CMEPR organizes the Micro-Economic Policy Seminar (MEPS)
Past Seminars
Fall 2023:
August 22nd: Robert Moffitt (JHU Econ) – Is This Time Different? The Safety Net Response to the Pandemic Recession
August 29th: Marian Moszoro (IMF) – Can Policies Increase Voter Turnout?
September 5th: Sandra Rozo (World Bank) – Housing Subsidies, Refugee’s Well-Being, and Social Cohesion in Jordan
September 12th: Jordan Neyland (GMU Law School) – Do Investors Value Privacy? Revealed Preferences from Lottery Sales
September 19th: Thomas Dominguez-Lino (Fed) – Efficiency and Redistribution in Environmental Policy: An Equilibrium Analysis of Agricultural Supply Chains
September 26th: Claire Brunel (AU) – Climate Change and Green Innovation: Beyond Policy?
October 3rd: Martin Karlsson (Duisberg-Essen) – Alive and Kicking? Short-Term Health Effects of a Physician Strike in Germany
October 10th: Dave Marcotte (AU) – Baby Bump? Birth Month, Family Income, and Early Childhood Development
October 17th: Ethan Kaplan (UMD) – Peer Effects on Partisanship, Registration, and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Roommate Assignments
October 24th: Yunan Ji (Georgetown) – The Dynamic Effects of Health Care Price Reform
October 31st: Vitaly Novik (GWU) – The Effect of Parental Resources on College Major Choice
November 7th: Tara Watson (Williams/Brookings) – The Impact of Expanding Public Health Insurance on Safety Net Program Participation: Evidence from the ACA Medicaid Expansion
November 14th: Ryan Kim (SAIS @ JHU) – India Demonetization and Firm Exports
November 21st: John Giles (World Bank) – Private Provisioning of Employment Intermediation: Experimental Evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina
November 28th: John Cawley (Cornell) – The Role of Repugnance in Markets: The Disclosure of Information about Jared Fogel and its Impact on Subway
December 5th: Student Presentations
Narae Lee (GMU) – The Effectiveness of Hiring Credits for Vulnerable Workers in Developing Economy: The Case of First Job Act in Colombia
Dinh Nguyen (GMU) – How does business regulation affect firms? Evidence from Vietnam
Spring 2023:
January 24: Carlos Hurtado (University of Richmond) “Supply and Demand Responses to Tax Kinks in Housing Consumption: Evidence from Iran”
January 31: Samuel Young (Census Bureau/Arizona State University) “Unionization, Employer Opposition, and Establishment Choice”
February 7: Jishnu Das (Georgetown McCourt School) “Randomized Regulation: The Impact of Minimum Quality Standards on Health Markets”
February 14: Michael Clemens (George Mason University) “The Effect of Low-Skill Immigration Restrictions on U.S. Firms and Workers: Evidence from a Randomized Lottery”
February 21: Samuel Asher (Imperial College London Business School) “The Long-Run Development Impacts of Agricultural Productivity Gains: Evidence from Irrigation Canals in India”
February 28: Pierre Bachas (World Bank Development Group) “Globalization and Factor Income Taxation”
March 7: Ethan Kaplan (University of Maryland) “Peer Effects on Partisanship, Registration, and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Roommate Assignments”
March 14: Spring Break
March 21: Krista Ruffini (Georgetown McCourt School) “Minimum Wages and Employment Composition”
March 28: Yuriy Gorodnichenko (University of California, Berkeley) “The Effects of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Firm Decisions”
April 4: Max Steinhardt (Free University of Berlin) “Social Contact and Labor Market Discrimination in Denmark”
April 11: Claire Brunel (American University) “Pollution Offshoring and Global Supply Chains”
April 18: Elira Kuka (George Washington University) “Spillover Effects of Welfare Programs”
April 25: John Cawley (Cornell University) “The Effects of Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in the U.S.”
May 2: Nuno Garoupa (George Mason University) “Populism, Judicial Independence, and Public Trust in the Courts”
Fall 2022:
August 30th: Catherine Maclean (GMU Schar School) “Evictions and Psychiatric Treatment”
September 6th: Daniel Houser (GMU Econ) “Social Norm Obedience is the Primary Source of the Gender Competitiveness Gap”
September 13th: Jeah Jung (GMU Health) “Is Medicare Advantage More Efficient than Traditional Medicare?”
September 20th: Xiang Ding (Georgetown) “Industry Linkages from Joint Production”
September 27th: Scott Gehlbach (Chicago Political Science and Harris School) “Diversity and Contagion in Conflict: Evidence from Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Late Imperial Russia”
October 4th: Sabrina Pabilonia (Bureau of Labor Statistics) “Who is Doing the Chores and Childcare in Dual-earner Couples during the COVID-19 Era of Working from Home?”
