The Effect of Early Childhood Programs on Third-Grade Test Scores: Evidence from Transitional Kindergarten in Michigan

By Jordan Berne, Brian Jacob, Tareena Musaddiq, Anna Shapiro, and Christina Weiland

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

Transitional kindergarten (TK) is a relatively recent entrant into the US early education landscape, combining features of public pre-K and regular kindergarten. We provide the first estimates of the impact of Michigan's TK program on third-grade test sco...

Measuring the Market for Legal Firearms

By Luis Armona and Adam M. Rosenberg

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

The Massachusetts Firearms Records Bureau recently published administrative data covering the universe of legal firearm transactions in the state. We use these data to validate state-level background checks as a proxy for firearm transactions and show tha...

Employment and Earnings of Men at High Risk of Gun Violence

By Max Kapustin, Monica P. Bhatt, Sara B. Heller, Marianne Bertrand, and Christopher Blattman

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

Since Becker (1968), economists have modeled crime as resulting from higher returns to criminal activity than legal work. Yet contemporary employment data for people engaged in crime is scarce. We surveyed men at extreme risk of gun violence in Chicago ab...

The Lasting Impacts of School Shootings on Youth Psychotropic Drug Use

By Max Pienkny, Maya Rossin-Slater, Molly Schnell, and Hannes Schwandt

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

This paper estimates the effects of fatal school shootings on youth psychotropic drug use over the subsequent five and a half years. Using an event study approach that compares trends in drugs prescribed by providers practicing close to a school shooting ...

Early Home Visiting Delivery Model and Maternal and Child Mental Health at Primary School Age

By Gabriella Conti, Sören Kliem, and Malte Sandner

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

We study the impacts of a prenatal and infancy home visiting program targeting disadvantaged families on mental health outcomes, assessed through diagnostic interviews. The program significantly reduced the prevalence of mental health conditions for both ...

Go Vegan? Prejudice, (Blind) Experimentation, and Food Choices

By Michèle Belot and Adelson Teh

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

We examine the role of prejudice and experimentation in the evaluation of a nonmainstream product. We conduct a randomized controlled experiment where participants evaluate a plant-based product. We vary (i) whether they can taste the product, (ii) whethe...

Sleep Norms

By Osea Giuntella, Andrea Kiss, and Stephanie W. Wang

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

This study documents sleep norms and studies the effect of norm information on anticipated behavioral change. Participants were shown either a small or large gap between others' ideal sleep duration (injunctive norm) and actual sleep patterns (descriptive...

The Effects of Unemployment Insurance Caseworkers on Job Search Effort

By Amelie Schiprowski, Julia Schmidtke, Johannes Schmieder, and Simon Trenkle

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

We combine a high-frequency survey on job search effort with administrative data on caseworker interactions from the German unemployment insurance system to estimate how the dynamics of search effort respond to caseworker meetings and vacancy referrals. M...

Risk Scores for Long-Term Unemployment and the Assignment to Job Search Counseling

By Sebastian Ernst, Andreas I. Mueller, and Johannes Spinnewijn

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

This paper analyses how risk profiling is used to assign unemployed job seekers to job search counseling in Flanders, Belgium. We compare algorithmic selection to self-selection and selection by job search counselors. We discuss practical challenges for t...

Employment Effects of Job Search Assistance for the Long-Term Unemployed

By Lionel Cottier, Yves Flückiger, Pierre Kempeneers, and Rafael Lalive

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

We analyze the effects of a job search assistance (JSA) program for the long-term unemployed. JSA increases employment in the first year after assignment by about 4 percentage points. However, averaged over five years, JSA decreases employment, albeit ins...

Heterogeneity in Corporate Tax Incidence by Worker Characteristics

By Patrick J. Kennedy, Christine L. Dobridge, Paul Landefeld, and Jacob Mortenson

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

We study how corporate tax incidence on worker earnings varies across worker characteristics: gender, age, and employment tenure. To do so, we examine effects of the corporate tax cuts introduced by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), using data from federa...

A Simple Model of Corporate Tax Incidence

By Dustin Swonder and Damián Vergara

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

We analyze the incidence of a linear corporate tax using a simple and portable competitive general equilibrium model in which capital owners choose to invest either in domestic production or a foreign investment opportunity and workers make extensive marg...

Who Benefits from State Corporate Tax Cuts? A Local Labor Market Approach with Heterogeneous Firms: Further Results

By Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato and Owen Zidar

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

This paper estimates state corporate tax incidence using new data and methods for estimating the effects on profits. Extending Suárez Serrato and Zidar (2016), we develop two identification approaches that use the effects on incumbent firm labor demand a...

What Drives US Import Price Inflation?

By Mary Amiti, Oleg Itskhoki, and David E. Weinstein

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

Inflation has risen sharply in many countries since the COVID-19 outbreak, and economists have debated the underlying causes. In this paper, we examine the drivers of the global import price inflation, which peaked at approximately 11 percent a year. We f...

Supply Disruptions and Fiscal Stimulus: Transmission through Global Value Chains

By François de Soyres, Alexandre Gaillard, Ana Maria Santacreu, and Dylan Moore

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

We study the impact of demand and supply factors on bottlenecks and inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initial policy interventions, from lockdowns to fiscal stimuli, triggered shifts in consumer spending and supply chain disruptions. The reopening o...

Import Constraints

By Diego Comin, Robert C. Johnson, and Callum Jones

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

During the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, international shipping and logistics capacity was strained, limiting the quantity of imports. We investigate the impact of an import constraint on inflation, following an increase in domestic demand. Whether...

Race, Police Violence, and Financial Decision-Making

By Vicki L. Bogan, Lisa A. Kramer, Chi Liao, and Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

We find an economically and statistically significant effect of race-based police violence on home ownership and retirement savings. Using restricted-use Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, we show that Black individuals exposed to the fatality of a Blac...

Setting the Record Straight on Racial Wealth Inequality

By Fenaba R. Addo, William A. Darity Jr., and Samuel L. Myers Jr.

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

The racial wealth gap in the United States is the object of much misrepresentation and misunderstanding. Our paper is intended to provide a corrective. We will address how the mainstream economic view of the drivers of racial disparities in wealth is a hu...

Gender and Racial Behavior in Consumer Payment Methods under Economic Uncertainty

By Raffi E. Garcia and Jyothsna G. Harithsa

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

This paper analyzes the effects of high economic uncertainty on racial and gender behavior in payment methods. Using US consumer transaction-level data, we find that consumers alter their payment behavior patterns in periods of high economic uncertainty b...

Racial Wealth Inequality and Access to Care with High-Deductible Health Insurance

By Naomi Zewde

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2024

This paper evaluates racial inequalities in health-care affordability between high-deductible and conventional insurance. Using the 2011–2017 National Health Interview Survey, the study finds that Blacks in high-deductible plans are not disproportionate...