Dona, Gonzalo. 2023. “Mothers’ labor supply and conditional cash transfers: Evidence from Chile.” Estudios de Economía, 50(1).
Dona, G., & Zamarripa, R. (2025). Do unlimited homework attempts improve student learning outcomes? Evidence across sociodemographic backgrounds. Journal of Education for Business, 1-8.
Why nations succeed: Evidence on the importance of Christian Principles (under review)
Summary
Institutions lack agency, they are inert, cold and dead. To explain the success of the Western World we need to understand what motivates this peoples. I show that Christian principles are this engine. Using data borrowed from Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robertsons (2001), updated with a few more variables I use the European expansion as a natural experiment. I show that receiving Christian principles explains a per capita GDP by PPP by 1950 higher by one standard deviation, and being initially cohesive explains a similar increase for former European colonies.
Effects of the minimum wage (under review)
In my latest paper (currently under review) I assess the effect of the minimum wage policy on labor force participation for the inactive low-productivity individual. I leverage the panel nature of the Survey of Income and Program Participation survey and educational attainment to show that the policy drives new workers to the labor force. In the future, I plan to expand on this and additional analyses to improve our understanding of this ubiquitous policy. My current strategy involves leveraging the advantages of panel data to gain insights
What created the racial divergence in unemployment rates? (w. Rene Zamarripa, under review at Applied Economics)
Summary
This paper studies the unemployment rate racial divergence that started after 1930. We show that labor force participation can be used as a proxy to circumvent data constraints and study unemployment patterns in men between 25 and 54 years old. We use data from the US Census to argue that common hypotheses, such as the Great Migration and the Great Depression, are unlikely or only partial contenders to explain the racial unemployment gap. Instead, we show that the New Deal is a potential candidate that fits the data better. By encouraging welfare migration, the New Deal relief programs could have contributed to creating a long-term divergence in unemployment rates.
Same-sex Relationship in America before Obergefell: Single by choice? (w. Mark Regnerus)
Summary
We consider the effect that the state-level legalization of same-sex marriage had on the uptake of marriage for the first seven years of its history, from 2004 to 2011, employing a difference-in-difference causal inference strategy. Our analyses of data from the American Community Survey, corroborated by data from the National Health Interview Survey, reveal that popular uptake of same-sex marriage was not simply a result of pre-Windsor, demand driven, state legislative victories as is often believed.
Effect of Hospital complexity and distance on maternal outcomes: Evidence from Norway
Summary
Using summer closures of maternities in rural Norway, we are able to determine maternal outcomes would not be significantly affected by hospitals being farther or more complex. These results suggest centralizing the system would not significantly affect maternal outcomes.
Effect of universal child care for 1-2 year old on their physical and mental health
Summary
Between 2004-2008 Norway doubled child care enrollment rates for one and two year old children. We evaluate whether child care improves or undermine their health in the future. Early child care can mean early exposition to dangerous pathogens, which could make children stronger or weaker to future health challenges. Furthermore, the attachment theory in psychology suggests this process to be important and salient at least until age three. In this paper we look at health during adolescence following the reform, as suboptimal attachment is associated to several negative mental health outcomes.
Effect of exhaustion on quality of out-of-hours care in Norway
Summary
Using Norwegian administrative data we try to causally determine whether doctor exhaustion impacts the quality of the service delivered. Using an instrumental variable approach that takes advantage of the time worked before the start of out-of-hours, we explore this question.