October 11th: Martha Stinson (Census) “Who is Served by the Tip Credit? Effects of Minimum Wage Laws on Tipping, Employment, and Prices at Restaurants”
October 18th: Chris Ruhm (UVA) “Marijuana Legalization and Opioid Deaths”
October 25th: Alessandra Fenizia (GWU) “Organized Crime and Economic Growth: Evidence from Municipalities Infiltrated by the Mafia”
November 1st: Nuno Limao (UMD) “An Import(ant) Price of Brexit”
November 8th: Justin Pierce (Fed Board) “Disentangling the Effects of the 2018-2019 Tariffs on a Globally Connected U.S. Manufacturing Sector”
November 15th: Stephie Friend (SF Fed) “Riding the waves. Inequality and adaptation to extreme temperatures in changing climate”
November 22nd: Thanksgiving Break
November 29th: Judith Hellerstein (UMD)
December 6th: Moises Yi (Census) “Location, Location, Location”
Spring 2022:
February 15: Hyojung Lee (VA Tech), “The Geography of Gentrification and Residential Mobility” (with Kristin Perkins)
February 22: Naoru Koizumi (GMU), “Analysis of Transnational Kidney Sales Networks via Web scraping”
March 1: Carlos Scartiscini (IADB), “Trust: The Key to Social Cohesion and Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
March 8: Kerem Cosar (UVA) “Rise and Fall of Empires in the Industrial Era: A Story of Shifting Comparative Advantages”
March 15: Spring Break – No MEPS
March 22: Bruno Pellegrino (UMD), “A Tale of Two Networks: Common Ownership and Product Market Rivalry”
March 29: Christina Tello-Trillo (Census) “Trade Liberalization and Labor-Market Outcomes: Evidence from US Matched Employer-Employee Data” with Peter Schott and Justin Pierce.
April 5: Kelly Jones (American University) “Economic Shocks, Inequality, and Unintended Births.”
April 12: Andy Zeitlin (Georgetown) “The collective action mechanism in community-based monitoring of schools”, with Abigail Barr, Pieter Serneels, and Frederick Mugisha.
April 19: Molly Lipscomb (UVA) “Privatization of Public Goods: Evidence from the Sanitation Sector in Senegal”
April 26: Noel Johnson (GMU), “Pandemics and Cities: Evidence from the Black Death”
May 26: Rabah Arezki (African Development Bank), “The Political Costs of Oil Price Shocks“
Fall 2021:
August 31st – Ginger Zhe Jin (UCMP Econ) “Platform as Rule Maker: Evidence for Airbnb’s Cancellation Policies”
September 7th – Maurice Kugler (GMU Schar School), “U.S. Robots and their Impacts in the Tropics: Evidence from Colombian Labor Markets”
September 14th – James Habyarimana (Georgetown), “Teacher Performance-Based Incentives and Learning Inequality”
September 21st – Christina Tello Trillo (Census), “Trade Liberalization and Labor-Market Outcomes: Evidence from US Matched Employer-Employee Data”
September 28th – John McLaren (UVA Econ) “Foreign Direct Investment, Global Value Chains, and Labor Rights.”
