Research Awards
Best Oral Presentation Award for my research titled “Criminal Histories, High School Misconducts, and Post-Secondary Educational Outcomes: Evidence from U.S. College Applications” presented at the 4th International Conference on Educational System Management Leadership (May 2025) in Bangkok, Thailand (co-hosted by Chulalongkorn University and Teacher’s College at Columbia University)
Robert Presley Center of Crime and Justice Studies Graduate Student Research Fellowship (2024-2025)
Robert Presley Center of Crime and Justice Studies Graduate Student Research Fellowship (2023-2024)
Job Market Paper
"Criminal Histories, High School Misconducts, and Post-Secondary Educational Outcomes: Evidence from U.S. College Applications" (Revise and Resubmit at Education Finance and Policy) [Link to Paper]
Abstract: Over the last two decades, an increasing number of higher education institutions across the U.S. have required applicants to reveal their criminal histories. I analyze the effects of the 2006 nationwide policy of the Common Application system requiring member colleges and universities to add criminal history questions and high school misconduct questions to their undergraduate college applications. Adding both of these questions to undergraduate college applications decreases total undergraduate enrollments with the largest decrease occurring within public universities at 6.1%. My findings also indicate that the decrease in enrollments is not due to admissions decisions, but due to students being discouraged from enrolling in post-secondary education; students are more likely to prefer going to work instead. The suggestive evidence also indicates that, unlike in job applications, there may be no statistical discrimination in the college admissions process. Further analyzing the removal of criminal history questions using statewide beyond-the-box (BYTB) movement in the U.S. provides preliminary evidence showing an increase in enrollments. My findings are supported by multiple robustness checks, a placebo test, and an inference test.
Publications
“Foreign Direct Investment and Innovation: Heterogeneous International Evidence”, University of California’s eScholarship, 2018. [Link to Paper]
Working Papers
"Say No to Nicotine: Effects of Tobacco Access on Crime, Education, and Mental Health"
Abstract: During the last decade, many states in the U.S. have raised the minimum legal age to purchase to bacco products from 18 to 21 years old in what is known as the tobacco 21 (T21) law; the goal of this initiative is to prevent young individuals, especially those in high school, from gaining access to tobacco products. Using data from FBI’s Uniform Crime Report along with the variation in T21 implementation across U.S. states over time, I examine the impact of this law on the arrest rates of teenagers and young adults. Raising the minimum tobacco purchase age decreases the arrest rates by 2.7 arrests per 100,000 residents for the 15-17 age group and by 1.2 arrests per 100,000 residents for the 18-21 age group. Analyzing the data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), I find that the lower arrest rates is driven by improvements in mental health as well as more time spent attending classes and doing homework at both the high school and higher education level. My findings, which are supported by several robustness checks and placebo tests along with detailed dataset comprising all U.S. states over multiple time periods, provide the f irst causal evidence for non-health related outcomes resulting from less exposure to tobacco products within the T21 setting. My research findings highlight the significance of this tobacco control initiative as it addresses multiple human rights violations including right to life, right to health, and right to education; furthermore, my findings have important implications on how global cooperation on a major issue could lead to important spillover effects in other dimensions.
"Please forgive me: the effects of grade forgiveness policies on college graduation rates" (with Veronica Sovero and Amanda Griffith)
Abstract: In order to meet graduation rate targets and increase student success, an overwhelming majority of colleges and universities have adopted course repetition policies that allow students to repeat coursework to improve their GPA. However, it is theoretically ambiguous whether more generous course repetition policies improve graduation rates. Allowing a student to repeat a low grade may open up new academic pathways, for example by providing the opportunity to achieve the grade in an introductory level course required to pursue a major, or by creating a pathway to improve overall GPA and avoid academic probation. Alternatively, the safety net of a course repetition and grade forgiveness policy might incentivize students to put in less effort, knowing that they can retake the class if they receive a low enough grade. In this paper, we use data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) paired with unique hand-collected information on course repetition policies for 4-year public and private universities in the U.S. to estimate the impact of grade forgiveness policies on college graduation rates. We find that graduation rates decrease in the range of .5 to 1 percentage points after the introduction of grade forgiveness, with the largest impacts on the 6-year graduation rates. This suggests an increase in moral hazard/risk-taking in response to the availability of grade forgiveness. Our initial results also suggest that a more generous letter grade threshold for repeating coursework improves graduation outcomes.