Jesse Rothstein
rothstein@berkeley.edu
Twitter: @rothstein_jesse
Mastodon: @jesse_rothstein@econtwitter.net

Office hours:
None in 2023-24

Offices:
GSPP: 2607 Hearst Ave., #313
Economics: Evans Hall #631C

Tel:(510) 495-0646
Fax:(510) 643-9657

Mailing address:
2607 Hearst Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94720-7320

NAVIGATION:
CV
Working Papers
Published Papers
Resting Papers
Non-academic writing & video
Bio

JESSE ROTHSTEIN

Professor of Public Policy and Economics
Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Public Policy
Faculty Director, California Policy Lab
University of California, Berkeley
    On sabbatical in 2023-24

Other affiliations:
Associate editor / editorial board member: Review of Economics and Statistics, Education Finance and Policy, and Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
Fellow, National Education Policy Center, CESifo Research Network, and IZA

Curriculum Vitae


Click here for non-academic writing, California Policy Lab reports, op eds, & video.


WORKING PAPERS

NEW Location, location, location
with David Card and Moises Yi.
2023, August.

PUBLISHED AND FORTHCOMING PAPERS

NEW Choice as revelation: Using students' enrollment decisions to rank U.S. law schools
with Albert Yoon.
2023, August.
Forthcoming, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies

NEW Industry wage differentials: A firm-based approach
with David Card and Moises Yi.
2023, July.
Forthcoming, Journal of Labor Economics

Demystifying college costs: How nudges can and can't help
with Elizabeth Linos and Vikash Reddy.
2021, November.
Forthcoming, Behavioural Public Policy,
Click here for pre-publication version or here for policy brief (with Samantha Fu and Elizabeth Linos)

Varying impacts of letters of recommendation on college admissions: Approximate balancing weights for subgroup effects in observational studies
with Eli Ben-Michael and Avi Feller.
2021, August.
Forthcoming, Annals of Applied Statistics. Click here for arXiv version.

NEW The Lost Generation? Labor Market Outcomes for Post Great Recession Entrants
2023. Journal of Human Resources 58 (5), September.
Click here for pre-publication version, and here or here for replication materials.

NEW Independent contracting, self-employment, and gig work: Evidence from California tax data
with Annette Bernhardt, Chris Campos, Allen Prohofsky, and Aparna Ramesh.
2023. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 76 (2), March.
Click here for pre-publication version.

NEW Winners and Losers? The Effect of Gaining and Losing Access to Selective Colleges on Education and Labor Market Outcomes
with Sandra E. Black and Jeffrey T. Denning.
2023. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 15(1), January.
Click here for pre-publication version.

Qualitative information in undergraduate admissions: A pilot study of letters of recommendation
2022. Economics of Education Review 89, August.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for replication programs.

Does money still matter? Attainment and earnings effects of post-1990 school finance reforms
with Diane Schanzenbach.
2022. Journal of Labor Economics 40 (S1), April.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for replication materials.

Synthetic Controls with Staggered Adoption
with Eli Ben-Michael and Avi Feller.
2022. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 84 (2), April.
Click here for arXiv version. The Augsynth R package is here.
N.B.: An earlier version of this paper circulated under the title "Synthetic Controls and Weighted Event Studies with Staggered Adoption."

Can nudges increase take-up of the EITC? Evidence from multiple field experiments
with Elizabeth Linos, Allen Prohofsky, Aparna Ramesh, and Matt Unrath.
2022. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 14(4), November.
Click here for pre-publication version, or here for replication materials.

The Augmented Synthetic Control Method
with Eli Ben-Michael and Avi Feller.
2021. Journal of the American Statistical Association 116 (536), December.
Click here for arXiv version. The Augsynth R package is here.

Comment on Chapter 2: Design of Social Security Administration Demonstration Evaluations
2021. In Lessons from SSA Demonstrations for Disability Policy and Future Research, Austin Nichols, Jeffrey Hemmeter, and Debra Goetz Engler, eds., Rockville, MD: Abt Press.

A modern safety net
with Lawrence F. Katz and Michael Stynes
2021. In Combating Inequality: Rethinking Government's Role, Olivier Blanchard and Dani Rodrik, eds., MIT Press.

Measuring the labor market at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis
with Alex Bartik, Marianne Bertrand, Feng Lin, and Matthew Unrath.
2020. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Summer.
Click here for pre-publication version, or here for replication archive.

Universal Basic Income in the U.S. and Advanced Countries
with Hilary Hoynes.
2019. Annual Review of Economics 11.
Click here for pre-publication version.