October 5th – Anh Pham (GMU Schar School) “Recentralization in Vietnam”
October 12th – Isaac Mbiti (UVA Public Policy)
October 19th – Omari Swinton (Howard), “A Comparative Analysis: Examining Black SAT test takers desire to become a STEM Major and the effects of HBCU attendance on Graduation”
October 26th – Priyanka Anand (GMU Health Policy) “Peer Effects of Teen Pregnancy on Sexual Behavior” (co-authored with Lisa Kahn)
November 2nd – Pascual Restrepo (Boston)
November 9th – Maggie Chen (George Washington)
November 16th – Remi Jedwab (George Washington)
November 23rd – Thanksgiving Break, no MEPS
November 30th – Weija Rao (GMU Law) “(Un)Stable BITs”
December 2nd – Gustavo Bobonis (University of Toronto)
Spring 2021 Seminars:
January 26th: Lisa D. Cook (Michigan State University) “Violence and Economic Activity: Evidence from the Past and Lessons from the Present”
February 2nd: Peter Bergman (Columbia University, Teachers College) “Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice”
February 9th: Indraneel Chakraborty (Miami) “Returns to Community Lending”
February 16th [Held at 2:00pm EST] : Trevon Logan (Ohio State University) “Competition and Discrimination in Public Accommodations: Evidence from the Green Books”
February 23rd: Lei Ding (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) “Effects of Gentrification on Homeowners: Evidence from a Natural Experiment”
March 2nd: Melissa Kearney (University of Maryland) “Disability Insurance in the Great Recession: Ease of Access, Program Enrollment, and Local Hysteresis”
March 9th: Suresh Naidu (Columbia University) “Labor Market Power and Dignity at America’s Largest Employer”
March 16th: Jim Alm (Tulane University) “Opportunity Zones and Local Economic Development”
March 23rd: Oyebola M. Okunogbe (World Bank) “Does Exposure to Other Ethnic Regions Promote National Integration? Evidence from Nigeria”
March 30th: Nada Eissa (Georgetown, McCourt School) “Technology, Audit Risk and Tax Evasion: Evidence from An Experiment in Rwanda”
April 6th: Adam Leive (University of Virginia) “Overpaying and Undersaving: Correlated Mistakes in Retirement Saving and Health Insurance Choices”
April 13th: Jonathan Schulz (George Mason University) “Recombination Potential and Innovation”
April 20th: David Deming (Harvard, Kennedy School) “The Growing Importance of Decision-Making on the Job”
April 27th: Juliana Londono (University of California, Los Angeles) “The Impact of Diversity on Distributive Perceptions and Preferences for Redistribution”
Fall 2020 MEPS Seminars:
August 25: Diego Vera-Cossio (Inter-American Development Bank) “Insurance and Propagation in Village Networks.”
September 1: Manuel Alejandro Estefan Davila (University of Notre Dame – Keough School of Global Affairs) “Taxing Property in Developing Countries: Theory and Evidence from Mexico”
September 8: Chris Blattman (University of Chicago) “Gang Rule: Understanding and Countering Criminal Governance”
September 15: Jonathan Beauchamp (George Mason University, Economics) “Nature and Nurture: Evidence from Molecular Genetics Data in Adoptees”
September 22: Chris Woodruff (University of Oxford – Department of International Development) “Information and Bargaining through Agents: Experimental Evidence from Mexico’s Labor Courts”
September 29: David Newhouse (World Bank) “Small Area Estimation of non-Monetary Poverty with Geospatial Data”
October 6: Mark Koyama (George Mason University, Economics) “Shipwrecked by Rents”
October 13: Monica Singhal (UC Davis, Economics) “In-Kind Transfers as Insurance”
October 20: Luis Baldomero (William & Mary) “How Infrastructure Shapes Comparative Advantage”
October 27: Jennifer Poole (American University) “Connect and Protect: The Role of Trade, Technology, and Labor Policies on Informality”
November 3: Election Day
November 10: Henry Hyatt (U.S. Census) “Job Ladders and Growth in Earnings, Hours, and Wages”
November 17: Natalie Bachas (Princeton University) “Market Power in Small Business Lending”
November 24: Lakshmi Iyer (University of Notre Dame) “Gender Quotas and Crimes Against Women: Evidence from India and Indonesia”
December 1: Anh Tran (Indiana University) “The Hiding Hand of Private Ownership: Tax Evasion in 3,650 Privatized Vietnamese Enterprises”
Spring 2020 MEPS Seminars:
January 21: Maurice Kugler (George Mason University – Schar School) “School Vouchers, Labor Markets and Vocational Education”.
January 28: Natalie Bachas (Princeton University) “Market Power in Small Business Lending: A Two Dimensional Bunching Approach”
February 4: Mark Huggett (Georgetown University) “Taxing Top Earners: A Human Capital Perspective”
February 11: Juan Vargas (Universidad del Rosario/New York University) “The Rise and Persistence of Illegal Crops: Evidence from a Naive Policy Announcement”
February 18: Matt Baker (George Mason University, Economics) Title TBA
February 25: Tamim Bayoumi (International Monetary Fund) “Stranded! How Rising Inequality Suppressed US Migration and Hurt Those “Left Behind””
March 3: Christian Traxler (Hertie School) “Learning from Law Enforcement”
Due to the pandemic the remainder of MEPS Seminars in the Spring 2020 semester were canceled.
