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Short-Run Economic Effects of Michigan\u27s State-Funded Preschool Programs
Full text linkThis policy paper estimates the short-run economic effects of the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Michigan’s state-funded preschool program for 4-year-olds. The paper considers 15year effects on state residents’ per capita incomes due to impacts on employment rates and real wages, as well as cost-savings from free preschool and fiscal benefits due to tax base expansion. These 15-year effects ignore the program’s outcomes for child participants and focus on how the Michigan economy is affected by GSRP’s direct impacts on parents and preschool teachers. The estimates use a regional econometric model of a state’s economy, developed originally to evaluate economic development programs. Based on simulations of this model, GSRP has short-run economic effects that are 1.72 times program costs. Most of these benefits are due to increases in state residents’ earnings, due to higher employment rates and wages. However, fiscal benefits for state and local governments offset 17 percent of GSRP’s program costs. Most short-run economic effects for Michigan residents are attributable to GSRP making it easier for parents to work more hours
Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages? Causal Evidence from Nonparametric Bounds
No full textCausal Effects of Schooling on Memory at Older Ages in Six Low-and-Middle Income Countries: Nonparametric Evidence with Harmonized Datasets
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Coercion and Monopsony in Modern American Manufacturing: Evidence from Alabama Prison Labor
No full textWhat Explains the Twin Gender Gaps in Higher Education? The Role of Outside Options
No full textTwo gender gaps have appeared in higher education. First, women are more likely to enroll in college, a trend that is increasing (Goldin et al.; 2006). Second, among college graduates, women have worse financial outcomes post-college; they have higher student loan balances and lower wages (Sloane et al.; 2021; Addo and Kent; 2022; Chen and Smith; 2023). We term these phenomena the twin gender gaps in higher education.
In this project, we ask: What role do non-college (high school degree) labor markets play in driving the twin gender gaps? We propose to (i) use large-scale California data to confirm and explore these patterns, (ii) estimate the causal effect of improved outside options on the gender-college-debt-wage relationship, using exogenous variation in the exposure to the recent construction and fracking booms, and (iii) develop a structural model to decompose the relative importance of differences across outside options, skills, preferences, and labor market discrimination, and (iv) assess the welfare impacts of policies like student loan forgiveness, Pell Grant expansion, and income-based repayment