite treatment are IV-specific weighted averages of effects of unobserved component treatments. Differences between IVs in unobserved component compliance produce differences in IV estimands even without treatment effect heterogeneity. I describe a monotonicity condition under which IV estimands are positively-weighted averages of unobserved component treatment effects. Next, I develop a method that allows instruments that violate this condition to contribute to estimation of treatment effects by allowing them to place nonconvex, outcome-invariant weights on unobserved component treatments across multiple outcomes. Finally, I apply the method to estimate returns to college, finding wage returns that range from 7% to 30% over the life cycle. My findings emphasize the importance of leveraging instrumental variables that do not shift individuals between versions of treatment, as well as the importance of policies that encourage students to attend ``high-return college'' in addition to those that encourage ``high-return students'' to attend college.
Student Regional Origins and Student Entrepreneurship, with Jon Eckhardt, Chuan Chen, Bekhzod Khoshimov, and Brent Goldfarb, at Regional Studies (2022)
National Science Foundation Grant 2100017 (Collaborator): $983,486, 2021-2024
American Family Insurance Foundation Grant (Collaborator): $106,611, 2021
Krannert Certificate for Outstanding Research, Purdue University, 2019
Krannert Ph.D. Research Symposium Top Presentation Award, Purdue University, 2018
Certificate for Distinguished Recitation Teaching, Purdue University, 2015
Federal Trade Commission, January 2023
University of Notre Dame, December 2022
Academy of Management Annual Meeting, August 2022
North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society, June 2022
Society of Labor Economists, May 2022
Southern Economic Association, November 2021
Midwest Economics Association (SOLE Session), March 2021
Association for Education Finance and Policy, March 2021
Southern Economic Association, November 2020
EALE SOLE AASLE World Conference , June 2020
Southern Economic Association, November 2019
European Association of Labour Economists, September 2019
Case Western Reserve University, May 2019
U.S. Census Bureau, April 2019
Kansas State University, January 2019
Southern Economic Association, November 2018
National Tax Association, November 2018
Krannert Ph.D. Research Symposium, October 2018
Midwest Economics Association (SOLE Session), March 2018
Midwest Economics Association, March 2017
Krannert PhD Research Symposium, November 2016
Beginning Data Analysis for Business, Spring 2024
Introductory Microeconomics, Summer 2016
Recitation Instructor, Principles of Economics, Spring 2015
Labor Economics, Fall 2018
Intermediate Macroeconomics, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Summer 2018
MBA Microeconomics, Fall 2014, Fall 2015
MBA Macroeconomics, Fall 2014, Fall 2015
Marcelo Gantier Mita (PhD Student: Paris School of Economics)
Education Economics, Management Science
American Economic Association, Econometric Society, Society of Labor Economists, Southern Economic Association