Fall 2019 MEPS Seminars:
August 27: Carlos Scartascini (Inter-American Development Bank) “Imperfect Attention in Public Policy: A Field Experiment During a Tax Amnesty“
September 3: Constantine Yannelis (University of Chicago) “Reducing Barriers to Enrollment in Federal Student Loan Repayment Plans: Evidence from the Navient Field Experiment“
September 10: John Haltiwanger (University of Maryland) “The Post Entry Growth and Survival of Business Startups: The Role of Founding Teams“
September 17: John Rust (Georgetown University) “Equilibrium Trade in Automobile Markets“
September 24: Megan Stevenson (George Mason University, Law) “Algorithmic Risk Assessment in the Hands of Humans”
September 27: Matthew Steinberg (George Mason University) “Schools as places of crime? Evidence from closing chronically underperforming schools”
October 1: Bryan Stuart (George Washington University) “Recessions and Local Labor Markets“
October 8: Natalya Naumenko (George Mason University, Economics) “Economic Consequences of the 1933 Soviet Famine“
October 15: Fariha Kamal (U.S. Census Bureau) “Family Leave Law and the Demand for Female Labor: Evidence from a Trade Shock”
October 22: Ithai Lurie (U.S. Department of the Treasury) “Health Insurance, Taxes, and Mortality: Evidence from Outreach to the Uninsured”
October 29: Javier Baez (World Bank) “Extreme Weather and Poverty Risk: Evidence from Multiple Shocks in Mozambique“
November 5: John Earle (George Mason University) and Solomiya Shpak (George Mason University) “Obfuscating Ownership: Oligarchs’ Political Connections and Orange Revolution“
November 12: Desiree Desierto (University of Rochester) “Grand Corruption by Public Officials: Measuring Theft and Bribery”
November 19: Paul Piveteau (Johns Hopkins University, SAIS) “Foreign Competition along the Quality Ladder“
November 26: Cody Tuttle (University of Maryland) “Racial Discrimination in Federal Sentencing: Evidence from Drug Mandatory Minimums“
December 3: Emin Dinlersoz (U.S. Census Bureau) “Synergizing Ventures“
Spring 2019 MEPS Seminars:
January 22: Carlos Ramirez (George Mason University, Economics) “The Real Effects of Liquidity: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in Puerto Rico”
January 29: Sebastian Galiani (University of Maryland) “Persuasion by Populist Propaganda: Individual Level Evidence from the 2015 Argentine Ballotage”
February 5: Ritam Chaurey (Johns Hopkins University, SAIS) “Creditor Rights, Threat or Liquidation, and the Labor-Capital Choice of Firms”
February 12: Chris J. Kennedy (George Mason University, Environmental Science and Policy) “Natural resources and environmental change: interactions with management institutions drive alternative stable equilibria”
February 19: Tom DeLeire (Georgetown University) “How Do Low-Income Enrollees in the Affordable Care Act Exchanges Respond to Cost-Sharing?”
February 26: Katharine Abraham (University of Maryland) “Driving the Gig Economy”
March 5: Jessica Leight (American University) “Exporting out of Agriculture: The Impact of WTO Accession on Structural Transformation in China”
March 12: Spring Break
March 19: Filipe Campante (Johns Hopkins University, Economics) “Mobile Phones, Social Media, and the Behavior of Politicians: Evidence from Brazil”
March 26: Olga Timoshenko (George Washington University) “Uncertainty and Trade Elasticities”
April 2: Heiwai Tang (Johns Hopkins University, SAIS) “Global Sourcing and Domestic Production Networks”
April 9: Dan Ringo (Federal Reserve Board) “The Propagation of Demand Shocks Through Housing Markets”
April 16: John Sabelhaus (Federal Reserve Board) “Lifecycle Dynamics of Saving and Wealth Accumulation”
April 23: Dan Cao (Georgetown University) “Firm Growth through New Establishments”
April 30: Natalia Radchenko (American University) “Title – TBD”
Fall 2018 MEPS Seminars:
August 28: Joana Silva (World Bank) “The Effects of Welfare Programs on Formal Labor Markets: Evidence from Conditional Cash Transfers in Brazil“
September 4: Dany Bahar (Brookings) “Let their knowledge flow: the effect of Yugoslavian returning refugees on export productivity“
September 11: Weifeng Zhong (American Enterprise Institute) “Reading China: Measuring Policy Change with Machine Learning“
– Source code: http://github.com/open-source-economics/PCI
– Website: http://www.policychangeindex.com
September 18: Lucas Nunez (George Mason University) “Partial Effects for Binary Outcome Models with Unobserved Heterogeneity“
September 25: Michael Strain (American Enterprise Institute) “Inflation-Indexed Minimum Wages“
October 2: Brad Jensen (Georgetown University) “The Geography of Consumption“
October 9: Kristin McCue (Census Bureau) “Just Passing Through: Characterizing U.S. Pass-Through Business Owners“
October 16: Susan Parker (University of Maryland) “School Quality and Long Term Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs”
October 23: Barbara Smith (Social Security Administration) “Can Informational Interventions Be Effective Policy Tools? The Social Security Statement”
October 30: Sergio Urzua (University of Maryland) “Dynamic Treatment Effects of Job Training”
