I just need to constantly remind myself that the redeye is never a good idea

Thrilled to be @siepr.bsky.social today for our child care policy forum. We will join in conversation with researchers, practitioners, policymakers from California and around the country, including those leading the way in San Francisco, New Mexico, & Vermont.

siepr.stanford.edu/events/polic...

Jens Ludwig — Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence What if everything we understood about gun violence was wrong? In 2007, economist Jens Ludwig moved to the South Side of Chicago to research t...

If you are in Providence on April 13, please join us at 4:00pm for a talk by Jens Ludwig on his important new book Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence. Registration required. @watsonschoolbrown.bsky.social

events.brown.edu/watson/event...

Congrats to my fantastic student, Chris Monjaras, on his successful dissertation defense last week. Chris has a great agenda in the economics of education, a super novel JMP, and a great job lined up: cmonjaras.github.io

Delighted to share our revised paper (w/ @juliaturner.bsky.social & @jacobbastian.bsky.social ) showing that Universal Pre-K has broad effects on local labor markets — effects well beyond only mothers. Larger effects for full-day programs. nber.org/papers/w33767

#EconSky #EarlyChildhood #ECE

Same pattern across three (very different) states! Super interesting new paper on identification for special education services and effects on subsequent student achievement.

Hadn't thought about that -- I'll ask her!

Drawing of the Statue of Liberty with the caption ONLY SHE CAN WEAR THE CROWN

My daughter’s handmade sign

Hmm, seems like maybe not the basis on which we should judge legislation that will effectively disenfranchise Americans.

rainbow airheads, and pots of gold (rolos)

Is the tricky leprechaun that tripped our trap (but evaded it) and dyed our toilet water green also responsible for this snowstorm? My kids' 12th 2-hour delay of the school year!

At least he left treats.

With the right soundtrack!

I feel like I’ve been following this journey for a while, and we need a Rocky-style training montage!

Sunrise over Lincoln, NE. Excited for what is sure to be another great Nebraska Labor Summit!

We love LEGO probably more than the next guy — all 4 of my kids do, and I have one particularly obsessed 6-year old; several active builds on various surfaces in my home, and I would be hard pressed to spend $30k on LEGO.

#EconSky #sociology #PoliSky #PolicySky #NumbersDay #FinTwitter #stats
#StatsSky #science #EduSky

Selfie with the book!

The bomb cyclone conspired against me getting to NYC today to celebrate @jenniferdoleac.bsky.social’s book launch, but the snow didn’t disrupt the on-time delivery of my copy of The Science of Second Chances! So excited and proud of my friend 🥂

Another 🆕 paper to spread the word about, ICYMI in last week's bumper crop of @nber.org working papers.

It's @durlauf.bsky.social recommended and a paper I am really proud to have out in the public conversation about Head Start effectiveness.

www.nber.org/papers/w34812

The economic cost of California’s broken child care market

The market for child care is broken... can states fix it?

Our newest research highlight on work by @chloergibbs.bsky.social and colleagues @siepr.bsky.social focuses on California and how policy can make the market work better for everyone.

Read more: www.upjohn.org/research-hig...

#econsky

The golden age

Very attached to my tabs

Economics of Health Program Meeting, Spring 2026

The Spring 2026 Economics of Health NBER Program Meeting starts today, and it can be streamed on YouTube at the link below

#EconSky: Registration for "The Craft of Publishing in Economics" is now open! March 9, 12-1:30 EDT.

Three fantastic editor will give suggestions for how to navigate the publication process w/ plenty of time for Q&A.

More info & registration form below.

econ4ua.org/the-craft-of...

And sign up for the Initiative's newsletter here:
signup.e2ma.net/signup/20433...

to stay on top of the latest high-quality evidence, data, and policy developments related to families and their well-being.

A Matter of Time? Measuring Effects of Public Schooling Expansions on Families (Forthcoming Article) - We leverage pronounced changes in the availability of public schooling for young children— through duration expansions to the kindergarten day—to better understand how an impli...

Joint work with Riley Wilson (BYU) & Jocelyn Wikle (BYU)

Find the research highlight here 🔗: drive.google.com/file/d/1BmSP...

And the paper here 🔗: www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Screenshot of research highlight "Full-day Kindergarten Relaxes Binding Time Constraints for Families"

More 🆕 research week on the socials!

Thrilled to see Strengthening Families Research Initiative's inaugural newsletter, featuring a research highlight on, "A Matter of Time? Measuring Effects of Public Schooling Expansions on Families," forthcoming at AEJ: Policy.

🔗: t.e2ma.net/webview/re67...

And, finally we show that single moms of young children, living in areas exposed to the full-day expansions, worked more and earned more. We focus on single mothers because they are more likely to be Head Start-eligible and are often most responsive to changes in childcare availability.

We document increased full-day Head Start enrollment in exposed areas, corresponding to approximately 100,000 newly full-day slots (while overall enrollment in Head Start is remaining relatively flat in this time period).

This geographic matching allows us to identify single mothers of young children in areas served by centers operated by eligible grantees. Eligible grantees were those that were operating less than 40 percent of their slots as full-day, full-year slots.

One challenge with Head Start program records is that they are collected at the grantee level, where eligibility for duration expansions funding was determined, but grantees can operate multiple centers in different geographic locations. We geocode center locations and match centers to grantees.

White House press release with picture of Barack Obama in a Head Start classroom "More is Better: Expanding Learning Time in Head Start Programs"

2016 marked substantial expansions to Head Start programming, with a focus on expanding the availability of full-day slots. We use this policy change to look at the impact on mothers' employment, identifying places that were exposed to the expansions and comparing to mothers in places that were not.