Dr. Leukhina is a macro/growth economist. She has made important contributions to the study of the long-run process of economic development, structural transformation, demographic change and female labor supply. She has also studied the implications of information frictions for financial markets and for inequality more broadly. Most recently, her work has focused on questions pertaining to human capital accumulation in college.
Research Interests: Macroeconomics, Growth and Inequality, Human Capital, Labor and Demographics, Information Frictions
W O R K I N G P A P E R S
Selective College Access and Intergenerational Mobility, 2026, with Lutz Hendricks and Tatyana Koreshkova, ONLINE APPENDIX
An earlier version of this project was presented at the 2023 NBER Summer Institute and circulated under the title “Causes and Consequences of Student-College Mismatch.”
This paper studies how admissions preferences for lower-income students, alone or combined with information provision, affect college sorting, intergenerational earnings mobility, and aggregate earnings. We develop a quantitative model of college choice with quality-differentiated college types. We find that income-adjusted admissions substantially increase lower-income enrollment at selective colleges and improve intergenerational earnings mobility. Even larger-scale reforms generate only a slight decline in aggregate earnings.
Expanding Access to Selective Colleges, 2026, with Lutz Hendricks and Tatyana Koreshkova
This paper studies the effects of expanding high-quality public university capacities on student earnings and welfare. Using a quantitative model of college choice, we find that expanding the most selective colleges by 20 percent increases skilled labor supply by 5.3 percent, aggregate earnings by 0.8 percent, and welfare by 2.2 percent. The gains arise because a large number of high-ability students are rationed out of selective colleges. When admitted, these students graduate at high rates and enjoy substantial earnings gains. The earnings gains generated by expanding college capacity are eight times larger than the fiscal cost of financing it. Unskilled workers also gain from the expansion as the increased supply of skilled labor causes their wages to rise. These findings remain robust when we account for peer effects in student learning.
Lifetime Work Hours and the Evolution of the Gender Wage Gap, 2025, with Guillaume Vandenbroucke
The gender wage gap expanded between 1940 and 1975 but narrowed between 1980 and 1995. We use a model of human capital accumulation inspired by Ben-Porath (1967) to study the dynamics of the gender wage gap over the long run. We calibrate our model to wage data by age, year, gender and occupation, and find that the gender-specific changes in life-cycle market time profiles and occupational sorting accounted for nearly all of the gender wage gap dynamics. Occupation-specific human capital rental rates also played a small role in the wage gap closing. The roles of cohort-specific endowments were less pronounced.
P U B L I C A T I O N S
These papers are copyrighted. A single copy may be downloaded and printed for the reader’s personal research and study only. No other use is permitted.
Insurance and Inequality with Persistent Private Information
Alexander Bloedel, R. Vijay Krishna and Oksana Leukhina
Econometrica, vol. 93, no 3, May 2025, pp. 821-857
https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA20404
Supplement to "Insurance and Inequality with Persistent Private Information," published alongside the main manuscript
Extended Supplement to "Insurance and Inequality with Persistent Private Information," Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Working Paper 2025-012
https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2025.012
The Changing Role of Family Income in College Selection and Beyond
Oksana Leukhina
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, Third Quarter, 2023, pp. 198-222
Home Production and Leisure During the COVID-19 Recession
Oksana Leukhina and Zhixiu Yu
The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, Special Issue on The Macroeconomic Implications of the Covid-19 Pandemic, vol. 22, no. 1, April 2021, pp. 269-306
https://doi.org/10.1515/bejm-2020-0271
Imperfect Information Transmission from Banks to Investors: Macroeconomic Implications
Nicolás Figueroa, Oksana Leukhina and Carlos Ramirez
Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118, March 2021, pages 87-98
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2019.12.002
On the Benefits of Currency Reform
Oksana Leukhina and Vijay Krishna
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 102, May 2019, pages 81-95
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jedc.2019.04.001
Why Did Rich Families Increase their Fertility? Inequality and Marketization of Child Care
Michael Bar, Moshe Hazan, Oksana Leukhina, David Weiss and Hosny Zoaby
Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(4), December 2018, pages 427–463
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-018-9160-8
Vox Article Free Network Policy Brief
The Return to College: Selection and Dropout Risk
Lutz Hendricks and Oksana Leukhina
International Economic Review, Wiley, vol. 59(3) , August 2018, pages 1077-1102
https://doi.org/10.1111/iere.12297
Nicolás Figueroa and Oksana Leukhina
Journal of Banking and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87, February 2018, pages 318–332
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.10.013
How Risky is College Investment?
Lutz Hendricks and Oksana Leukhina
Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 26, October 2017, pages 140-163
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2017.03.003
Population Size Effects in the Structural Development of England
Oksana Leukhina and Stephen Turnovsky
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), July 2016, pages 195-229
http://doi.org/10.1257/mac.20140032
Push, Pull, and Population Size Effects in Structural Development: Long-run Tradeoffs
Oksana Leukhina and Stephen Turnovsky
Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), December 2016, pages 423-457
https://doi.org/10.1017/dem.2016.18
Gender Wage Gap Accounting: the Role of Selection Bias
Michael Bar, Seik Kim and Oksana Leukhina
Demography, Springer, vol. 52(5), October 2015, pages 1729-1750
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-015-0418-x
Lending Terms and Aggregate Productivity
Nicolás Figueroa and Oksana Leukhina
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 59, October 2015, pages 1-21
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jedc.2015.07.001
Risk-Sharing within Families: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study
Nuray Akin and Oksana Leukhina
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52, March 2015, pages 270-284
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jedc.2014.12.005
On the Time Allocation of Married Couples since 1960
Michael Bar and Oksana Leukhina
Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), December 2011, pages 491-510
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmacro.2011.04.001
The Role of Mortality in the Transmission of Knowledge
Michael Bar and Oksana Leukhina
Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(4), December 2010, pages 291-321
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-010-9059-5
Demographic Transition and Industrial Revolution: A Macroeconomic Investigation
Michael Bar and Oksana Leukhina
Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), April 2010, pages 424-451
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2009.03.002
To Work or Not to Work: Did Tax Reforms Affect Labor Force Participation of Married Couples?
Michael Bar and Oksana Leukhina
The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics (Contributions), De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), 2009
https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1690.1807