November 1: Hillel Rapoport, (Paris School of Economics) “From Exodus to Exitus: Politically selective emigration after Germany’s Failed 1848 Revolutions and the Rise of the Nazi Party” (with Toman Barsbai)
November 6: Kyung Min Lee (George Mason University) “Medicaid and the Supply of Entrepreneurs: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act“
November 13: David McKenzie (World Bank) “Improving Management with Individual and Group-Based Consulting: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia”
November 20: Jordan Neyland (GMU Law School), “Do Lawyers Matter in Initial Public Offerings?“
November 27: Jessica Vistnes (AHRQ) “Changes in Health Insurance Decisions by Medium-Sized Employers after the Implementation of the Employer Mandate”
December 4: Chao Wei (George Washington University) “A Tale of Two Families: Macroeconomic Analysis of Child Care and Female Labor Supply”
December 11: Anh Pham (George Mason University) “The Impact of Local Public-Sector Governance on Business Registrations: Evidence from Vietnam Household Business Census”
Spring 2018 MEPS Seminars:
January 30: Andrew H. McCallum (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) “Better Bunching, Nicer Notching”
February 6: Ryan Decker (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) “Firm Dynamics and Local Economic Shocks: Evidence from the Shale Oil and Gas Boom”
February 13: Cesar Martinelli (Economics, GMU) “Politics, Entertainment and Business: A Multisided Model of Media”
February 20: Erdal Tekin (American University) “Does It Matter How and How Much Politicians are Paid?”
February 27: Alex Philipov (Finance, GMU) “Bonds, Stocks, and Sources of Mispricing”
March 6: Toshi Mukoyama (Georgetown University) “Firm Growth through New Establishments” with Dan Cao (Georgetown) and Erick Sager (BLS).
March 13: No Seminar (Spring Break)
March 20: Brian Richter (University of Texas at Austin) “The Value of Political Geography”
March 27: Sandip Sukhtankar (University of Virginia) “Authentication and Targeted Transfers”
April 3: Ritam Chaurey (Binghamton University and SAIS JHU) “Infrastructure Grants and Microenterprise Performance”
April 10: Philip Armour (RAND Corporation) “What Do People Expect from Social Security and Does It Matter?: Evidence from the 2014 Reintroduction of the Social Security Statement”
April 17: Stephen Oliner (AEI) “The Impact of Federal Housing Policy on Housing Demand and Homeownership: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment”
April 24: Kevin Corinth (Council of Economic Advisers) “The Impact of Social Disorder on Crime: The Case of Homelessness”
May 1: Joonkyu Choi (University of Maryland) “Endogenous Risk-Taking, Young Firm Dynamics, and Aggregate Implications”
Fall 2017 MEPS Seminars:
September 5: Erin Troland (Treasury), “Before the war on poverty: the impact of union health programs in Appalachia”
September 12: Sumit Agrawal (Georgetown University), “Dragon Babies: Fortunes of Birth and Life“
September 19: Brad Kells (GMU Economics), “Heterogeneous Reform Incentives in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program”
September 26: Diana C D’amico (George Mason University) and Robert Pawlewicz (George Mason University), “Where are all the Black teachers? Discrimination in the teacher labor market“
October 3: Rebecca Zarutskie (Federal Reserve), “Going Entrepreneurial? IPOs and New Firm Creation“
October 10: Serguey Braguinsky (University of Maryland), “Centers of Gravity: The Role of Top Management Teams in Firm Growth and Industry Evolution” (by Rajshree Agarwal, Serguey Braguinsky, Atsushi Ohyama).
October 17: Len Nicholls (GMU, Center for Health Policy), “Making Health Markets Work Better through Targeted Doses of Competition, Regulation, and Collaboration“
October 24: Judith Hellerstein (University of Maryland), “Social Capital and Labor Market Networks”
October 31: Jing Cai (University of Maryland), “The Impact of Corporate Taxes on Firm Innovation: Evidence from Corporate Tax Collection Reform in China,” (with Yuyu Chen and Xuan Wang)
November 7: Robert Axtell (Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University), “Dynamics of Firms from the Bottom Up: Data, Theories and Models” (Paper 1; Paper 2)
November 14: Emin Dinlersoz (US Census Bureau), “Early-Stage Business Formation: An Analysis of Applications for Employer Identification Numbers”
Spring 2017 MEPS Seminars:
January 31 (3:00pm): Scott Cunningham (Baylor University) “Vertical differentiation or offsetting behaviors: screening in commercial sex markets”
February 10 (Friday): John Abowd (Cornell University and Census Bureau) “Revisiting the Economics of Privacy“
February 14: Annamaria Lusardi (George Washington University) “Entrepreneurship among Baby Boomers: Recent Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study“
February 21: Geoffrey Paulin (BLS) Three Separate Mini-Talks about Consumer Expenditure Survey
(1) Arcenis Rojas (BLS): “Trade-offs in Parental Spending on Children: Apparel vs Education”
(2) Taylor Wilson (BLS): “Mortgages and Risk Preference: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey” (Taylor Wilson’s Article)
(3) Geoffrey Paulin (BLS): “After Graduation: How Student Loan Debt Relates to Income, Expenditures, Asset Accumulation, and Other Debt.”
