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Research

Peer-Reviewed Publications (with hyperlinks)

 

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  • "Do Tuition Subsidies Raise Political Participation?" (with Igor Geyn), Forthcoming at The American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, November 2025. [Working Paper]

    • Summary: Tuition-free college and the Pell Grant boost recipients’ voter turnout rates, highlighting the large civic returns to education subsidies.

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  • "The Impact of Post-Admission Merit Scholarships on Enrollment Decisions and Degree Attainment: Evidence from Randomization" (Sole Author), The Economics of Education Review Vol. 84, 102221, February 2022.

    • Summary: Merit scholarships effectively recruit disadvantaged students, but reduce graduation rates for others by reducing the quality of campuses they attend, suggesting merit aid is more effective when means-tested.

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Special Issues and Invited Submissions

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Working Papers

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​​"Education and Partisanship"

(Sole Author) [SOCAE 2022 Best Paper Award] [Working Paper]

Previously circulated as: "The Effect of Selective Colleges on Student Partisanship"

Media Coverage: The Boston Globe, Marginal Revolution

Abstract: Education weakens the historical link between income and partisanship across democracies, challenging classical models of political economy. Using administrative data on millions of voters exposed to discontinuities in compulsory schooling laws and college admissions in Florida and California, I show that high schools and selective colleges reduce Republican Party affiliation by 2 percentage points per year of attainment, raising independent and Democratic registration. Effects generalize across generations (1969 to present), settings, demographics, and institutions. Peer socialization and career paths emerge as key mechanisms, while instructor-driven political influence is unlikely to explain these results.​​

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"Nonresident Tuition and Human Capital Flows: Evidence from a Lottery"

Revise and Resubmit at The American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

(Sole Author)​ [Working Paper]

Abstract: I use a pre-analysis plan and a computer-randomized lottery at a major American university to estimate the longer-run causal effects of nonresident tuition on the relocation of high-skill workers. Waiving nonresident tuition increases eventual migration by targeted students to the same state 12 years later, attracting workers with pre-specified innovation and executive skills. Every 10,000 dollars of tuition relief offered to nonresident students costs the institution 800 dollars in the short-run, but raises the net present value of longer-run estimated earnings from targeted students by 25,300 dollars within the local labor market. Migration effects are roughly as large as enrollment effects, reflecting increased retention of students who would have enrolled regardless. As a result, both the positive and negative long-run spillovers of nonresident tuition policies to locals are likely an order of magnitude larger than what would be inferred by assuming that only a fixed share of enrollees remain in-state.​​

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Works in Progress​

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"Partisan Costs of Unfulfilled Student Loan Forgiveness" (with Michael Patrick Span)​

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"From Training to Employment: A Multi-Inquiry Study of Noncredit Workforce Training Programs" (with Di Xu, Benjamin Castleman, Catherine Finnegan, Betsy Tessler, Kelli Bird, and Sabrina Solanki)​

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"Rational Inattention and the Size of Government" (with Quinten Carney)​

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