Associate Professor
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I am an applied microeconomist at the Graduate School of Public & International Affairs (GSPIA), University of Pittsburgh.
Much of my current research is broadly focused on inequality in the United States; some work in this area studies barriers to representation in various settings (e.g., in politics) and also the impacts of representation on mitigating inequality across groups. A second strand of my research considers the role of incentives in the public and nonprofit sectors.
I am also a co-editor at the Economics of Education Review and director of GSPIA's PhD Program.
Much of my current research is broadly focused on inequality in the United States; some work in this area studies barriers to representation in various settings (e.g., in politics) and also the impacts of representation on mitigating inequality across groups. A second strand of my research considers the role of incentives in the public and nonprofit sectors.
I am also a co-editor at the Economics of Education Review and director of GSPIA's PhD Program.
Research
Working papers
- "District-based Elections and Multiple Dimensions of Representation: Evidence from the California Voting Rights Act" with Michaela Cushing-Daniels and Brooke Shannon
- "Racial Representation in Local Government and Racial Disparities in Policing" with Xiaohong Wang and Jiangnan Zeng
- "Reduced Flexibility in Voting Differentially Impacts Black Voters" with Noah McKinnie Braun
- "The Effects of Partisan Elections on Political and Policy Outcomes: Evidence from North Carolina School Boards" with Andrew Hill and Breyon Williams
- "Does Competition Deter Women from Positions of Leadership?" with Lise Vesterlund and Randall Walsh
- "City Councilmember Next Door" with Randall Walsh and Jiangnan Zeng
- "How female candidates affect voter turnout"
- "A Poll Tax by Any Other Name: How African Americans Lost the Right to Vote" with Werner Troesken and Randall Walsh [earlier version: NBER Working Paper No. 18612]
Publications / accepted papers
- “Reconstruction-Era Education and Long-Run Black-White Inequality” with Ethan Schmick, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (conditionally accepted)
- "How Partisanship in Cities Influences Housing Policy" with Justin de Benedictis-Kessner and Chris Warshaw, American Journal of Political Science (2024)
- "Disparate Racial Impacts of Shelby County v. Holder on Voter Turnout" with Steve Billings, Noah Braun, and Ying Shi, Journal of Public Economics (2024)
- "Racial and Ethnic Representation in Local Government" with Brian Beach, Tate Twinam, and Randall Walsh [NBER Working Paper No. 25192], American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (2024)
- "Physician-Patient Race-Match Reduces Patient Mortality" with Andrew Hill and Lindsey Woodworth, Journal of Health Economics (2023)
- "Paying for what kind of performance? Incentive pay and multitasking in mission-oriented jobs" with Mirco Tonin, Michael Vlassopoulos, and Pun Winichakul, Games & Economic Behavior (2023)
- "Partisan Gerrymandering and Turnout" with Neil Silveus and Carly Urban, Journal of Law & Economics (2023)
- "Effects of an electronic health record-based mobility assessment and automated referral for inpatient physical therapy on patient outcomes: A quasi-experimental study" with Chou, Johnson, Euloth, Matcho, Bilderback, and Freburger, Health Services Research (2022)
- "Paying for whose performance? Teacher incentives and the black-white test score gap" with Andrew Hill, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (2021)
- "Self-Fulfilling Prophecies in the Classroom" with Andrew Hill, Journal of Human Capital (2021)
- "The effect of school closings on teacher labor market outcomes and teacher effectiveness" with Andrew Hill, Education Finance and Policy (2021)
- "Ethnic diversity and citizens' support for local public good provision: Evidence from California parcel tax elections" with Crystal Zhan, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (2020)
- "The impacts of performance pay on teacher effectiveness and retention: Does teacher gender matter?" with Andrew Hill, Journal of Human Resources (2020)
- "A teacher who knows me: The academic benefits of repeat student-teacher matches" with Andrew Hill, Economics of Education Review (2018)
- "How do voters matter? Evidence from US Congressional redistricting" with Randall Walsh [NBER Working Paper No. 22526], Journal of Public Economics (2018)
- "Does partisan affiliation impact the distribution of spending? Evidence from state governments' expenditures on education" with Andrew Hill, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (2017)
- "Political Participation in a Violent Society: Lynching and Turnout in the Post-Reconstruction South" with Werner Troesken and Randall Walsh, Journal of Development Economics (2017)
- "Wolves in sheep's clothing: Is nonprofit status used as a signal of quality?" with Carol Propper and Sarah Smith, Journal of Health Economics (2017)
- "Gridlock: Ethnic diversity in government and public good provision" with Brian Beach, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (2017)
- "Too much information? An experiment on communication and cooperation", Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (2017) [Special issue on "Experiments in charitable giving", edited by List, Price, & Samek]
- "Business as usual: Politicians with business experience, government finances, and policy outcomes" with Brian Beach, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (2016)
- "Education’s gambling problem: Earmarked lottery revenues and charitable donations to education", Economic Inquiry (2015)
- "The supply & demand of motivated labor: When should we expect to see nonprofit wage gaps?" Labour Economics (2015)
- "Wallflowers: Experimental evidence of reputation avoidance" with Sera Linardi, Management Science (2014)