March 2 (Thursday): Ethan Kaplan (University of Maryland) “Unemployment Insurance Generosity and Aggregate Employment“
March 7: CANCELLED Len Nichols (George Mason University) – TBA
March 14: No Seminar (Spring Break)
March 21: Miriam Bruhn (World Bank) “The Impact of Consulting Services on Small and Medium Enterprises: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Mexico”
March 28: Alison Cuellar (George Mason University) “Consumers’ Response to a Price Transparency Tool”
April 4: Alice Henriques (Federal Reserve Board) “Retirement Adequacy and Wealth Distribution Among Early Savers“
April 11: Anh Pham (George Mason University) – “Impact of Oil Price Fluctuations on Financial Markets Since 2014“
April 18: Emek Basker (Census Bureau) “Customer-Employee Substitution: Evidence from Gasoline Stations“
April 25: Darwyyn Deyo (George Mason University) – “Does Increasing the Minimum Wage Increase Commercial Crime? A Study Using Local City Arrest Data”
May 2: Anna Scherbina (UC Davis) “Do personal characteristics influence career outcomes? Evidence from the mutual fund industry”
Fall 2016 MEPS Seminars:
September 6: Eun-Hee Kim (George Washington University) “Customer Reactions and Analyst Stock Recommendations: Evidence from S&P 500 Electric Power Companies’ Twitter Accounts”
September 13: Adam Isen (Treasury) “Parental Resources and College Attendance: Evidence from Lottery Wins?”
September 20: Aparna Mathur (American Enterprise Institute) “Did right-to-work laws impact income inequality? Evidence from US states using the Synthetic Control Method“
September 27: Sven Neelsen (Erasmus University Rotterdam) “Progressive Universalism? The Impact of Targeted Coverage on Healthcare Access and Expenditures in Peru“
October 4: Ha Nguyen (World bank) “Demand-driven propagation: evidence from the Great Recession“
October 11: Sanjay Patnaik (George Washington University) “Cap(-ture) and Trade: How Multinational Firms Capture Economic Rents through Environmental Regulations”
October 18: Joanne Hsu (Federal Reserve) “Minimum Wages and Consumer Credit: Do Lender and Borrowers Respond to Changing Policy?“
October 25: Stephen Weymouth (Georgetown University) “Winners and Losers in International Trade: The Effects on U.S. Presidential Voting” (joint work with Brad Jensen and Dennis Quinn)
November 1: Jessica Golberg (University of Maryland) “When Defaults Matter: Behavioral Economics and the Use of Savings Accounts in Malawi”
November 8: Bob Rijkers (World Bank) “How do dictators get rich? Evidence from Tunisia”
November 15: Jon Lanning (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) “Does Prejudice Impact Discretionary Market Transactions? Evidence From The Indirect Auto Lending Market”
November 22: No Seminar (Thanksgiving week)
November 29: Sandip Sukhtankar (University of Virginia) “General Equilibrium Effects of (Improving) Public Employment Programs: Experimental Evidence from India” CANCELLED
December 6: Theodore Breton (Universidad EAFIT, Colombia) “Education and Economic Growth: Where All the Education Went“
Spring 2016 MEPS Seminars:
February 16: Erdal Tekin (American University), “The impact of community traumatic attacks on student achievement; Evidence from Beltway Sniper Attacks” POSTPONED BECAUSE OF ILLNESS; WILL BE RE-SCHEDULED
February 23: Mine Senses (Johns Hopkins – SAIS), “Trade Shocks and the Provision of Local Public Goods” (with Leo Feler, SAIS)
March 1: Stephanie Cellini (George Washington University), “Gainfully Employed? Measuring the Returns to For-Profit Certificates Using Administrative Data” (with Nicholas Turner, U.S. Treasury)
March 8: No seminar (GMU Spring Break)
March 15: Nora Gordon (Georgetown University), “Medicaid, Special Education, and Access to Services with Children with Disabilities”
March 22: Darwyyn Deyo (GMU Dept. of Economics) and Danny Hughes (GMU Dept. of Health Administration and Policy), “The Effect of Utilization Regulation: The Case of CT Scans and the Affordable Care Act”
March 29: John Haltiwanger (University of Maryland), Changing Business Dynamism: Volatility of Shocks vs. Responsiveness to Shocks?
