Unconditional Cash Assistance During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Infant Health accepted, Journal of Human Resources
This paper examines how cash transfers that are not conditional on contemporaneous employment and are distributed during an economic downturn affect infant health. Leveraging variation in four pandemic-era payments, I find that eligibility for an additional $1,000 before birth reduces the prevalence of low birthweight by 1.6-3.5% and preterm births by at least 1.4%. Effects are larger for births that were conceived before the pandemic and vulnerable populations, indicating that additional resources can mitigate some of the adverse effects of an unanticipated negative shock. The payments decreased maternal smoking and increased prenatal care, consistent with families investing in children’s health.
Minimum Wages and Employment Composition (with Ashvin Gandhi)
This paper examines how minimum wages change the allocation of hours across workers and the nature of low-wage work. We leverage information on more than 700 million daily worker shifts covering the entire US nursing home industry over the 2016-2019 period matched to more than 300 state, county, and city minimum wage changes. Higher minimum wages shift the allocation of hours at the firm level towards workers with high levels of firm-specific experience. The shift in the allocation of hours is due to greater retention amongst the most experienced workers and increased hours worked by individual workers. These hours responses undo about 40 percent of the estimated relative earnings gains between workers in the first and third terciles of experience. Therefore, while higher wages increase the experience-adjusted amount of services provided, which may improve the consumer experience, they also attenuate relative earnings gains for new workers.
Evaluation of Rapid Re-housing for Homeless Families in the Child Welfare System (with Jane Mauldon and Emily Putnam-Hornstein). Pre-analysis plan, Overview Policy Brief and Report
You Get What You Pay For: Incentive Payments and Staffing in Healthcare (with Ashvin Gandhi, Andrew Olenski, and Karen Shen)
Air Pollution and Student Absenteeism (with Patricio Dominguez)
Structuring Consumption Subsidies: The Impact of Recurrent and One-shot Food Vouchers and Cash Transfers on Grocery Purchases (with Tessa Bonomo and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach)
Evaluation of Philadelphia's Zero-Fare Transit Program (with Daniel Banko-Ferran, Sebastian Jilke, and Lindiwe Rennert) Pre-analysis plan