Publications
Heads Up: Does Air Pollution Cause Workplace Accidents?
(with Victor Lavy, and Omry Yoresh).
Forthcoming Journal of Public Economics, 2025.
Air pollution can adversely affect physiological and cognitive performance. This study estimates the causal effect of increased nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a primary air pollutant, on construction work accidents, a significant factor related to labor market productivity losses. Using data from all construction sites and pollution monitoring stations in Israel, we find a strong and significant effect on accidents, with a 377% (138%) increase on high (moderate) NO2 pollution days compared to clean air levels. Our mechanism analysis suggests the effect is exacerbated under cognitive strain or worker fatigue. A cost-benefit analysis, supported by a nonparametric estimation, examines subsidizing site closures on highly polluted days.
Effects and Mechanisms of CEO Quality in Public Education
(with Adi Boiko, and Victor Lavy)
The Economic Journal, 2023
‘CEOs’ of public schools in many countries have authority and responsibilities that can greatly affect the quality of schooling. This paper estimates the impact of CEOs on student outcomes in Israeli elementary schools. We estimate CEO quality in two ways—once using schools that do not switch CEOs and once using schools that do. We show that switches are exogenous and are not correlated with potential outcomes. CEO quality positively affects students’ test scores and behavioural outcomes, with pronounced effects for disadvantaged schools. Potential mechanisms show that high-quality CEOs lead to improvements in school priorities, working procedures and violence reduction.
(with Assaf Kott, and Victor Lavy)
Journal of Labor Economics, 2022.
We analyze the long-term effects of a high school remedial education program almost two decades after its implementation. Treated students experienced an 11% increase in completed years of postsecondary schooling, a 4% increase in annual earnings, and a significant increase in intergenerational income mobility. These gains reflect improvement of students mainly from below-median-income families. We conclude that the program had gains beyond the short-term significant improvements in high school matriculation exams. A cost-benefit analysis of the program suggests that the government will recover its cost within 7–8 years, implying a very high rate of return.
Working Papers
Amid the proliferation of school choice policies, substantial disparities persist in the quality of schools selected by high and low socioeconomic-status (SES) families. Can we decrease this gap by providing parents with better information, and if so, what information is effective at inducing parents to select better schools? To address these questions, I leverage a unique natural experiment in Israel, where a Supreme Court ruling mandated the public release of comprehensive school-level information. Employing a discrete choice model, an event study design, and a difference-in-difference approach, I examine the impact of this information disclosure on student school choice. I find that in regions with multiple school options, following the information disclosure, parents increasingly favor schools with better attributes. Notably, this shift is primarily attributed to factors such as violence levels and students’ school satisfaction ratings, rather than test score information. Importantly, the results show that the effect is driven by the increased response of lower SES households to the non-score-related attributes, narrowing the preexisting selection gap from their high SES counterparts. Crucially, I establish a robust association between school violence levels and school value-added measures, and find that lower SES households were more likely to select schools with higher value added following the information disclosure. Furthermore, I find that schools respond to the increased accountability by improving in the non academic publicized attributes. Finally, I identify information-sharing networks, based on shared ethnic and cultural ties, influencing school choices. My findings demonstrate the importance of providing a diverse set of school attribute information to enhance equity, academic outcomes and social mobility.
Selected Work In Progress
The Birth of Equality: The Effect of Teacher Childbirth on Student Performance and Gender Specific Differences
Weather Shocks, Politics and Environmental Beliefs
(With Lior Gallo)
Reducing Teacher Stress and Improving Student Success in the Developing and Developed World: Targeting, Treatment, and Policy
(With Christopher Udry)
Data Driven Decision Making in High Schools to Improve Achievements, Prevent Dropout, and Efficiently Allocate Resources
(With Analia Schlosser)
The Effects of Teacher Mental Health on Student Outcomes