A Promise Worth Keeping? Impacts of Tennessee Promise
In this paper, I examine a novel tuition assistance program, the Tennessee Promise. Beginning in the Fall of 2015, the state of Tennessee has covered all tuition and fees not covered by other scholarships or grants for high school graduates at qualifying two-year institutions. I use the timing of the policy implementation and employ quasi-experimental methods to demonstrate that the Tennessee Promise program increased associate's degree attainment by 1.2 percentage points and bachelor's degree attainment by 2.4 percentage points four years after implementation for cohorts graduating high school in 2015 and 2016. Seven years after program implementation, there is a 1.2 percentage point increase in associate's degrees and a 0.6 percentage point increase in bachelor's degrees for the same cohorts, indicating that the program increased associate's degrees and decreased time to degree for bachelor's degrees. I find that this increase in educational attainment leads to increases in wage income and delays in marriage and childbirth, indicating that Tennessee Promise was successful not only in increasing educational attainment but also improving socioeconomic outcomes of treated cohorts. The findings from this study may be more generalizable than those from localized studies, offering broader lessons on the potential impacts of similar initiatives in other states or at the federal level.
Reacting to Recalls: Contraceptive Choice Impacts of Defective Birth Control Pills in Chile (Conditionally Accepted at Journal of Population Economics)
I examine the impact of an oral contraceptive recall and the news of resulting pregnancies in Chile on contraceptive choice. Using an event study approach, I compare changes in contraceptive use for women residing in comunas with a government pharmacy who are more likely to only be offered the recalled brand of birth control pill to women residing in comunas with private pharmacies who would be offered a wider variety of birth control pill brands following the recalls. The results show that the recall and subsequent news coverage led to a 22.5 percent decrease in oral contraceptive use. There is evidence that this was associated with increased use of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) and increased usage of no effective form of contraception, although these results are not statistically significant. The results are highly heterogeneous, with women residing in rural areas and women in relationships responding more strongly to the recalls.
My Research Statement can be found here.