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...

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...

There is no clear theoretical prediction regarding whether home computers are an important input in the educational production function. To investigate the hypothesis that access to a home computer affects educational outcomes, we conduct the first-ever field experiment involving the provision...

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...

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...

In recent years, a plethora of public and private programs in the United States have been created to close the "Digital Divide."  Interestingly, however, we know very little about the underlying causes of racial differences in rates of computer and Internet access.  In this paper, I use...

Approximately 9 out of 10 high school students who have access to a home computer use that computer to complete school assignments. Do these home computers, however, improve educational outcomes? Using the Computer and Internet Use Supplement to the 2001 Current Population Survey, I explore...

In contrast to the large and rapidly growing literature on IT investments and firm productivity, we know very little about the role of personal computers in business creation.  Using matched data from the 1997-2001 Computer and Internet Usage Supplements to subsequent Outgoing Rotation Group...

The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity is a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States.  Capturing new business owners in their first month of significant business activity, this measure provides the earliest documentation of new business development across the...