Research

Publications

Working Papers

Theoretical foundations of the minimum wage and post-secondary investment
- - Building on canonical models of human capital investment, this paper explores the potential of the minimum wage to impact college enrollment decisions by shifting both the wage premium and the opportunity cost associated with post-secondary investment. Whereas existing literature presents conflicting evidence on enrollment responses across two- and four-year institutions, I present a unifying framework with which to make sense of these effects. Using national post-secondary enrollment data from IPEDS and wage data from the CPS, I show that the extent to which these parameters are shifted by a changing minimum wage is a function of prevailing wage distributions in the year before a minimum wage change occurs and, specifically, who is bound by the new minimum wage. Guided by my theoretical framework, I use variation in state-level minimum wage changes to size the determinants of enrollment responses to individual changes across years and states. I show that states in which higher shares of high school graduates are bound by the minimum wage are those most likely to experience large enrollment declines at community colleges in response to an increasing minimum wage. Finally, I use my framework to consolidate conflicting estimates from the existing literature.
  - Presented at: IZA Summer School (Berlin, July 2023)

Works in Progress

Accessible Higher Education and Outside Options with Carl Gergs
- What impact do outside option values have on higher education enrollment decisions? We explore this important question using the case study of Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Germany (comparable to US community colleges). To this end, we exploit the fact that wages paid during apprenticeships, the immediate outside option to UAS degrees, are a by-product of collective bargaining negotiations at the sector-industry level and thus quasi-exogenous with respect to UAS enrollment in a given region and subject area. Mapping sectors to UAS degrees, we then leverage variation in sectoral apprenticeship wage floors to measure individual’s sensitivity to changes in the opportunity cost of UAS enrollment.
Bachelor's Degrees at Community Colleges: An Interview Study of Student Decision-Making
Long-run Impacts of CCBA Introduction and Expansion: Evidence from Washington State
Understanding Student Debt Relief: Insights from SAVE
Universal PreK and Local Labor Markets with Kirabo Jackson and Jacob Bastian
Estimating the Value of a New Postsecondary Credential: An Audit Study of Community College Bachelor’s Degrees with Riley Acton, Kalena Cortes, Lois Miller, and Camila Morales

Policy Writing