research overview
- My primary fields are labor economics and economic demography and my main research focus is the empirical investigation of issues related to poverty and family structure. A central goal of my research is to inform our understanding of how individuals make important decisions that affect their standard of living, such as those concerning work, schooling, marriage and divorce, childbearing, migration and participation in government welfare programs. I am particularly interested in how these decisions are affected by the economic environment and by government policies. Research topics have included: how shocks to demand for low-skilled workers affect education, marriage, work and welfare participation, the effect of welfare programs on migration decisions, determinants of divorce, migration decisions of dual-earner couples, migration flows in and out of gentrifying neighborhoods.