April 5: Mary Ann Bronson (Georgetown University), “Degrees Are Forever: Marriage, Educational Investment, and Lifecycle Labor Decisions of Men and Women”
April 12: Adriana Kugler (Georgetown University), “Beyond Job Lock: Impacts of Public Health Insurance on Occupational and Industrial Mobility”
April 19: Franco Peracchi (University of Rome Tor Vergata and Georgetown), “Growing up in wartime: Evidence from the era of two world wars”
April 26: Howard Shatz (RAND), “The Foundations of the Islamic State: Management, Money, and Terror in Iraq, 2005-2010”
Fall 2015 MEPS Seminars:
September 8 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Deniz Igan (IMF), “The Lion’s Share: Evidence from Federal Contracts on the Value of Political Connections” (Slide)
September 15 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Colin Xu (World Bank), “Hayek, Local Information and the Decentralization of State-Owned Enterprises in China“
September 22 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Melissa Kearney (University of Maryland), “Early Childhood Education by MOOC: Lessons from Sesame Street“
September 29 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Grant Lewis (GMU), “Picking Winners: Market Outcomes of Public Venture Capital“
October 6 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Francisco Perez-Arce (RAND), “Consumption Smoothing, Frequency of Benefit Payments, and Effectiveness of Social Programs“
October 13 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Michael Makowsky (Clemson University), “To Serve and Collect: The Fiscal and Racial Determinants of Law Enforcement”
October 20 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Charles Griffiths (EPA), “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Voluntary Programs: Did Ohio’s Tox-Minus Program Affect Participants’ TRI Emissions?“
October 27 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Anh Pham (GMU), “Firm Manipulation and Take-up Rate of a 30 Percent Temporary Corporate Income Tax Cut in Vietnam“
November 3 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Leo Feler (Johns Hopkins University), “Local Multipliers and Spillovers from Cash Transfers to the Poor“
November 10 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Elizabeth Akers (Brookings), “Is a Student Loan Crisis on the Horizon?”
November 17 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Nick Burger (RAND), “Assessing the Impact of Farmer Field Schools on Fertilizer Use in China“
December 1 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Javier Miranda (Census Bureau), “Where Has All the Skewness Gone? The Decline in High-Growth (Young) Firms in the U.S.” (with Ryan Decker, John Haltiwanger, and Ron Jarmin)
December 8 (FH 477, 11-12:15): Shanthi Ramnath (Treasury), “The Impact of State Taxes on Small Businesses: Evidence from the 2012 Kansas Income Tax Reform”
Spring 2015 MEPS Seminars:
January 27 (FH 322, video link to JC 311D), 10:30 – 11:45 a.m.: Anh Pham (UC-San Diego), “A Temporary Corporate Income Tax Reduction and Its Effects on Firm Behavior: A Case Study of Vietnam”
February 2 (FH 322), 11 a.m – 12:15 p.m.: Hoai-Luu Nguyen (MIT), “Do Bank Branches Still Matter? The Effect of Closings on Local Economic Outcomes” CANCELLED
February 4 (FH 322, video link to JC 311D), 10:30– 11:45 a.m.: Kevin Shih (UC-Davis), “The Impact of International Students on U.S. Graduate Education“
February 5 (FH 322), 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: Richard Sweeney (Harvard), “Environmental Regulation, Imperfect Competition and Market Spillovers: The Impact of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments on the US Oil Refining Industry“ CANCELLED
February 6 (FH 120, for skype link contact klee17@gmu.edu), noon-1:15: Jason Debacker (Middle Tennessee State University), “Once Bitten, Twice Shy? The Lasting Impact of IRS Audits on Individual Tax Reporting“
February 9 (FH 120, for skype link contact klee17@gmu.edu), 9:30-10:45: Yueming (Lucy) Qiu (Arizona State University), “Pre-Paid Electricity Plan and Electricity Consumption Behavior“
February 10 (FH 322, video link to JC 311D), 10:30– 11:45 a.m.: Jennifer Poole (UC-Santa Cruz and Council of Economic Advisers), “Trade and Labor Reallocation with Heterogeneous Enforcement of Labor Regulations“
