US Parental Involvement Laws: The Impacts in Access to Abortion on Teen Health

CEA 2024 Best Paper Award

Jane Platt

US Parental Involvement Laws: The Impacts in Access to Abortion on Teen Health

CEA 2024 Best Paper Award

Jane Platt

Unobstructed access to abortion is a crucial component of healthcare, particularly for teens who have higher risks of negative health consequences associated with birth. I look at the impacts of abortion restrictions on teen health by analyzing US parental involvement laws (PILs), which prohibit physicians from preforming abortions on minors without including their guardians in the decision. Using RDD and DID methods, I examine the differential changes in birth and morbidity rates between 17- and 18-year-olds in states with and without PILs. My research finds that PILs lead to significantly higher birth and morbidity rates among 17-year-olds, driven by states with stricter laws, and by black and low-income women. Given these findings, policymakers must be aware that restricting teen’s access to abortion may not have the intended positive results, particularly for certain higher-risk populations.

Migration and the Classroom: The Effects of Immigration on the Test Scores and School Experience of Native Students in Europe

CEA 2024 Best Poster Presentation Award

Anna Chernesky

Using six waves of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and an IV-FE strategy, I use recent variations in the proportion of immigrant students across European countries to ask the following questions: How does attending school with more immigrant peers affect native-born student test scores, and change self-reported attitudes towards school and immigration? I find that as native-born students attend school with more than 1% PISA-sampled immigrants (9% immigrant students on average), their Math, Science, and Reading test scores decrease by approximately 4-6%. Potentially stronger effects are observed in countries less open to immigration, and when redefining immigrant presence as the presence of peers who have immigrated within 5 years. While the academic effect is negative, native self-reported feelings of school belonging are unaffected, and there is evidence that native-born students exposed to immigrant peers report 5-10% more positive attitudes towards immigration.

Bank “Resilience”- The Effects of Demonetization and Covid-19 on Bank’s Non-Performing Assets in India

Uddhav Kalra

This paper examines the role of Demonetization and COVID-19 on the Non-Performing Assets of banks in India. Demonetization was the event where the Government of India decided that currency notes of denominations 500 and 1000 were no longer legal tender, this accounted for 86% of the currency in circulation. Exploiting variation in bank types and using an event study. I find that Foreign Banks remained unaffected from both events, Private Banks experienced an increase after both events, Public Banks experienced an increase after Demonetization and decrease after COVID-19 and finally, Small Finance Banks experienced an increase after COVID-19. Persistence of the effects of Demonetization for Private Banks could be a drawback of financial inclusion. The decrease experienced by Public Banks was due to a series of mergers that took place in April 2020.

Do Costco Openings Increase Nearby Property Values? Evidence from the U.S.

Silas Kwok

How does introducing a big-box retailer like Costco into a community impact nearby property values? Using Costco openings from 2002 to 2020 across the U.S. and spatial difference-in-differences and event study methodologies, I find that Costco openings caused no significant changes in property values on average. I also find no significant dynamic effects of Costco openings on property values within 20 miles for 2.5 years following store openings. However, Costco openings caused a 7.9% increase in property values within 5 miles in counties with above-average population density, and a 5.2% increase within 5 miles in counties with above-average household income 2.5 years following store openings.

Fortune Sons, Unfortunate People: The Legacy of Herbicidal Warfare in Vietnam

Trang Truong

The United States dropped three times the total tonnage used in both World War II and the Korean War on Vietnam and sprayed 20 million gallons of herbicides on South Vietnam during the Second Indochina War (also known as the “Vietnam War” or the “Resistance War against America”), making it one of the most disastrous wars in the 20th century.

While bombing has been shown to not have long-term impacts on Vietnam, how does historical herbicide exposure affect current education and employment outcomes? Using an instrumental variable approach based on district proximity to the closest National Liberation Front or Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army base, I find that herbicide exposure leads to fewer years of schooling and a higher likelihood of being unemployed. The main mechanism lies in herbicides’ environmental effects, which present nutrient challenges, limit career options, and hinder the district’s catch-up growth. The environmental effects persist because the rice-destroying chemical is enduring in the environment, and large-scale spraying missions destroy biodiversity and inhibit sustainable environment regeneration.

 

Moratorium Shield: California Non-Renewal and FAIR Plan Responses

Annabella Stoll-Dansereau

California wildfires are intensifying due to climate change, creating more structural damage and straining the housing insurance market. During the period focused on, 2015 to 2021, regulations limited insurance premium increases and prohibited using climate forecasts in pricing models, pushing insurers toward non-renewals. My thesis focuses on the 2019 Moratorium policy that froze insurance non-renewals in wildfire-affected ZIP codes for one year. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I found that while the policy suppressed non-renewals overall, its impact was much more pronounced in higher-risk ZIP codes.

Jeffrey Hicks

Sejin Ahn

Deivis Angeli

Tiago Bonomo