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January 24, 2025

The Targeting of Place-Based Policies: The New Markets Tax Credit Versus Opportunity Zones

Abstract For a place-based policy to succeed, it must target the right areas—typically those with lower economic development and resident well-being. The U.S. has two major place-based tax policies: the…

January 8, 2025

Menu Adjustment in Response to the Minimum Wage: A Return to the New Jersey-Pennsylvania Border

Abstract This paper studies how output prices are affected by increases in the minimum wage. To the best of our knowledge, we provide the first examination of how the prices…

December 30, 2024

Coverage, Counter-cyclicality and Targeting of Work Requirement Waivers in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Abstract Non-disabled, working age adults without children are required to work 20 hours per week in order to maintain eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. However, states may waive…

December 4, 2024

Shifting Patterns of Social Interaction: Exploring the Social Life of Urban Spaces Through A.I.

Abstract We analyze changes in pedestrian behavior over a 30-year period in four urban public spaces located in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Building on William Whyte’s observational work from…

December 2, 2024

Why Has Construction Productivity Stagnated? The Role of Land-Use Regulation

Abstract We document a Kuznets curve for construction productivity in 20th-century America. Homes built per construction worker remained stagnant between 1900 and 1940, boomed after World War II, and then…

November 19, 2024

Low-Rise Multifamily and Housing Supply: A Case Study of Seattle

Abstract We provide an in-depth case study of land use reforms in Seattle to highlight how redevelopment of aging single-family housing to townhomes can lead to a significant increase in…

November 7, 2024

Introducing the “More Accurate Consumer Price Index”

Abstract Particularly since the 1990s, federal statistical agencies have worked to improve the ability of various price indexes to measure changes in the cost of living. However, in recent years,…

October 22, 2024

Poverty, Hardship, and Government Transfers

Abstract We examine how the well-being of those with few resources changed, amidst economic disruption and large, transitory government transfers. We find that in the years leading up to the…

August 29, 2024

The Distribution of Social Capital across Individuals and its Relationship to Income

Abstract There have been several attempts to measure social capital—the value inhering in relationships—at an aggregate level, but researchers lack comprehensive individual-level social capital measures. Using a combination of direct…

August 28, 2024

Race, Ethnicity, and Measurement Error

Abstract Large literatures have analyzed racial and ethnic disparities in economic outcomes and access to the safety net. For such analyses that rely on survey data, it is crucial that…