Working Papers
Ongoing and draft research in higher education economics, labor economics, and industrial organization. Papers are occassionally updated. Presentations and earlier drafts available on request. Full profile on Google Scholar.
Higher Education
Do Fixed Tuition Guarantees Retain Students? Evidence from a GPA-based Aid Policy
Examines whether tuition guarantee programs — which lock in net price contingent on achieving a certain GPA threshold in a 4 year private school improve student retention relative to standard aid. Uses institutional student-level institutional data to identify the positive effect on outcomes and whether it persists before identifying potential channels.
Measuring What Matters: A Program’s Financial Health
Develops a framework for evaluating the financial sustainability of academic programs using gross revenue, net revenue, financial aid, instructional costs, and administrative cost structure. Establishes a framework so that IR and Finance professionals in institutions can evaluate individual academic programs and what the data actually suggests about viability. Offers additional synthetic data from hypothetical colleges to practice.
Economics
Free School Meals: Evaluating the Impact of the Community Eligibility Provision on Academic Outcomes
Estimates the causal effect of universal free school lunch programs on student academic outcomes using variation in policy adoption across schools and school districs. Employs a regression discontinuity design to identify program effects on math and language test scores.
Expanding Access to School Lunches: Do Low-Poverty Schools Benefit?
Examines the effects of expanding school lunch program access to low-poverty schools, where students are less likely to qualify under traditional means-tested criteria or the original CEP cutoff of at 40%. Estimates whether near-universal eligibility changes student outcomes in schools where food insecurity is less prevalent, and considers the benefits of broad access to free school meals programs.
Microsoft vs EU: Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Unusual Behavioral Remedy
Assesses the competitive effects of the European Commission’s behavioral remedy imposed on Microsoft, which mandated interoperability disclosures and “ballot box” choices rather than structural divestiture after identifying monopolistic behavior in the internet browser market. Examines whether the remedy had any impacts in restoring competition in the affected markets vs. non-affected markets.
Flying Disrupted: How the Boeing 737 Max Crisis Affected Supply and Routes in the US
Analyzes how the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max affected airline route availability, capacity constraints, and consumer outcomes in US domestic markets. Uses flight-level data to identify supply-side disruptions and their downstream effects on prices and route coverage.
SSRN profile coming soon. Papers will be hosted on SSRN with full abstracts, version history, and PDF downloads. In the meantime, drafts are available on request.
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