"These Caps Spilleth Over: Equilibrium Effects of Unemployment Insurance," (with Cynthia Doniger) under review.
Abstract: U.S. unemployment insurance policy—which features benefits assigned as a percentage of past wages up to a dollar-valued cap—engenders tests for spillovers from policy variation to workers who are not directly treated. These tests reveal a pattern—positive spillovers in one case and negative in another—that is reconciled by a model including information frictions coupled with ex ante wage commitments. Our results provide novel evidence of the presence of this market structure and are quantitatively and policy relevant. Indeed, magnitudes imply that increasing the replacement rate while holding the cap constant would decrease aggregate unemployment of insured individuals.
"Changes in Nutrient Intake at Retirement," (with Melvin Stephens, Jr.) 2025. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 17 (1): 501-26. [working paper version]
Abstract: Prior research finds food expenditure decreases at retirement, which suggests households are inadequately saving. In contrast, other evidence shows that direct measures of food intake are unaffected by exiting the labor force. Using a wide array of data sources and methodologies, we find that food intake falls at retirement, including: declines in caloric and nutrient intake in cross-sectional datasets spanning forty years, a decrease in caloric intake using longitudinal data, and a drop in a food intake index that relates diet composition to permanent income. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of life-cycle models of consumption.
"Work Search Requirements in General Equilibrium," Revision requested by ILR Review.
Abstract: This paper studies the effects of unemployment insurance (UI) work-search requirements using state-level policy changes in the US. The author shows that these policies, which are designed to counteract the moral hazard effects of UI, can increase measured search effort and reemployment. They also lower unemployment rates as measured at the county level, but only when unemployment is low. This differential is consistent with rat-race effects in weak labor markets: the increased search effort of one worker imposes negative externalities on the search productivity of other workers. These findings complement small-scale experimental evidence on the efficacy of search requirements in the US by showing the effects of the policies when implemented at scale.
"The Impact of Health on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Large-Scale Health Experiment," (with Melvin Stephens, Jr.) 2022. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 14 (3): 367-99. [working paper version]
Abstract: While economists have posited that health investments increase earnings, isolating the causal effect of health is challenging due to reverse causality and unobserved heterogeneity. We examine the labor market effects of a randomized controlled trial, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT), which monitored nearly 13,000 men for over six years. We find that this intervention, which provided a bundle of treatments to reduce coronary heart disease mortality, increased earnings and family income. We find few differences in estimated gains by baseline health and occupation characteristics.
"Social Security Offsets and the Labor Force Attachement of the Late-Career Unemployed," 2021. Southern Economic Journal, 88(2): 628-48. [accepted manuscript]
Abstract: This paper studies the effects of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for retirement-age workers. It shows that UI receipt can raise both search effort and job-finding for those who would otherwise be labor force nonparticipants. The results are contrasted with estimates showing negative effects of UI on reemployment for younger workers. The identifying variation is generated by the elimination of Social Security offsets---state-level policies that reduce unemployment benefits for Social Security beneficiaries. The findings are consistent with a simple model of job search and UI claiming with participation and work search requirements.
"Employment Services, Occupation Switching, and Unemployment Duration,"
Abstract: Longer unemployment spells are associated with a number of negative outcomes for workers, but the role of specific search behaviors in generating these outcomes is only partially understood. This paper demonstrates that workers who are unemployed longer are more likely to search for and accept jobs in occupations different from their previous work. This is plausibly due to search with learning or unobserved heterogeneity in which occupation switchers take longer to find jobs than stayers. This paper further shows that the relationship between duration and occupation switching is sensitive to the receipt of employment services in a way that is most consistent with search and learning. Implications for the natures of job search, learning, and the role of employment services are considered.