Grants Received: Russell Sage Foundation Dissertation Research

Media Coverage: Cardinal News, Business Insider

Presented at: 2021 Wisconsin Economics Association Conference, 2022 MEA Annual Conference, 2022 WEAI Conference, 2022 UEA North American Meeting, 2022 SMU-Jinan Conference on Urban and Regional Economics, LERA@ASSA 2023 Meeting, UEA Summer School 2023, SITE 2023, 2023 Remote Work Conference, 2023 UEA North American Meeting, 2023 KAEA Job Market Conference, 2023 SEA, 2024 ASSA-AREUEA, 2024 AREUEA National Conference, 2024 Yonsei Young Economist Workshop, SOLE 2024, DSE 2024

Abstract: This paper explores the impact of an influx of high-skilled remote workers on local residents in destination cities. Using Tulsa Remote as a case study, I find that the program effectively attracted remote workers but had offsetting effects on local employment across sectors. Through a structural equilibrium model of sector choice, I find that the program slightly improves the average welfare of local residents, but nonemployed and low-skilled renters in the tradable sector are adversely affected. Finally, when a Remote Worker Relocation Program is financed by local taxes, the average net benefit of the program is substantially reduced.

Abstract: We assess the consumption insurance value of Medicaid expansions. While Medicaid expansions improve physical and financial health, they may not smooth consumption risk because a great deal of uninsured medical spending is financed with bad debt and charity care. Using multiple methods, we find only small effects of Medicaid expansion throughout the consumption distribution. Our estimates, combined with an assumed utility function, imply near-zero insurance value to the uninsured from Medicaid expansion. While our estimates are statistically noisy, we can nevertheless rule out the possibility that a large share of Medicaid's value comes from reductions in consumption risk.

Presented at: PAA 2022 Annual Conference (poster), MEA 2022 Annual Conference, SOLE 2022

Abstract: We use the introduction of Seattle's local minimum wage to investigate the geographic effects of highly-targeted, city-level minimum wages on establishment entry and exit decisions. We explicitly consider the spillover effects of Seattle's minimum wage on business entry and exit decisions in the surrounding areas, in addition to the main effect. We use an event study framework to estimate these effects on two low-wage industries: hospitality and retail. We find strong, statistically significant spillover effects on establishment entries at the census block level in the hospitality and retail sectors 1-2 years after Seattle's minimum wage is announced relative to establishment churn before the minimum wage announcement. The estimated spillover effects are positive, implying an increase in the number of establishments entering the areas surrounding Seattle after the announcement of the minimum wage. There is a corresponding decline in entries for both sectors in Seattle itself. Our findings on exits are inconclusive. Both spillover and main effects are more concentrated in retail. We estimate our effects using a novel data set containing a full census of establishments with precise locations for businesses in the state of Washington. Our findings suggest that spillover effects on neighboring areas should be considered to holistically assess the impacts of city-level minimum wages. 

Media Coverage: HealthLawProf Blog

Abstract: We show that the opioid crisis slows transitions to employment from unemployment and non-participation. We identify the effect of the opioid crisis from cross-state variation in triplicate prescribing regulations, which produced long-lasting reductions in opioid use by reducing the initial distribution of the blockbuster opioid OxyContin. Difference-in-differences estimates show that triplicate regulations induce unemployed and non-participating workers in triplicate states to return to employment about 10 percent faster than workers in non-triplicate states. These estimates imply a 1.1 percentage point higher level of employment in steady state.