Research

Research Highlight: What is the relationship between infant mortality and poverty in the United States and how has it changed over time? In The Evolution of Infant Mortality Inequality in the United States, 1960-2016 we address this question by analyzing county-level data between 1960 and 2016. Our estimates suggest that level differences in mortality rates between the poorest and least poor counties decreased meaningfully between 1960 and 2000 but then remained constant between 2000 and 2016. The figure shows the mortality-poverty gradient, which represents the association between increasing one ventile in the poverty distribution and infant mortality. The overall reduction of inequality over the period has a meaningful effect on national infant mortality. We estimate that declining inequality accounts for 18% of the national reduction in infant mortality between 1960 and 2000.

Works in progress


“Stimulating Household Consumption: Evidence from COVID Tax Policies,” (with David Berger, Geoff Gee, & Eric Zwick).


“Long-run Income Mobility and Turnover at the Top: Evidence from the Population of Tax Returns 1969-2019,” (with Geoff Gee).


"The Association between Income and Natality in the United States, 1990-2020,” (with Kendra Robbins).

PUBLISHED PAPERS

“Political Alignment and Tax Evasion,” (with Julie Cullen and Ebonya Washington). American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, vol 13, no.3, 2021.

Press Coverage: Washington Post (8/9/2016), Vox (2/28/2018)

“The Evolution of Infant Mortality Inequality in the United States, 1960-2016” (with Kaveh Danesh and Kelsey Moran). Science Advances, vol. 6, no. 29, 2020.

“Income Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility Across Colleges in the United States” (with Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Emmanuel Saez and Danny Yagan). The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 135, no.3, 2020.

Press Coverage: New York Times (2/2/2020)

More Press Coverage: https://opportunityinsights.org/press-topic/education/

“Stimulating Housing Markets,” (with Eric Zwick and David Berger). The Journal of Finance, vol. 75, no. 1, 2020.

“Earnings Risk in the Household: Evidence from Millions of US Tax Returns,” (with Seth Pruitt). American Economic Review: Insights, vol. 2, no.2, 2020

“Gainfully Employed? Assessing the Employment and Earnings of For-Profit College Students Using Administrative Data” (with Steph Cellini). Journal of Human Resources, vol. 54, no. 2, 2019.

Press Coverage: The Washington Post (5/31/2016), The Atlantic (6/1/2016), Forbes (6/2/2016), The Wall Street Journal (5/31/2016).

“Cash on Hand and College Enrollment: Evidence from Population Tax Data and Policy Nonlinearities” (with Dayanand Manoli). American Economic Journal Economic Policy, vol. 10., no. 2, 2018.

Press Coverage: The New York Times (5/11/2015).

“Work and Opportunity Before and After Incarceration” (with Adam Looney). Brookings Institution, Economic Studies Report, 2018.

Press Coverage: The Washington Post (3/14/2018), Vox (3/14/2018),

The Wall Street Journal (5/14/2019)

“Nudges and Learning: Evidence from Informational Interventions for Low-Income Taxpayers” (with Dayanand Manoli). Tax Law Review, New York University School of Law: 77(3)439-476, 2017.

“The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-14” (with Raj Chetty, Michael Stepner, Sarah Abraham, Shelby Lin, Benjamin Scuderi, Augustin Bergeron, and David Cutler). Journal of the American Medical Association 315(16): 1750-1766, 2016.

Press Coverage: https://healthinequality.org/press/

“Is the United States Still a Land of Opportunity? Recent Trends in Intergenerational Mobility” (with Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Patrick Kline and Emmanuel Saez). American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 2014.

Press Coverage: Wall Street Journal (1/23/2014), The New York Times (1/23/2014)

Washington Post (1/23/2014).

More Press Coverage: http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/index.php/in-the-news

“Improving Form F1098T: How a Revised Form Could Increase Take-Up, Improve Compliance, and Lower Taxpayer Burden,” (with Deena Ackerman and Julie-Anne Cronin). Internal Revenue Service Research Bulletin 2014.

“New Evidence on Taxes and the Timing of Birth” (with Sara LaLumia and James Sallee). American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 7(2): 258-93.

Press Coverage: Washington Post (8/12/2013).

“New Perspectives on Income Mobility and Inequality,” (with Gerald Auten and Geoff Gee). National Tax Journal, December, 2013, 66(4):893-912.

“Income Inequality, Mobility and Turnover at the Top in the U.S., 1987-2010,” (with Gerald Auten and Geoff Gee). American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 2013, 103(3):1-7.

Press Coverage: Wall Street Journal (1/4/2013).

“Who Benefits from Student Aid? The Economic Incidence of Tax-Based Federal Student Aid.” 2011. Economics of Education Review, 31, 463-481.

Press Coverage: Atlantic (5/21/2012), Washington Post (9/3/2013, 5/9/2013).

“Why Don't Taxpayers Maximize their Tax-Based Student Aid? Salience and Inertia in Program Selection.” The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy: 2011, Vol. 11: Issue 1 (Contributions), Article 75.

“The Distributional and Revenue Consequences of Reforming the Mortgage Interest Deduction” (with Adam Cole and Geoffrey Gee). National Tax Journal, December 2011, 64(4), 977-1000.

“The Effect of Tax-Based Federal Student Aid on College Enrollment.” National Tax Journal, September 2011, 64(3), 839-862.

“The Economic Impact of Tax-Based Federal Student Aid.” Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Conference of the National Tax Association, National Tax Journal.

“Fiscal Capacity in State Fiscal Year 1999.” (with Robert Tannenwald). State Tax Notes, vol. 36

no.8. May 23, 2005.