Research
Research
Publications
Review of "A Research Agenda for Migration and Health" by K. Bruce Newbold & Kathi Wilson (2019) The Review of Regional Studies - Forthcoming
Dissertation Chapters
Driving in the Losing Lane: The Impact of NBA and NFL Games on Traffic Accidents in Oakland, California (Job Market Paper)
The impact of NBA and NFL games reach beyond the walls of the stadiums and arenas, extending to impacts on driver behavior after games. In this paper I analyze game outcomes for professional football and basketball games and its impact on driver behavior on game days. Using crash data from the Transportation Injury Mapping System, I match locations of accidents within a 3-mile, 5-mile and 10-mile radius from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex with data on NBA and NFL games from 2011 to 2019. Results show that game outcomes (home wins and unexpected losses) result in increasing overall accidents, while also increasing both alcohol involved accidents and accidents resulting in fatalities or severe injuries.
The Unintended Consequences of Women’s Clinic Closures on Preventive Care (Co-authored with Dr. Daniel Grossman and Dr. David Slusky)
Women’s health clinics offer essential preventive care services such as mammograms and pap tests that enable the early detection of breast, ovarian and cervical cancers, the most common types of cancers among women. Prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade many states had implemented statewide policies targeting abortion service providers with restrictive regulations and funding cuts. These regulations have limited clinics’ abilities to provide preventive care and led to the closure of many women’s health clinics. Women in states with substantial clinic closures were less likely to receive routine cancer screenings such as mammograms and pap tests Lu and Slusky (2016). In our analysis, we study the relationship between changes in access to women’s health clinics and cancer diagnosis rates. We use data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program (SEERs) in 17 states across the US and match it with a panel of county-by-month travel distances to the nearest women’s health clinics from 2009 to 2019. Using a two-way fixed effects model we estimate the effect of a change in access to clinics, measured by distance, on cancer diagnosis outcomes including incidence and the initial stage at which cancer diagnoses are identified. Preliminary analyses show little evidence of increased incidence of breast and/or cervical cancer following changes in access to health clinics for women. The policy implications of this study are important to understand the full costs of reducing access to health clinics for women caused by abortion restrictions.
Mission Abort: Interest Groups that Influence the Reduction of Access to Abortions
Access and rights to abortions have been highly contested issues, particularly as we live in a post Roe v. Wade era. Prior to the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the state of Alabama voted on a Constitutional Amendment in 2018 that all abortions in the state would be banned. In this paper, I analyze which interest groups were proponents of restricting abortion access through this Alabama amendment and find that race plays a significant role in the voting decision process. I identify that predominantly white-based Evangelical Protestants voted ‘yes’ while Black Protestants voted ‘no’. Individuals with higher educational attainment chose to reject and Republicans chose to support the amendment however, these effects are muted with additional controls.
Working Papers
Adaptive Traffic Control Systems and Congestion: Evidence from Los Angeles. (Co-authored with Dr. Margaret Bock and Dr. Brad Humphreys)
Traffic congestion represents a ubiquitous and serious urban problem around the world. Policymakers frequently enact expensive policies like highway lane expansion, expansion of public transportation, and driving restrictions based on license plates to combat traffic congestion. Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS) that dynamically alter the red/green cycle timing based on real-time traffic conditions represent an increasingly popular, low-cost approach to reducing congestion. We analyze the impact of the installation of 4,700 ATCS signals in Los Angeles City in 2013 on local traffic congestion using the synthetic control method. Results based on panel data from 96 California cities over the period 2010-2017 show that the ATCS signals did not reduce congestion in Los Angeles, but they did slow the increase in congestion relative to the increase in the synthetic unit, suggesting that ATCS signals impact traffic congestion but cannot effectively reduce it.
Works in Progress
Lost in Translation: The Impact of Age at Arrival on English Fluency for Immigrant Labor Market Assimilation
News Articles
Trash Talk: Dealing with Marine Plastic Pollution in Sri Lanka’s Oceans
Digitising the Economic Space: Enter, Entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka!