Research

Abstract: How should zoning policy protect children from local disamenities such as liquor stores, gambling venues, and cannabis retailers? Cities rely on minimum-distance school buffers applied across land uses and rarely grounded in evidence. I answer this question in the context of cannabis retail in Los Angeles, combining hyperlocal reduced-form evidence with a spatial entry model. Linking administrative LAUSD high school records to retailer openings over 2010--2024, I compare students near a new opening to those slightly farther in the same ZIP code. Openings within 0.5 miles of a school raise drug-related suspensions and absence rates and lower GPA, with effects nearly doubling after 2017 recreational legalization. Exposure also reduces high school graduation by 1.2 pp and college enrollment by 1.0 pp. Nearby blocks see foot traffic shift toward alcohol and tobacco retail and low-level crime rise. Since tighter buffers may shift retailers toward homes, I also estimate neighborhood exposure effects. These concentrate within 0.3 miles and run roughly half as large. Embedding these estimates in a spatial entry model, I evaluate policies by human-capital gains plus fiscal revenue. The optimal buffer is 0.5 miles, yielding $251.0M in human-capital gains and $112.7M in planner value over the current 600-foot (0.11-mile) rule. A Pigouvian licensing fee generates $141.1M in net welfare while preserving more fiscal revenue.

Conference: 1st Human Capital Conference (TSE); 2nd Zurich–Oxford Doctoral Symposium on Real Estate Markets (scheduled); Harvard Opportunity Insight Conference (scheduled)

Abstract:  U.S. immigration enforcement has surged since 2025, raising concerns about its consequences for local communities. Combining geocoded ICE records with high-frequency foot traffic and card-spending data, we estimate the causal effect of individual enforcement events on local activity and mobility. ICE operations reduce nearby foot traffic by 1.61 percent, with significant declines after both contact and non-contact operations. We find no displacement to neighboring areas; losses are largest at education facilities and worker-intensive establishments. The withdrawal carries into spending: offline card spending falls 5.87 percent with no detectable online offset. These destination-level hyperlocal estimates capture only part of the response. A second design measuring residents rather than destinations finds trips away from home in newly exposed neighborhoods falling 7.42 percent, several times larger. Declines appear across Hispanic, Black, and White neighborhoods, persisting longest in Hispanic ones and amplified in sanctuary counties and where public attention to enforcement is high. Community losses---lost wages, forgone schooling, and business revenue---reach $160,416 per event over the following month, roughly nine times the DHS cost per removal. In a spatial model of local activity, restoring sensitive-location protections recovers more than half of these costs---a fifth if prohibited operations simply move to the nearest permitted site.

Conference: Economics of Race, Racism, and Structural Inequality (Duke); Urban Economic Association (UEA, scheduled); Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM, scheduled); American Economic Association (ASSA, scheduled)

Abstract: We investigate how targeted groups react politically to racially motivated hate crimes within their communities. Combining incident-level administrative data on hate crimes in Los Angeles County from 2014 to 2022 with individual voter files, we exploit the hyperlocal variation in the geography and timing of these crimes. We find that serious anti-Hispanic hate crimes increase voter turnout among nearby Hispanics by 1.6 percentage points compared to nearby Whites. Communities with dense Hispanic populations and Hispanic advocacy and community service organizations are primarily responsible for this mobilization effect. Moreover, we demonstrate that hate crimes are associated with shifts in voters' policy preferences, particularly in the areas of crime prevention and affirmative action. Despite this, we do not find any significant differences in political participation among Black and Asian American communities following anti-Black and anti-Asian hate crimes, respectively. Los Angeles County's large Hispanic population and extensive network of community organizations may play an important role in fostering mobilization.

Conference: 2025 European Society for Population Economics (ESPE), 2025 APSA Annual Meeting