My research interests include public policy, entrepreneurship, education, racial and gender inequality, information technology, labor economics, developing countries, and immigration. The overarching goal of my research is to have broad impact by providing rigorous, unbiased and objective evidence on questions that are important for society and often involve highly-charged policy debates. The methodological focus of my work includes implementing randomized control field experiments, employing advanced econometric techniques and identification strategies, and working with and building large administrative datasets.
Google Scholar Site
Recent Books
• The Fall and Rise of Small Businesses: Race, Government Aid, and Growth After the Pandemic, MIT Press
• The Promise and Peril of Entrepreneurship: Job Creation and Survival among the Universe of U.S. Startups, (with Zach Kross, Javier Miranda and Nick Zolas), MIT Press. WP Version. Reviews: Financial Times Media: WSJ | Daily Herald
Recent Working Papers and Articles
• Affirmative Action, Faculty Productivity, and Caste Interactions: Evidence from Engineering Colleges in India (with Saurabh Khanna, Prashant Loyalka, and Gagandeep Sachdeva). Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics (forthcoming)
• A Family Affair: The Effects of College on Parent and Student Finances (with Palaash Bhargava, Sandra Black, Jeffrey Denning and Oded Gurantz)
• Taxes, Incentives, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from the Universe of U.S. Startups (with Frank Fossen, Andrew Johnston and Ke Lyu)
• Estimating Peer Effects among College Students: Evidence from a Field Experiment of One-to-One Pairings in STEM (with Dan Oliver, Glenn Millhauser, and Randa Roland)
• Parental Resources and College Attendance: Evidence from Lottery Wins (with George Bulman, Sarena Goodman, and Adam Isen), American Economic Review
•Black and White: Access to Capital among Minority-Owned Startups (with Alicia Robb and David Robinson), Management Science. Media: NYT | WSJ. Winner 2022 Bradford-Osborne Award
• The Effect of Course Shutouts on Community College Students: Evidence from Waitlist Cutoffs (with Silvia Robles and Max Gross), Journal of Public Economics. Media: NYTimes
• The Impacts of COVID-19 on Racial Inequality in Business Earnings. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Media: WaPost | YahooFinance Gov. Citation: SEC
• Isolating the “Tech” from EdTech: Experimental Evidence on Computer Assisted Learning in China (with Yue Ma, Prashant Loyalka, and Scott Rozelle), Economic Development and Cultural Change
• English Language Skills and Reducing Poverty in India: A Field Experiment with Job Training (with Prashant Loyalka, Dinsha Mistree, and Saurabh Khanna), Economic Development and Cultural Change
• Early Evidence of the Impacts of COVID-19 on Minority Unemployment (with Ken Couch and Huanan Xu), Journal of Public Economics
• Diminishing Marginal Returns to Computer-Assisted Learning (with Eric Bettinger, Anastasia Kapuza, Elena Kardanova, Prashant Loyalka, and Andrey Zakharov), Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
• National Report on Early-Stage Entrepreneurship in the United States: 2025, Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship. Media: Forbes | NPR | Startland
• Indicators of Entrepreneurial Activity: 2023. Media: WSJ | Latin Times | CBS | Axios | CBSNews
• The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Owners: The First Three Months after Social-Distancing Restrictions, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. Selected Media: WP | WP | NYT | NYT | WSJ | WSJ | PBS | CBS | CNBC | CNBC | USA Today | Bloomberg | BBC | Forbes | Vox | NatGeo | KAZU | KTVU | CNBC. Gov. Citation: U.S. Senate. Winner 2021 Bradford-Osborne Award
• The Evolving Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Gender Inequality in the U.S. Labor Market: The COVID Motherhood Penalty (with Ken Couch and Huanan Xu), Economic Inquiry. Media: NYT. Best Article of 2022 in Economic Inquiry Award
• The 2021 Paycheck Protection Program Reboot: Loan Disbursement to Employer and Nonemployer Businesses in Minority Communities (with Frank Fossen), American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings. Selected Media: Bloomberg | The Conversation | Lookout. Government Citation: U.S. Senate | White House
