Research
"When Sarah Meets Lawrence: The Effects of Coeducation on Women's College Major Choices" (with Avery Calkins, Ariel J. Binder, and Dana Shaat). American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2023, 15 (3): 1-34.
"The Effects of Statewide Transfer Agreements on Community College Enrollment"
Abstract: Community colleges provide entry points to higher education for 42 percent of undergraduates. To facilitate and encourage transfers, states have enacted statewide articulation laws, which mandate the development of formal transfer agreements between community colleges and public, four-year institutions. In this paper I estimate the direct effects of statewide articulation, namely whether they increase transfers from community colleges, and the indirect effects, whether they change student enrollment and attainment choices. I show evidence that statewide articulation laws increase transfers as well as community college enrollment. To investigate the effects of articulation agreements on transfers into four-year public universities, I collect community college transfer data from the state of California. My findings show that California's STAR act resulted in an additional 191 transfers per campus per year from California Community Colleges to California State University campuses. I further exploit a quasi-experiment wherein states implement articulation policies over multiple years, and find a statistically significant long-run increase in enrollment at community colleges. This effect is driven by students' substituting away from less competitive four-year institutions.
“Outside Option and Wages: Evidence from Orchestras” (with Russell Weinstein)
Abstract: This paper studies the effect of outside options on worker wages. In particular, we examine the probability that a worker's wage increases, proxied by appearing as one of the top five highest paid employees in their firm, after experiencing an outside opening. We focus on the orchestra setting where vacancies are rare, making it straightforward to identify meaningful changes in outside options. Furthermore, the nature of the classical music industry makes it so that we can identify the relevant set of outside options for musicians in the orchestra. Using data from orchestra rosters and tax forms (Form 990), we estimate an event study analysis with fixed effects to find that musicians are 1.5% more likely to appear as one of the top five highest paid employees within one to two years after they experience an opening for their instrument-position in another orchestra.