Buy here or buy there? Exploring Potential Non-Compliance in North Carolina’s Alcohol Beverage Control System
by Zev Winston van Zanten Abstract This study examines compliance with North Carolina’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) system by studying cross-border alcohol purchases. Exploiting exogenous geographic variation in proximity to neighboring states with less restrictive alcohol regimes and differing price structures, I use distance from population-weighted county centroids to state borders as a proxy for […]
Let’s Talk About Race (or Anything)
by Julia Ruolan Ma Abstract Oral history interviews contain rich information about how individuals understand their experiences, but their length and complexity have limited their use in empirical research. I develop episodic interview analysis, a framework that segments each interview into thematic episodes at natural transition points, constructing six composite indices capturing both what narrators […]
Cannibalization or Complementarity? The Effect of Online Sports Betting on Brick-and-Mortar Casino Revenues
by Aneesh Shah Kulkarni Abstract This paper estimates the causal effect of online sports betting (OSB) launch on land-based casino revenues using a staggered difference-in-differences framework applied to a monthly panel of 23 U.S. states from 2012 through 2025. OSB launch produces no detectable reduction in total casino revenues but is associated with a 15 […]
Permitless Carry Laws and the Illegal Gun Market: Evidence from Stolen Gun Values
By Mary Ella Evans Abstract This paper examines the effect of permitless carry laws on handgun theft in the United States. Using a balanced state-year panel from 2000 to 2023, with state and year fixed effects, region-year fixed effects, and state-specific cubic time trends, I find that the adoption of permitless carry laws is associated […]
How the System Matches: Preference Alignment and Waiting Costs in Brazilian Adoption
by Yuri de Melo Costa Abstract I study how Brazil’s Sistema Nacional de Adoção e Acolhimento (SNA) (National Adoption System) matches Children and Adolescents (CAs) to Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs). Despite a ratio of roughly seven certified PAPs per available CA, thousands of children remain in institutional care. Using administrative microdata from the SNA linking […]
Externalities of Overhead Power Lines on Residential Housing Values
by Jake Park-Walters Abstract Overhead electricity transmission lines (OHLs) create negative externalities on nearby housing values largely from perceived factors including aesthetics, safety, and health. Studies have been performed outside of the US to determine the specific value impact of power lines by proximity. It is not, however, well researched within the United States–specifically in […]
RadioWaves and Ballot Boxes: How Conservative Broadcasting Influenced Southern Electoral Behavior
by Ian Carlson Bailey Abstract This study examines how conservative talk radio influenced electoral behavior in the American South during the postwar era. Focusing on Carl McIntire’s “Twentieth Century Reformation Hour” program, I exploit exogenous variation in radio signal strength driven by topographical differences to identify causal effects on voting patterns. Using a novel dataset […]
Splitting Hairs or Splitting Regions: The Differential Democratic Impacts of Splitting ZIP Codes vs. Counties During Redistricting
by Jacob Hervey Abstract In light of the Supreme Court’s holding in Gill v. Whitford, judicially-enforceable gerrymandering metrics must focus on democratic harms to individual citizens, instead of state-wide measures of proportionality. Previous literature has suggested that gerrymandering metrics should focus on the extent to which congressional districts split preexisting geographic boundaries (namely, ZIP codes […]
Religious Identity and Climate-Sustainable Behavior
by Zixin “Finnie” Zhao Abstract What motivates individual action on climate change? The study focuses on the potential influence of religious identities. It employs a laboratory experiment to investigate how priming religious identity affects individuals’ donation behaviors to climate versus non-climate charities in a dictator game setting. In contrast with expectations, this study finds no […]
Intergenerational Economic Transfers and Wealth Inequality in the United States
by Parinay Gupta Abstract Using longitudinal data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 2007-2021, this paper investigates the role of economic transfers (inheritances and gifts) in asset accumulation processes of US households, in both short-term and long-term. Analysis is done through dimensions of race, wealth quartile, and age. Examining quartiles reveals significant wealth […]