• The Impact of COVID-19 on Community College Enrollment and Student Success: Evidence from California Administrative Data (with George Bulman), Education Finance and Policy. Media: SF Chronicle | Education Next
• Were Small Businesses More Likely to Permanently Close in the Pandemic? (with Frank Fossen, Reid Johnsen, and Gentian Droboniku). Media: WSJ
• Minority Student and Teaching Assistant Interactions in STEM (with Dan Oliver, Glenn Millhauser, and Randa Roland), Economics of Education Review
• Evaluating Entrepreneurship Training: How Important are Random Experiments for Estimating Impacts? Journal of Economics and Management Strategy
• Automated Enforcement of Irrigation Regulations and Social Pressure for Water Conservation (with Jeremy West, Bryan Pratt, Liam Rose) Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
• Immigrant Business Owner Activity in the Pandemic and Recovery
• Defining Opportunity versus Necessity Entrepreneurship: Two Components of Business Creation (with Frank Fossen). Media: BBC | Forbes | NYTimes
• Addressing Path Dependence and Incorporating Sample Weights in the Nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Technique for Logit, Probit and Other Nonlinear Models
Recent Articles
• A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom, (with Florian Hoffman and Phil Oreopoulos), American Economic Review. 2014 Government: Economic Report of the President 2023
• The Effects of Entrepreneurship Training: Evidence from a Randomized Control Experiment (with Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman), American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2015
• Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Home Computers on Academic Achievement among Schoolchildren (with Jon Robinson), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. 2013.
• The Impact of Contracting Set-Asides on Minority Business Ownership, (with Ronnie Chatterji and Kenneth Y. Chay) Journal of Labor Economics
• Taking the Leap: The Determinants of Entrepreneurs Hiring their First Employee (with Javier Miranda) Journal of Economic Management and Strategy. 2017
•Little Effect of Insurance Status or Socioeconomic Condition on Disparities in Minority Appendicitis Perforation Rates, (with Edward Livingston), Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): Surgery
• Measuring Job Creation, Growth, and Survival among the Universe of Start-Ups in the United States Using a Combined Start-Up Panel Data Set (with Javier Miranda and Nikolas Zolas), ILR Review
• The Effects of Male Peers on the Educational Outcomes of Female College Students in STEM: Experimental Evidence from Partnerships in Chemistry Courses (with Glenn Millhauser, Dan Oliver, Randa Roland) PLOS ONE
• The Effects of Computers and Acquired Skills on Earnings, Employment and College Enrollment: Evidence from a Field Experiment and California UI Earnings Records, (with Peter Bahr), Economics of Education Review, 2018
• The Effects of Computers on Children’s Social Development and School Participation: Evidence from a Randomized Control Experiment, (with Ariel Kalil), Economics of Education Review, 2017
• Technology and Education: Computers, Software, and the Internet (with George Bulman), Handbook of the Economics of Education, Volume 5, eds. Rick Hanushek, Steve Machin, and Ludger Woessmann. Media: Economist | Economist
• Instructional Interventions for Improving COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviors Evidence from a Large-Scale RCT in India (with Prashant Loyalka, Dinsha Mistree, and others), Social Science & Medicine
More Research on Entrepreneurship
• Race and Entrepreneurial Success: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States, (with Alicia Robb), MIT Press, 2008.
• Is Employer-Based Health Insurance a Barrier to Entrepreneurship?, (with Kanika Kapur and Susan Gates), Journal of Health Economics, 2011
• The Personal Computer and Entrepreneurship, Management Science, 2006
• Why Are Black-Owned Businesses Less Successful than White-Owned Businesses? The Role of Families, Inheritances, and Business Human Capital (with Alicia Robb). Journal of Labor Economics, 2007.
• Drug Dealing and Legitimate Self-Employment, Journal of Labor Economics, 20(3), 2002.
• The Absence of the African-American Owned Business: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Self-Employment, Journal of Labor Economics, 1999.
• Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth, and Entrepreneurship Revisited (with Harry Krashinsky) Review of Income and Wealth 2012
• High-Technology Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley (with Aaron Chatterji), Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 2013.
• Mexican-American Entrepreneurship, B.E. Journals of Economic Analysis and Policy, Contributions, 2010 (with Chris Woodruff)
• Gender Differences in Business Performance: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey, (with Alicia Robb), Small Business Economics, 2009.
• Racial Inequality in Business Ownership and Income, Oxford Review of Economic Policy. 2018
• Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey (with Alicia Robb), ILR Review. 2007
• Immigration and Entrepreneurship, Draft for Handbook Chapter (with Magnus Lofstrom) ed Barry Chiswick. 2015
• Entrepreneurship, Economic Conditions, and the Great Recession, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 2013. Media: CNBC: Accidental Entreprenuers After a Wave of Recession
• The Effect of Immigration on Native Self-Employment (with Bruce D. Meyer), Journal of Labor Economics, 2003. “The Effect of Immigration on Native Self-Employment (with Bruce D. Meyer), 2003” PDF
• Trends in Self-Employment among White and Black Men: 1910-1990, (with Bruce D. Meyer), Journal of Human Resources, Fall 2000.
• Ethnic and Racial Self-Employment Differences and Possible Explanations, (with Bruce D. Meyer), Journal of Human Resources, 1996
More Research on Education
• The Effects of Home Computers on Educational Outcomes: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Community College Students (with Rebecca London), Economic Journal 2012.
• Does Immigration Induce “Native Flight” from Public Schools into Private Schools? (with Julian R. Betts), Journal of Public Economics, 2003.
• Academic Achievement, Technology and Race: Experimental Evidence, Economics of Education Review 2012
• Is There “White Flight” into Private Schools? Evidence from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (with Alex M. Resch), Review of Economics and Statistics, 2002
• Access to Technology and the Transfer Function of Community Colleges: Evidence from a Field Experiment, (with Samantha Grunberg), Economic Inquiry 2014.
• Are Computers Good for Children: The Effects of Home Computers on Educational Outcomes (with Daniel Beltran and Kuntal Das), Economic Inquiry 2010
• The Effects of Home Computers on School Enrollment, Economics of Education Review, 2005
• ICT Use in the Developing World: An Analysis of Differences in Computer and Internet Penetration, (with Menzie Chinn), Review of International Economics, 2010
• The Determinants of the Global Digital Divide: A Cross-Country Analysis of Computer and Internet Penetration (with Menzie Chinn), Oxford Economic Papers, 2007
• Private Schools and “Latino Flight” from Black Schoolchildrenate Schools and “Latino Flight” from Black Schoolchildren, 2002 Demography.
• Explaining Ethnic, Racial, and Immigrant Differences in Private School Attendance, (with Julian R. Betts), Journal of Urban Economics, 2001.
More Research on Labor Economics
• Last Hired, First Fired? Black-White Unemployment and the Business Cycle, 2008, (with Ken Couch), Demography
• Can the “one-drop rule” tell us anything about racial discrimination? New evidence from the multiple race question on the 2000 Census, Labour Economics, 2009
• The Emergence, Persistence, and Recent Widening of the Racial Unemployment Gap, (with William A. Sundstrom), ILR Review, 1999.
• The Racial Unemployment Gap in Long-Run Perspective, (with William A. Sundstrom), American Economic Review, 1997.
• Job-Lock: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design (with Susan Gates and Kanika Kapur), Industrial Relations, 2016.
• The Long-Term Costs of Job Displacement among Young Workers (with Lori G. Kletzer), ILR Review, 2003.
