Guaranteed Admission at UW–Madison

Wisconsin Act 95, signed into law in February 2024, newly guarantees students who graduate in the top 5% of their high school class admission to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This Top Percent Policy differs from previously studied policies along a number of important dimensions: UW–Madison is the single state flagship in Wisconsin, admits large numbers of students from states not treated by this admissions guarantee, and is requiring students in the top 5% of their class to submit applications by the early action deadline to receive the admissions guarantee. This paper uses admissions records from the University of Wisconsin–Madison to study whether the policy affects high school level application patterns in Wisconsin. I employ a difference in differences framework where Wisconsin high schools are treated, and Minnesota high schools serve as controls. I report the policy's first year effect on high school level application patterns, describe which types of high schools appear to respond most to the policy, and study whether students identified in the Top 5% differ from students who historically sought admission to UW–Madison from their high schools.

Homeless Students: Chronic & Acute Effects of Homelessness

For over a decade, more than one million students in the US have faced homelessness annually, but there is still much we do not know about how homelessness affects students. This paper uses statewide linked administrative data from Wisconsin to (1) document outcomes of students facing homelessness identified across numerous data sources and (2) employ quasi-experimental methods to examine the effects of acute stress associated with housing shocks on middle and high school students' suspensions from school. The data shows that students' outcomes in schools differ by the type of homelessness they face, potentially suggesting that students facing different types of homelessness or housing precarity would benefit most from differing academic and behavioral support in schools. The quasi-experimental studies document spikes in suspension on the day of homeless shelter or service enrollment, indicating that the acute stressors associated with housing shocks cause students to face behavioral problems and increased risk of suspension from school. This work highlights both that students facing various types of homelessness or housing precarity may need different supports in schools and demonstrates that the acute effects of housing shocks and related stressors impact homeless students in school. 

Where You Go to College: The effect of a college’s local labor market strength on post-college earnings 

I ask the question How does a college’s local labor market strength causally affect its graduates’ post-college earnings? Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, I modify an approach from Dale and Krueger (2002) that uses individuals’ college application portfolios to identify students whose college location is as good as randomly assigned, allowing me to estimate a causal effect of an individual's college labor market strength on their post-college earnings. I find that a college’s local labor market strength, measured using earnings for workers with bachelor’s degrees in the college’s commuting zone, positively affects post-college earnings. I explore mechanisms of this effect and find that the college’s local labor market strength is highly correlated with the post-college working location’s labor market strength, fully mediating the causal effect of interest. I am not able to claim that the impact on earnings is more than a cost of living adjustment. My findings suggest that a college’s local labor market plays an important role in the transition from college to the labor market.

Please contact me if you are interested in the most recent versions of any of the listed working papers.