Labor Economics; Corporate Finance; Entrepreneurship
US Parental Involvement Laws: The Impacts in Access to Abortion on Teen Health CEA 2024 Best Paper Award Jane Platt
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
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.
Protest and Prejudice: The Impact of Black Lives Matter Protests on Police Behaviour CEA 2023 Best Poster Award
Colby Chambers
This paper assesses the impact of Black Lives Matter Protests in the United States on police traffic stops of civilians. Exploiting variation in protest location across 16 states and protest timing from 2014 to 2018, I use a stacked difference-in-differences methodology to find that the protests led to an 12% reduction in stops and 8% reduction in stops per capita. This was driven by decreases in counties whose inhabitants vote Democrat. Meanwhile, the protests had no effect on the percentage of stopped drivers who are black, tentatively suggesting no change in police racial discrimination. Comparisons of stops in Texas at day and night support the idea that the decrease in stops was driven by increases in police officer caution of public surveillance and scrutiny. Further focus on Texas suggests, however, that this decrease in stops did not come at the cost of police efficiency: there was a 10% increase in the probability a searched car carried contraband, indicative of the protests leading to fewer stops of marginal drivers.
The Maternal Health Consequences of Reduced Access to AbortionTali Yaffe
Unencumbered access to abortion allows women to avoid mistimed pregnancies and their associated health risks. I assess the adverse health consequences of reduced access to abortion by examining a Texas policy change which forced the closure of many abortion clinics in the state. Using a TWFE DID research design across time and Texas counties, I estimate the effect of an increase in distance to the closest abortion clinic on Severe Maternal Morbidity (SMM), a measure of childbirth complications. I find that the Texas law led to increases in SMM across counties, driven by low-income women. These results underline the importance of considering distributional health consequences associated with a reduction in abortion access.
The Robbers Cave: Intergroup Contact and Conflict in AfricaChris Lam
When members of different ethnic groups share a superordinate goal of working together to obtain mineral resources, intergroup cooperation is facilitated and hostility is moderated. This paper shows that both interethnic contact and mining activity increase the probability of armed conflict when analyzed separately at the cell-year level. However, the combined effect of interethnic contact and mining activity significantly mitigates the chance of conflict. In some cases, the overall effect is negative, resulting in a reduction in armed conflict. A variety of identification strategies are used and results are robust to alternate specifications, which suggests that the relationship is causal.
