Journal Articles
Opening the Door: Immigrant Legalization and Family Reunification in the United States (with Ethan Lewis). Journal of Labor Economics, forthcoming October 2025 (accepted July 2023). [Latest version, Online appendix]
Teacher Salaries and Racial Inequality in Educational Attainment in the Mid-Century South (with Ethan Lewis). Journal of Labor Economics, 42(S1): S95-S131, April 2024. [Latest version, Online appendix] [Summary in The NBER Digest]
Does Universal Preschool Hit the Target? Program Access and Preschool Impacts. Journal of Human Resources 58(1), 1-42, January 2023. [Pre-publication version] [Coverage in The New York Times (June 2018, Apr. 2020, Nov. 2020, Nov. 2021), The Hechinger Report, Forbes, Quartz, The Economist, VOX]
Who Needs a Fracking Education? The Educational Response to Low-Skill Biased Technological Change (with Ayushi Narayan). ILR Review 75(1), 56-89, January 2022. [Pre-publication version] [Summary in The NBER Digest] [Coverage in The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Salon]
A Century of the American Woman Voter: Sex Gaps in Political Participation, Preferences, and Partisanship Since Women’s Enfranchisement (with Na’ama Shenhav). Journal of Economic Perspectives, 34(2), 24-48, Spring 2020. [Online Appendix] [Coverage in The Atlantic, FiveThirtyEight, AEA Research Highlights Podcast]
Distributing the Green (Cards): Permanent Residency and Personal Income Taxes After the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (with Ethan Lewis). Journal of Public Economics 172, 135-150, April 2019. [Pre-publication version]
First in the Class? Age and the Education Production Function (with Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach). Education Finance and Policy, 11(3), 225-250, Summer 2016. [Pre-publication version] [Coverage in The New Yorker]
The Effectiveness of Policies that Promote Labor Force Participation of Women with Children: A Collection of National Studies (with Steven J. Haider and Helena Skyt Nielsen). Labour Economics, 36: 64-71, October 2015. [IZA Discussion Paper 9297]
The Promises and Pitfalls of Universal Early Education. IZA World of Labor 2015: 116, January 2015. [Coverage in The Guardian, Brookings]
Valuing the Vote: The Redistribution of Voting Rights and State Funds Following the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (with Ebonya Washington). The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(1), 376-433, February 2014. [Pre-publication version] [Online appendix] [Summary in The NBER Digest] [Coverage in The Atlantic, Salon, Vox]
The Impacts of Expanding Access to High-Quality Preschool Education (with Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach). Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall 2013, 127-178. [Online appendix] [Coverage in Reuters]
Local Responses to Federal Grants: Evidence from the Introduction of Title I in the South (with Nora Gordon and Sarah Reber). American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 5(3), 126-159, August 2013. [Pre-publication version] [Online appendix]
The Poverty Gap in School Spending Following the Introduction of Title I (with Sarah Reber). American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings, 103(3), 423-427, May 2013. [Pre-publication version]
Cracks in the Melting Pot: Immigration, School Choice, and Segregation (with Ethan Lewis). American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 4(3), 91-117, August 2012. [Pre-publication version] [Online appendix]
Is Being in School Better? The Impact of School on Children’s BMI When Starting Age is Endogenous (with Patricia Anderson, Kristin Butcher, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach). Journal of Health Economics, 30(5), 977-986, September 2011.
Paying for Progress: Conditional Grants and the Desegregation of Southern Schools (with Nora Gordon, Ethan Lewis, and Sarah Reber). The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125(1), 445-482, February 2010. [Pre-publication version] [Online appendix]
Maternal Labor Supply and the Introduction of Kindergartens into American Public Schools. The Journal of Human Resources, 44(1), 140-170, Winter 2009. [Pre-publication version] [Coverage in Reuters]
From Brown to Busing (with Nora Gordon, Ethan Lewis and Sarah Reber). Journal of Urban Economics, 64(2), 296-325, September 2008.
Education and the Age Profile of Literacy into Adulthood (with Damon Clark and Nora Gordon). Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(3), 47-70, Summer 2008. [Summary in FRBSF Economic Letter 2008-22]
Schooling and the Armed Forces Qualifying Test: Evidence from School-Entry Laws (with Ethan Lewis). The Journal of Human Resources, 41(2), 294-318, Spring 2006. [Pre-publication version]
Articles in Edited Volumes
Early Childhood Education in the United States: What, When, Where, Who, How, and Why. Chapter 2 in Routledge Handbook of the Economics of Education, ed. Brian McCall. London and New York: Routledge, 30-72, December 2021. [Draft available as NBER Working Paper 28722, April 2021.] [Coverage in VOX.]
Public Investments in Child Care. In The 51%: Driving Growth through Women’s Economic Participation, eds. Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach and Ryan Nunn. Washington, D.C.: The Hamilton Project, 123-142, October 2017. [Featured in this Oct. 2019 Hamilton Project Strategy Paper.]
Expanding Preschool Access for Disadvantaged Children (with Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach). Proposal 1 in Policies to Address Poverty in America, eds. Melissa S. Kearney and Benjamin H. Harris. Washington, D.C.: The Hamilton Project, 19-28, June 2014.
The K-12 Education Battle (with Sarah Reber). Chapter 3 in Legacies of the War on Poverty, eds. Martha Bailey and Sheldon Danziger. New York: Russell Sage, 66-92, July 2013. [Coverage in The Atlantic]