Madeleine C. Smith (she/her/hers)
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Welcome!
I am a PhD candidate in Economics at Michigan State University under the supervision of Stacy Dickert-Conlin.
I am on the 2026-27 job market.
I am an applied microeconomist and I study how policies and events affect marginalized groups. My work lies at the intersection of labor, public, and crime economics.
My current research centers on (1) sexual violence reporting in universities, (2) welfare programs and domestic violence and (3) the long-run effects of racial desegregation in schools.
JOB MARKET PAPER: The Effects of Federal Guidance on Sex Crime Reporting
JOB MARKET PAPER: The Effects of Federal Guidance on Sex Crime Reporting
Abstract: In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education issued new guidance on Title IX compliance, prompting universities to develop more explicit systems to prevent and respond to sexual violence. I estimate the effect of this federal intervention on reported sex crimes using annual campus crime data from U.S. colleges and universities. To get around the universal treatment timing of universities, I employ a difference-in-differences framework comparing sex crime reports with other violent crime reports before and after 2011. I find an increase of 0.4 sex crime reports per 1,000 enrolled students—a 161 percent increase relative to the pre-guidance mean. Survey data suggest that the increase reflects changes in reporting rather than an increase in sex crime incidence. Compared to non-campus police, reports of sex crimes to campus police increase faster, suggesting that universities outpaced national trends in sex crime reporting leading up to the viral #MeToo hashtag in 2017. Taken together, these findings suggest that stronger federal oversight can substantially increase reporting of sexual violence to universities, without necessarily changing incidence.
WORKING PAPERS
WORKING PAPERS
Household Resources and Intimate Partner Violence: The Case of Medicaid Expansion
presented at the 2025 Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting
The Effects of St. Louis’s Desegregation Program on Civic Engagement and Neighborhood Choice with Chukwuma Okoro
presented at the PRiME Center at St. Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, and the 2026 Association for Education Finance and Policy Conference
Cash Transfers and Domestic Violence: Evidence from the Expanded Federal Child Tax Credit with Margaret E. Brehm
WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
"Mandatory Reporting Laws and the Child Welfare System" with Katherine "Kit" Zhou
"Long-Run Effects of a Voluntary Interdistrict Desegregation Program on Black and Latine Students" with Casey Cobb and Chukwuma Okoro
funded by William T. Grant. Foundation Grant #OR-206855
"The Effect of Racial Quotas: A National Study of Desegregation Policy in Selective Public High School Admissions" with Rene Crespin
presented at the 2025 Association for Education Finance and Policy Conference
PUBLICATION
PUBLICATION
"Impact of Reduced School Exposure on Adolescent Health Behaviors and Food Security: Evidence from 4-Day School Weeks" with Emily J. Tomayko, Paul N. Thompson, Katherine Gunter, and John M. Schuna Jr., Journal of School Health, 2021
NEWS
NEWS
In May 2026, I visited and presented my Job Market Paper at the University of Zürich, ENS de Lyon (CERGIC), the Sorbonne Economics Center, the Paris Research Center in Law and Economics (CRED) at Panthéon-Assas University, and the Law, Institutions and Economics in Nanterre (LIEN) seminar at University Paris Nanterre.
I will be presenting my job market paper at the Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting in November 2026.
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