Working Papers

Strategic Differentiation in Public Education (New draft coming soon)

This paper studies how public schools compete for students across demand-relevant attributes and what this implies for the learning gains from competition. Using a school choice reform and student records from North Carolina, I show that schools respond along two margins: academic quality and classroom formation. The pattern of responses suggests horizontal differentiation in within-school segregation, which weakens incentives for direct academic improvement. I develop and estimate an equilibrium model of school choice and competition that embeds both margins in household demand and school supply. I use the model to evaluate which policy bundles best channel competitive pressure toward learning.

Racial Screening on the Big Screen? Evidence from the Motion Picture Industry (New draft July 2026)

Joint with M. Daniele Paserman and Liang Zhong

In many contexts, a decision-maker must screen applicants using only imperfect information about their quality. The decision-maker may use information about the applicant’s race or gender to guide their decision, resulting in discrimination. Using data on the group differences in the output of applicants that pass the screening process, is assessing the extent and nature of discrimination possible? In this paper, we tackle this question in the context of the motion picture industry. Using human raters supplemented by a machine learning algorithm, we construct a new dataset with racial identifiers of the cast of more than 7,000 motion pictures released in the US between 1997 and 2017. We use this dataset to test the predictions of a model of discrimination. Empirically, we document the following facts: (a) Average box-office revenue of non-white movies is substantially higher than white movies; (b) this difference is driven primarily by the left tail of the distribution, suggesting non-white movies with low box-office potential are never produced; and (c) relative to white movies, non-white movies substantially overperform relative to expectations. The pattern of results cannot be rationalized by customer discrimination or by a model of statistical discrimination where the signal embodied in non-white movies is less precise. Instead, the findings are consistent with our theoretical model if producers hold non-white movies to a higher standard or if they systematically underestimate the revenue potential of non-white movies.

Peer Effects in College Applications (New draft coming soon)

Joint with Katarína Borovičková and Anusha Nath

We study classroom peer effects in college applications. We use novel, rich student-level administrative data from a large school district in Minnesota alongside an instrumental variable approach to deal with endogenous classroom formation. We find that students whose peers apply to better colleges apply themselves to better colleges. The effect is statistically and economically significant. Peer influence is strongest among high-achieving students and operates within achievement groups.

 

Publications

The Segregative Effects of Charter Schools (2026). American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 18(2): 242-274.

Some Unpleasant Consequences of Testing at Length Joint with Giorgio Brunello and Lorenzo Rocco (2021). Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 83(4): 1002-1023.

The Effect of Job Loss on Pharmaceutical Prescriptions Joint with Lorenzo Rocco, Lorenzo Simonato and Laura Cestari, Social Science and Medicine 217: 73-83.

 

Work in Progress

The Spillover Impacts of Charter Schools Joint with John D. Singleton

Labor Market Consequences of Grade Leniency in Higher Ed Joint with Pierre Bodéré and Emilio Borghesan

 

Book Chapters

In: Axel Börsch-Supan, Johanna Bristle, Karen Andersen-Ranberg, Agar Brugiavini, Florence Jusot, Howard Litwin, and Guglielmo Weber (Eds.), Health and socio-economic status over the life course: First results from SHARE Waves 6 and 7. 2019. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.

End-of-Working-Life Gender Wage Gap: The Role of Health Shocks, Parental Education and Personality Traits, with Marco Bertoni, Andrea Bonfatti, Martina Celidoni and Chiara Dal Bianco. 

Life Expectancy and Health Investments, with Marco Bertoni, Andrea Bonfatti, Martina Celidoni and Chiara Dal Bianco. 

Personality Traits and Financial Behaviour, with Marco Bertoni, Andrea Bonfatti, Martina Celidoni and Chiara Dal Bianco. 

 

Resting Papers

State Aid and Employment in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Joint with Brendan Yap

We use novel high frequency employment data to study the effect of federal transfers toward states on states’ employment over the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that $150 of state aid per person decrease employment by 23.4 jobs per 1000 people. The drop is concentrated in the private sector and driven by non-Democratic states. Our findings are consistent with large-aid states deterring job search, especially among the longstanding unemployed, as well as vacancy creation.