Conferences
Censorship in the Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
CESR Seminar and Brown Bag Series
Ofer Malamud | Northwestern
Monday, January 27
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Abstract: This paper examines the adoption and diffusion of a computer-assisted learning (CAL) platform. Using a large-scale randomized control trial involving over 1,600 teachers and 50,000 students in 188 low-performing public schools in Lima, Peru, we evaluated three treatments: (i) school-wide workshops, (ii) workshops for selected teachers, and (iii) workshops plus personalized coaching for selected teachers. Treated teachers and their students showed significantly greater engagement with the platform compared to non-treated teachers; teachers who received both workshops and coaching had significantly more students connecting regularly and completing exercises than those who only received workshops. At endline, treated teachers reported having more information, more knowledge, and more favorable attitudes about technology. Treatment effects were heterogeneous by gender, age, digital skills, and attitudes towards technology. In schools where only selected teachers were treated, we also find positive spillovers among non-treated teachers. Platform use declined markedly in subsequent years, but supplementary workshops were significantly more effective at boosting utilization for teachers who had received our interventions. We conclude that scalable low-cost training programs can significantly improve the adoption of technology by teachers.
Bio: Ofer Malamud is Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.
Malamud is an economist focused on education policy from an international perspective. His research is concentrated in three substantive areas: educational investments over the life course, the role of technology in the formation of human capital, and the effect of general and specific education on labor market outcomes. He has studied these topics in a wide range of institutional settings across countries such as Chile, England, Israel, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Scotland, and the United States.
Malamud is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the CESifo Research Network. He also serves as a research consultant for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Before joining Northwestern, he was on the faculty of the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Kate Bundorf | Duke
Monday, February 3
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Abstract: Older adults with low income face a complex set of decisions regarding safety net programs and have particularly low take-up rates. We examine how means-tested public health insurance for working-age adults affects their choices once on Medicare. We find that people in low-income areas of Medicaid expansion states choose the Medicaid supplement more often than their non-expansion state counterparts; use more healthcare; and spend less out-of-pocket. Higher Medicaid supplement take-up increases Part Dand LIS take-up through automatic enrollment. Our results suggest that Medicaid exposure before 65 causes meaningful behavioral responses among the lowest-income beneficiaries when they age into Medicare.
Bio: M. Kate Bundorf is the J. Alexander McMahon Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and a core faculty member at Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. She is an economist, and her research focuses on public and private health insurance and health care provider markets.
Jialan Wang | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Tuesday, February 4
11am – 12pm
TCC 227 and Zoom
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Abstract: This paper estimates the degree of substitution between personal and small business credit for U.S. entrepreneurs between 2009 and 2018 using a novel, individual-level dataset. We identify the effect of business credit supply shocks by exploiting geographic variation in the market share of large banks, which sharply reduced credit supply to small businesses after the 2008 financial crisis. This contraction decreased total business credit by$13,572 per firm in our sample, and we find that entrepreneurs on average were able to substitute for about 68% of this decline with personal credit, driven by mortgages. However, entrepreneurs with subprime credit scores, below-average income, and high credit utilization do not meaningfully substitute lost business credit with personal credit. Thus, we find that the personal financial characteristics of entrepreneurs play an economically important role in overall access to external finance for small businesses.
Bio: Jialan Wang is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Research Associate at the NBER. She holds a B.S. in mathematics from Caltech and a Ph.D. in financial economics from MIT, and has previously held positions at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St Louis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Wharton School. Her research focuses on household finance, behavioral economics, and fintech. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, and Journal of Financial Economics.
Hanno Hilbig | University of California, Davis
Monday, February 10
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Abstract: What are the long-term political consequences of economic crises? We assess the enduring impact of the Great Recession on U.S. political outcomes. In line with prior work, we employ a difference-in-differences approach, leveraging geographic variation in unemployment shocks. Contrary to claims that major recessions primarily boost anti-incumbent, far-right candidates, we find that counties more severely affected by the recession experienced a sustained increase in Democratic vote shares, particularly in Congressional elections. These effects persisted through 2022. Probing mechanisms, we demonstrate that these results are unlikely to be due to persistent economic decline, demographic changes, shifts in candidate ideology, or fiscal compensation spending. Instead, survey evidence suggests that the recession lowered expectations for upward mobility, likely increasing support for redistribution and thereby benefiting Democratic candidates. Our findings expand the literature by showing that (i) severe economic shocks do not necessarily favor right-wing populists, and (ii) major downturns can continue to influence electoral outcomes long after direct economic consequences have subsided.
Bio: Dr. Hilbig graduated from the Department of Government at Harvard University in 2022. and is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. His research lies at the intersection of Comparative Politics and Political Economy. He examines how economic transformations, such as labor market shifts, the transition to renewable energy, regional inequality, and housing crises, shape politics in established democracies. His work leverages a range of research designs and data sources, including natural experiments, large-scale surveys and administrative data. Previously, He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University.
Social-Science Genetics Seminars
Seminar | Anastacia Terskaya, University of Barcelona
Thursday, February 6
9am – 1am US Pacific Time
VPD 203 and Zoom
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BIO: I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Barcelona and a researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB). As an applied microeconomist, my research focuses on family economics, health, and labor economics. A significant part of my work also incorporates genetic data into economic analysis.