Research

Current Working Papers

“Technological Disruption in the U.S. Labor Market” (with Chris Ong and Larry Summers)

“The ABCs of Working with AI: Ability, Beliefs, and Calibration” (with Andrew Caplin, Shangwen Li, Daniel Martin, Philip Marx, Ben Weidmann, and Kadachi Ye), under review.

“The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI” (with Alex Bick and Adam Blandin)

“Skills and Human Capital in the Labor Market” (with Mikko Silliman"), in preparation for the Handbook of Labor Economics.

“How Do You Find a Good Manager?” (with Ben Weidmann, Joseph Vecci, Farah Said, and Sonia Bhalotra), Quarterly Journal of Economics, revise and resubmit.

“Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges” (with Raj Chetty and John Friedman), Quarterly Journal of Economics, revise and resubmit.

“Economic Decision-Making Skill Predicts Income in Two Countries” (with Andrew Caplin, Soren-Leth Petersen, and Ben Weidmann), under review.

“Why Do Wages Grow Faster for Educated Workers?”, Journal of Labor Economics, conditionally accepted.

“The Growing Importance of Decision-Making on the Job”


Published Papers by Topic

Skills, Technology and Human Capital

“Multidimensional Human Capital and the Wage Structure”, in preparation for the Handbook of the Economics of Education.

“Four Facts about Human Capital”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 36(3): 75-102.

“Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Team Performance” (with Ben Weidmann), Econometrica, 89(6): 2637-2657.

“Earnings Dynamics, Changing Job Skills, and STEM Careers” (with Kadeem Noray), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 135(4): 1965-2005.

“Structural Increases in Skill Demand after the Great Recession” (with Peter Blair), AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110: 362-365.

“Toward understanding the impact of artificial intelligence on labor” (with Morgan Frank, David Autor, James Bessen, Erik Brynjolfsson, Manuel Cebrian, Maryann Feldman, Matthew Groh, Jose Lobo, Esteban Moro, Dashun Wang, Hyejin Youn, and Iyad Rahwan), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201900949.

“Skill Requirements across Firms and Labor Markets: Evidence from Job Postings for Professionals” (with Lisa Kahn), Journal of Labor Economics, 36.S1: S337-S369.

“The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 132(4): 1593-1640.

Higher Education

“The Economics of Free College”, Economists for Inclusive Prosperity, Policy Brief.

“The Impacts of State Budget Cuts on U.S. Postsecondary Attainment” (with Chris Walters), Journal of Human Resources, revise and resubmit.

“The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study” (with Noam Yuchtman, Amira Abulafi, Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz), American Economic Review, 106(3): 778-806.

“Accountability in U.S. Higher Education: Applying Lessons from K-12 Experience to Higher Education” (with David Figlio), Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(3): 33-56.

“The Competitive Effects of Online Education”, (with Mike Lovenheim and Rich Patterson), forthcoming in Productivity in Higher Education (Caroline Hoxby and Kevin Stange, eds.) Also published as NBER Working Paper No. 22749.

“Can Online Learning Bend the Higher Education Cost Curve?” (with Claudia Goldin, Lawrence Katz, and Noam Yuchtman), AEA Papers & Proceedings, 105(5): 496-501.

“For-Profit Colleges” (with Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz). The Future of Children, 23(1): 137-163.

“The For-Profit Postsecondary Education Sector: Nimble Critters or Agile Predators?” (with Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz), Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(1): 139-164.

“Into College, Out of Poverty? Policies to Increase the Postsecondary Attainment of the Poor” (with Susan Dynarski), in Targeting Investments in Children: Fighting Poverty When Resources Are Limited, Philip Levine and David Zimmerman (eds.), University of Chicago Press.

Long-Run Impacts of Early and K-12 Schooling

“The School to Prison Pipeline: Long-Run Impacts of School Suspensions on Adult Crime” (with Andrew Bacher-Hicks and Steve Billings), AEJ: Policy, forthcoming..

“Partners in Crime” (with Steve Billings and Steve Ross), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(1): 126-150.

“School Accountability, Postsecondary Attainment, and Earnings” (with Sarah Cohodes, Jennifer Jennings and Sandy Jencks), Review of Economics and Statistics, 98(5): 848-862.

“Do Differences in School Quality Matter More Than We Thought? New Evidence on Educational Opportunity in the 21st Century” (with Jennifer Jennings, Sandy Jencks, Maya Lopuch and Beth Schueler), Sociology of Education, 88(1): 56-82.

“School Choice, School Quality and Postsecondary Attainment” (with Justine Hastings, Tom Kane, and Doug Staiger) American Economic Review, 104(3): 991-1014.

“School Segregation, Educational Attainment, and Crime: Evidence from the End of Busing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg” (with Steve Billings and Jonah Rockoff), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(1): 435-476.

“Better Schools, Less Crime?” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(4): 2063-2115.

“Early Childhood Intervention and Life-Cycle Skill Development: Evidence from Head Start” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(3): 111-134.

Other Topics

“A Young Person’s Guide to Lawrence F. Katz” (with David Autor), Palgrave Companion to Harvard Economics.

“Education and Innovation” (with Barbara Biasi and Petra Moser), NBER Working Paper No. 28544, March.

“Providing Performance Information in Education: An Experimental Evaluation in Colombia” (with Felipe Barrera-Osorio, Kathryn Gonzalez and Francisco Lagos), Journal of Public Economics, 186: 104185.

“Can States Take Over and Turn Around School Districts? Evidence from Lawrence, Massachusetts" (with Beth Schueler and Josh Goodman), Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39(2): 311-332.

“Using School Choice Lotteries to Test Measures of School Effectiveness”, AEA Papers & Proceedings, 104(5): 406-411.

“The Lengthening of Childhood” (with Susan Dynarski), Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(3): 71-92.