Research

Working Papers

Do microclimates matter?  The health impacts of urban heat using fine-scale data

Under review

Abstract: Urban residents typically experience warmer climates than their suburban counterparts. This excess warmth, known as urban heat, exhibits significant variations across seasons and neighborhoods. In contrast to the literature that predominantly focuses on the health impacts of regional temperature changes, I leverage high-resolution NASA satellite images and local emergency medical service records in Northern California from 2015-2019 to show that temperature variations at the neighborhood level are also critical to health. More importantly, urban heat, a micro-level temperature variation, imposes differential health risks compared to macro-level (regional) temperature shifts, possibly due to easier adaptations to more localized changes. Analyzing the health impacts of urban heat shows a dual effect: it can either be protective by mitigating cold or be harmful by exacerbating heat, depending on the background temperature. A smaller impact of urban heat is observed when it is distributed sparsely across space and in neighborhoods with frequent exposure, which also suggests adaptation. Regarding policies, simulations show that targeting extreme levels of urban heat is more effective than a uniform reduction, and planting trees, especially in less green neighborhoods, can offset half of the damage caused by urban heat.

Publications

“How Did Safety Net Reform Affect the Education of Adolescents from Low-Income Families?" with Jeffrey Grogger and Jacob Bastian

Labour Economics, 2022

Abstract: Roughly 25 years ago, the US safety net was substantially reformed. Here we ask how those reforms affected the educational attainment of youths who were teens at the time those reforms took place. We take a difference-in-difference approach, following adolescents from two generations roughly 20 years apart. In each generation, we compare two groups, one which was more likely to have been affected by safety-net reform, and one which was less likely to have been affected. Under some assumptions, our approach identifies the joint, or bundled, effects of the constituent policy changes that make up safety-net reform. We find evidence that safety-net reform may have reduced educational attainment for women, and had small positive effects on education for men. We offer suggestions as to why our findings differ from those of previous studies of the components of safety net reform.

“How Did Safety-Net Reform Affect Early Adulthood among Adolescents from Low-Income Families?" with Jeffrey Grogger and Jacob Bastian

National Tax Journal, 2021

Abstract: In the 1990s, the US safety net was substantially reformed. We ask how those reforms collectively affected early-career outcomes among youths who were teens when the reforms took effect. We consider employment, safety-net participation, marriage, and childbearing between the ages of 18 and 32. We take a difference-in-difference approach, tracking adolescents from two generations roughly 20 years apart. In each generation, we compare two groups, one of which was more likely to have been affected by safety-net reform than the other. We find evidence that safety-net reform increased women’s labor supply and decreased marriage.

Working in progress