Employer-provided health insurance may restrict job mobility, resulting in “job lock.â€Â  Previous research on job lock finds mixed results using several methodologies. We take a new approach to examine job-lock by exploiting the discontinuity created at age 65 through the...

The paper tests whether native-born American families respond to inflows of immigrants by sending their children to private school.  The analysis uses 1980 and 1990 Census data from 132 metropolitan areas.  For primary school students, no significant relation between immigration and...

Using a recently released confidential dataset from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), we find some evidence of "white flight" from public schools into private schools partly in response to minority schoolchildren.  We also examine whether "white flight" is from all...

Several recent studies provide evidence that the choice between private and public school among white students is influenced by the racial composition of the local student population.  None of these studies, however, examines whether Latinos are also fleeing to private schools in response to...

Using 1990 Census microdata, we explore ethnic, racial and immigrant differences in private school attendance.  We find high rates of private school attendance among white natives, white immigrants, and Asian natives.  In contrast, we find low private school rates among black and Hispanic...

Using a recently released confidential dataset from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), we find some evidence of "white flight" from public schools into private schools partly in response to minority schoolchildren. We also examine whether "white flight" is from all minorities...

Why do the poor have so many economic activities? According to one theory the poor do not specialize because relying on one income source is risky. I test the theory by measuring the response of Thai rice farmers to conditional volatility in the international rice price. Households expecting a...

I develop a method to measure and separate the production misallocation caused by failures in factor markets versus financial markets. When I apply the method to rice farming villages in Thailand I find surprisingly little misallocation. Optimal reallocation would increase output in most...

Computers are an important part of modern education, yet many schoolchildren lack access to a computer at home. We test whether this impedes educational achievement by conducting the largest-ever field experiment that randomly provides free home computers to students. Although computer ownership...