Culture, Economic Stress, and Missing Girls
Accepted, Journal of Economic History
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CEPR Discussion Paper DP18761
Publications & Forthcoming
Intergenerational Mobility over Two Centuries
The Handbook of Intergenerational Mobility (forthcoming)
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NBER Working Paper 33330
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of recent empirical and methodological advances in the study of historical intergenerational mobility trends, with a focus on key measurement challenges. These advances are made possible by the recent digitization of historical censuses and new methods of historical record-linking, which have enabled researchers to create large historical samples of parent-child links. We identify three main findings. First, absolute mobility increased in the decades leading up to 1940 but has since declined, both in the US and other industrial countries. Second, recent studies on relative mobility question the classic narrative that the US has transitioned from a “land of opportunity” in the 19th century to a less mobile society today, suggesting that mobility was not as high in the past. However, estimates of relative mobility are sensitive to choices regarding sample selection and measurement. Third, we explore mechanisms underlying shifts in intergenerational mobility over time, including geographic mobility, wealth shocks, educational attainment, locational effects, and the transmission of parent-specific human capital. We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research.Journal of Economic History 82.4 (2022): 1143–82 · Runner-up, Arthur H. Cole Prize (2023)
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Journal version
Abstract
This paper investigates part-year factory operation, a common but understudied dimension of industrializing economies, in a prototypical late-industrializing setting that offers rich factory-level data: Imperial Russia. Newly compiled data provides detailed descriptions of all Russian manufacturing firms operating in 1894 and shows that factories operating a greater number of annual working days were more mechanized, more urban, more likely to employ women and children, more productive, and more likely to survive. Rather than arguing that part-year operation demonstrated Russia’s uniquely inexorable backwardness, we stress operating time’s relationship to fundamental drivers of growth including urbanization, geography, and institutions.Working Papers
Talent, Trust, and Health: The Effects of the First Female Physicians (job market paper)
Draft available upon request · 2nd Place, Stanford’s Inaugural 3-Minute Thesis Competition
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Abstract
How did the entry of women into high-skill occupations shape the productivity of those professions? This paper examines the large-scale entry of female physicians into the medical profession following the opening of the world’s first full-length medical school for women in the Russian Empire in 1872. I digitize novel annual data on physician employment and vital statistics in more than 330 districts from 1876 to 1910, as well as data on direct healthcare provision metrics from 1876 to 1888. Using a staggered difference-in-differences design based on quasi-random timing of replacement hires of general practitioners in the rural public healthcare system of the Russian Empire, I find that the first female physician entry led to large and persistent declines in infant mortality (5–7%) and in young adult mortality of both sexes, resulting in faster population growth and increased life expectancy. The first female physicians improved hospital care and drew more female patients to formal medical care, as suggested by their displacement of midwives. I construct physician-level estimates of medical value added and develop a conceptual framework to disentangle productivity differences from demand-side concordance-preference mechanisms. The evidence indicates that the observed mortality declines reflect both the greater effectiveness of the earliest female physicians relative to incumbent male doctors and increased care-seeking among women. I then test the long-run implications of this framework using modern data.Paid Caregiving Leave Policies and an Update on Paid Parental Leave
In preparation for the Oxford Handbook on the Economics of Care
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NBER Working Paper 34997
Abstract
Paid leave policies are designed to help workers balance work with caregiving responsibilities, yet research has focused predominantly on parental leave while the literature on non-parental caregiving leave remains nascent. This chapter reviews the evidence on the impacts of paid family leave (PFL) and paid sick leave (PSL) policies, with a focus on non-childbirth-related caregiving. We begin with an overview of the prevalence and challenges of informal caregiving in the US and internationally, followed by a description of the current paid caregiving leave policy landscape. We then review evidence on the impact of these policies on leave take-up, labor market outcomes, caregiver health and well-being, employer outcomes, and utilization of formal care. We find that paid leave policies have successfully increased leave take-up and that PFL improves labor market outcomes for workers with caregiving responsibilities, without adversely affecting employers. There is also some suggestive evidence of improvements in caregivers’ mental health. We additionally provide an update of the paid parental leave literature since it was last reviewed by Rossin-Slater (2018), describing the latest evidence on maternal health, child health and development, parental labor market outcomes, and employer outcomes. We conclude by identifying key gaps in the literature, including the lack of research on the outcomes of (non-child) care recipients, limited evidence on employer responses, and the underexplored role of PSL in supporting caregiving needs.Cultural Links and Technology Diffusion: Evidence from Industry in Late Imperial Russia
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Abstract
This paper examines the impact of ethnic connections on the diffusion of technology in a late-industrializing economy. Using machine learning we assigned probable ethnicities to nearly 16,000 industrial firm owners in the Russian Empire in 1894. We then compared firms owned by entrepreneurs with cultural connections to Europe (e.g., Germans and Poles) to Russian-owned firms. “Connected” firms exhibited higher productivity, employed modern machinery and advanced management practices. We established the knowledge diffusion channel by showing, among others, that “connected” firms traded more with Europe, and that German-origin entrepreneurs had the largest productivity advantage in chemicals – Germany’s leading industry at the time. Our findings highlight the importance of cultural links in the diffusion of the Industrial Enlightenment from the industrial core of Europe to its periphery.Selected Works in Progress
Worth the Wait? Willingness to Pay for Gender-Concordant Physicians Across Medical Specialties
Physician Value Added in the Pre-Antibiotic Era
Improvements in Urban Sanitation and Child Mortality Decline: The Case of the Russian Empire
Teaching
Teaching assistantships at Stanford University · overall average student rating: 4.8/5
Empirical Methods in Public Policy (Public Policy Department)
- Spring 2026 · Teaching evaluation
- Winter 2026 · Teaching evaluation
- Spring 2025 · Teaching evaluation
- Winter 2025 · Teaching evaluation
Economics from Outer Space (Economics Department)
- Spring 2024 · Teaching evaluation · Outstanding TA Award (Economics Department)
Invited lectures: Topics in Economic History, Stanford Economics (Winter 2025, Winter 2026); Big Brain SF, general public (Summer 2025)