Research

Work in progress

"Student demand and the supply of college courses" (Job Market Paper) [coming soon]

Universities today face criticism for being resistant to change, raising concerns about their adaptability in an era of rapid technological advancements. In this study, I create a unique dataset sourced from course catalogs of over 450 US universities spanning two decades (2000-2022). My findings reveal marked inertia in course supply, both in terms of quantity and content. This inertia is especially pronounced in fields experiencing declining demand, and is more pronounced at public universities and those with a higher prevalence of tenured faculty. Using Natural Language Processing, I further show that while the content of existing courses remains largely unchanged after a course is created, newly-created courses gradually incorporate topics related to current events and job skills into the curriculum. Notably, selective institutions focus on broader societal issues, whereas less selective institutions emphasize job-relevant skills. Overall, my results highlight the influence of supply-side factors on universities' adaptability to the rapidly evolving technological landscape.

"Anatomy of labor market distress" (with Eric Hanushek, Simon Jansenn, and Lisa Simon)

Earnings losses after mass layoffs are highly skewed: a small number of workers experience catastrophic losses, while most workers recover quickly. This paper documents the heterogeneity in earnings losses after mass layoffs and the adjustments driving these differences. We study workers from firms in West Germany that closed between 2000-2005. For each laid-off worker, we create a synthetic control from similar workers with matching earnings trajectories who weren't laid off during that period. Which workers experience the greatest losses is not a priori predictable based on fixed characteristics, but is associated with post-layoff adaptability, like switching professions or relocating. Consequently, pre-layoff targeted policies to assist these workers might not be as effective as post-layoff interventions. 

"The importance of non-major courses in predicting college students' post-graduation outcomes" (with Merrill Warnick)

"Instructor value-added in higher education" (with Merrill Warnick)

Published and forthcoming work

"Long-run Trends in the U.S. SES—Achievement Gap" (with Eric Hanushek, Paul Peterson, Laura Talpey, and Ludger Woessmann), Fall 2022 Education Finance and Policy 

Other

"The Research Challenges of the AI Labor Market Challenges" (with Eric Hanushek and Lisa Simon)