February 24 (FH477, 11-12:15): Seth Gershenson (American University), “Performance Standards and Employee Effort: Evidence from Teacher Absences“
March 3 (FH477, 11-12:15): David Newhouse (World Bank), “Earnings Premiums and Penalties for Self-Employment and Informal Employees Around the World” (with T. H. Gindling and Nadwa Mossaad (UMBC))
March 6 (FH477, 11:30-12:45): Greg Clark (UC-Davis), “Born this way? Nature versus Nurture in the Intergenerational Persistence of Status”
March 17 (FH477, 11-12:15): Philip Keefer (World Bank), “Incumbent Advantage, Voter Information and Vote Buying“
March 24 (FH477, 11-12:15): Thomas Stratmann and David Chandler Thomas (GMU Economics Department), “The Effect of Innovations in Communication Technology and Emergency Medicine on Homicide”
April 7 (FH477, 11-12:15): Lindsay Oldenski (Georgetown), “Labor Market Effects of Offshoring Within and Across Firm Boundaries“
April 14 (FH477, 11-12:15): Felipe Lage de Sousa (World Bank), “Relaxing Credit Constraints in Emerging Economies: The Impact of Public Loans on the Performance of Brazilian Manufacturers” (with Gianmarco Ottaviano)
April 21: Remi Jedwab (GWU), “The Mortality Transition, Malthusian Dynamics, and the Rise of Poor Mega-Cities” (joint with Dietrich Vollrath, University of Houston)
April 28: No seminar
May 4: Roberto Fattal Jaef (World Bank), “The Dynamics of Development: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Reallocation” (with Francisco Buera, Chicago Fed)
Fall 2014 MEPS Seminars:
Sept 2: William Lincoln (SAIS – JHU), “Entry Costs and Increasing Trade”
Sept 9: Ling Ling Ahn and Alexei Alexandrov (CFPB), “Identifying a Suitable Control Group Based on Microeconomic Theory: The Case of Escrows in the Subprime Market”
Sept 16: Mario Macis (Johns Hopkins University), “Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership
on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance” (with Luca Flabbi, Andrea Moro, and Fabiano Schivardi)
Sept 23 (4 pm at Georgetown University Dept. of Economics, ICC Bldg, 7th floor): Kevin Lang, Boston University, “The Misuse of Ordinal Scales: Some Partial Solutions with Applications to the Black-White Test Score Gap and Happiness Scales”
Oct 14: No MEPS (Colombus Day holiday, according to GMU schedule)
Oct 21: Erdal Tekin (American University): “Less Cash, Less Crime: Evidence from the Electronic Benefit Transfer Program”
Oct 28: Sita Slavov (SPGIA), “Does Retirement Improve Health and Life Satisfaction?”
Nov 4: Cancelled (postponed until next semester) David Newhouse (World Bank) and Tim Gindling (UMBC): Self-Employment Wage Premia
Nov 11: Volodymyr Vakhitov (Kyiv School of Economics), “Wages, Productivity, and Market Power”
Spring 2014 MEPS Seminars:
January 28: Dhammika Dharmapala (University of Illinois College of Law), “The Costs and Benefits of Mandatory Securities Regulation: Evidence from Market Reactions to the JOBS Act of 2012.” FH, Room 111.
January 31: Sita Slavov (AEI), “The Role of Retiree Health Insurance in the Early Retirement of Public Sector Employees.” FH Room 111.
February 4: Seth Giertz (University of Nebraska), “The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review.” FH Room 111.
February 18 at 1 pm: Susan Yeh (GMU Law School), “The Impact of Government Power to Expropriate on Economic Growth and Inequality” FH, Room 477.
February 25: Jason Faberman (Chicago Fed), “The Urban Density Premium across Establishments.” FH, Room 477.
March 18: Lorens Helmchen (GMU Department of Health Administration and Policy), “Do Communication-and-Resolution Programs Affect Physicians’ Practice Patterns? Evidence from Discharge Records” FH, Room 477.
March 25: Thomas Stratmann (GMU Dept of Economics), “Judging on Thin Ice: Affiliation Bias in Judging Figure Skating” FH, Room 477.
April 1 at 12 noon: Tom DeLeire (Georgetown Department of Economics and McCourt School of Public Policy), “The Effect of Public Insurance on the Labor Supply of Low-Income Childless Adults” FH, Room 477.
April 22: J. Brad Jensen (Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and Peterson Institute for International Economics), “The Tradability of Services: Geographic Concentration and Trade Costs” FH, Room 477.
April 29: Nada Eissa (Georgetown Department of Economics and McCourt School of Public Policy): TBA