Research

This paper evaluates the effects of universal free school meals (UFM) on the distribution of student achievement. Exploiting the timing of a pandemic-era USDA policy and data from Florida, I estimate UFM's effects on reading and math achievement and chronic absenteeism. Consistent with recent work, I find no evidence of improvements in overall student performance; however, this result masks heterogeneity across the distribution of student achievement. Specifically, I find that UFM significantly reduces the proportion of students performing at both the lowest (inadequacy) and highest (mastery) levels. I argue that these adverse effects among top performers are consistent with peer and class size effects induced by increased attendance of lower-achieving students.

Many educational and professional outcomes depend on performance evaluations. These evaluations might be in the form of admission or hiring decisions, or selection of an award or scholarship/grant, or even loan applications. We aim to identify and explore accuracy in performance evaluations using data from an incentivized peer grading assignment in a large introductory economics course. Through our experimental design, we are able to randomize the quality, perceived identity, and order of a series of assignments to be graded. We find strong evidence of sequential biases: assignments graded first and those graded after a particularly strong assignment tend to receive lower scores. Our findings are consistent with a contrast effect model in which evaluators enter the experiment with overly-optimistic beliefs of student performance. We simulate sequential biases in a structural model and propose policy interventions to limit these biases.

This paper studies changes in contraceptive behavior and fertility decisions following the Dobbs decision. Using Merative MarketScan data and state variation in post-Dobbs abortion bans, we estimate event-study and difference-in-differences models to evaluate changes in short-acting and long-acting contraceptive use, sterilization procedures (including spousal vasectomies), and conceptions.

We observe substantial heterogeneity by age and potential fertility preferences. In states that restricted abortion access, younger women (15–24) increase use of long-acting contraceptives and are less likely to conceive a pregnancy. Among women over age 24, we document a large increase in sterilization procedures within 6 months of Dobbs but no change in pregnancy rates. Interestingly, married perimenopausal women reduce their net contraceptive use and experience an increase in conception, while the opposite is true for pre-perimenopausal women.

To explain these patterns, we develop a model of contraceptive choice in which individuals weigh pregnancy risks, evolving fertility preferences, and access to abortion as a form of insurance against complicated and/or unwanted pregnancies. The model suggests that, for most women, abortion access and contraception function (weakly) as economic substitutes, and that reduced abortion access may lead to increased use of more effective contraceptive methods as well as shifts in the timing of fertility. These implications align with observed empirical patterns, particularly the increased conception rates among older women.

These results have implications for women's labor market outcomes, pharmaceutical policy, and the broader understanding of reproductive decision-making.