Research
"Breaking Boundaries: Competitive Effects of
Inter-District School Choice"
Abstract:
Expanding school choice can incentivize school districts
to improve educational quality as they compete for enrollment.
When students exercise that choice, however, changes in student
composition and district resources may affect how well districts
can educate students, leaving the overall effect uncertain. To
study these tradeoffs, I exploit an Indiana property-tax reform
that incidentally eliminated fees to attend public schools outside
a student's residential district. Using statewide administrative
data, I measure the extent to which each school district's enrollment
is threatened by comparing its pre-reform achievement with that of
neighboring districts. I find that districts facing greater enrollment
pressure improve educational quality, narrowing pre-existing achievement
gaps with neighboring districts by 5.3 percent overall and 8.4 percent
in elementary grades. Gains are largest in smaller districts, where
enrollment losses are harder to absorb. These findings suggest that
expanding access to non-residential public schools can improve educational
quality even for students who remain enrolled in their home district.
Working Papers
"Staying Connected: Experimental Effects of Coach-Delivered Text Messages
in an Adult High School" (click for link)
NBER working paper #35923 – with Patrick Turner and Alberto Ortega
Abstract:
More than 23 million adults in the United States lack a high school diploma, and most who return to school
drop out before graduating. We evaluate a randomized intervention of adult high school students in which
coaches delivered text messages that encouraged persistence. We find that assignment to treatment increased
graduation by 4.9 percentage points, and the effect of message receipt among compliers is 9.3 percentage
points, a 41 percent increase relative to the control mean. The intervention operated on the intensive margin
by increasing the number of courses completed, but did not affect student enrollment. The effects of the
intervention are concentrated among students assigned to experienced coaches, who customized their messages
more extensively. We contextualize the economic impact of the low-cost intervention by comparing labor market
earnings of graduates to non-graduates, which implies an earnings benefit of $149 per treated student over
four years.
Work in Progress
"Firm Behavior to Dual Minimum Wage Policies"
– with Tim Spilde
"Do ILEARN More? Retention, Resources, and Future
Academic Attainment"