Inequality of Educational Opportunity? Schools as Mediators of the Intergenerational Transmission of Income
2019. Journal of Labor Economics 37(S1), January.
Click here for pre-publication version, here for policy brief, or here for replication archive.

School Finance Reform and the Distribution of Student Achievement
with Julien Lafortune and Diane Schanzenbach
2018. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 10(2), April.
Click here for pre-publication version, here for policy brief, or here for replication archive.

Making Work Pay Better Through an Expanded Earned Income Tax Credit
with Hilary Hoynes and Krista Ruffini
2017. In The 51%: Driving Growth through Women's Economic Participation, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach & Ryan Nunn, eds., The Hamilton Project/Brookings Institution.

Scraping By: Income and Program Participation After the Loss of Extended Unemployment Benefits
with Robert G. Valletta
2017. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 36 (4), Fall, p.p. 880-908.
Click here for pre-publication version and replication files or here for blog post.

Measuring the Impact of Teachers: Comment
2017. American Economic Review 107(6), June, p.p. 1656-1684.
NB: This paper previously circulated under the title "Revisiting the Impact of Teachers."
Click here for pre-publication version, here for policy brief, or here for older versions, replication information, and rejoinder to the Reply.

Social Experiments in the Labor Market
with Till von Wachter
2017. In Handbook of Field Experiments, vol. 2, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, eds. North Holland.

The Great Recession and its Aftermath: What Role for Structural Changes?
2017. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 3(3), April. p.p. 22-49.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for replication archive.

The Measurement of Student Ability in Modern Assessment Systems
with Brian Jacob
2016. Journal of Economic Perspectives 30(3), Summer. p.p. 85-108.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for earlier version.

Tax Policy Toward Low-Income Families
with Hilary Hoynes
2017. In The Economics of Tax Policy, Alan J. Auerbach and Kent Smetters, eds., Oxford University Press.

The Earned Income Tax Credit
with Austin Nichols
2016. In Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume I, Robert A. Moffitt, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Click here for policy brief.

Unemployment Insurance and Disability Insurance in the Great Recession
with Andreas Mueller and Till von Wachter
2016. Journal of Labor Economics 34 (S1, pt. 2), January. p.p. S445-S475.
Click here for journal web site, here for Appendix, here for NBER digest summary, or here for replication archive.

The Effect of Extended Unemployment Insurance Benefits: Evidence from the 2012-2013 Phase-Out
with Henry S. Farber and Robert G. Valletta
2015. American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 105(5), May. p.p. 171-176.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for replication archive.

Teacher Quality Policy When Supply Matters
2015. American Economic Review 105(1), January. p.p. 100-130.
Click here for pre-publication version, here for New York Times op ed or here for replication archive.

Permanent Income and the Black-White Test Score Gap
with Nathan Wozny
2013. Journal of Human Resources 48(3), Summer, p.p. 510-544.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for replication archive.

Review of Two Culminating Reports from the MET Project
with William J. Mathis
2013. Think Tank Review, National Education Policy Center, Boulder Colorado, January 31.

The Labor Market Four Years Into the Crisis: Assessing Structural Explanations
2012. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 65(3), June, p.p. 467-500.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for replication archive.

Unemployment Insurance and Job Search in the Great Recession
2011 Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall, p.p. 143-210.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for replication archive.

Evaluating Teacher Evaluation
with Linda Darling-Hammond, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, and Edward Haertel
2012. Phi Delta Kappan 93(6), March, p.p. 8-15.
Click here for free version.

Constrained After College: Student Loans and Early Career Occupational Choices
with Cecilia Rouse
2011. Journal of Public Economics 95(1-2), February, p.p. 149-163.
Click here for pre-publication version.

Review of 'Learning About Teaching: Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project'
2011. Think Tank Review, National Education Policy Center, Boulder, Colorado, January 13.

Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement
2010. Quarterly Journal of Economics 125(1), February, p.p. 175-214.
Note: An early version of this paper circulated as "Do Value-Added Models Add Value?" Click here for pre-publication version, here for Appendix, or here for replication archive.

Are Mixed Neighborhoods Always Unstable? Two-Sided and One-Sided Tipping
with David Card and Alexandre Mas.
2011. In Neighborhood and Life Chances: How Place Matters in Modern America, Harriet B. Newburger, Eugenie Birch and Susan Wachter, eds., University of Pennsylvania Press.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for replication archive.

Is the EITC as Good as an NIT? Conditional Cash Transfers and Tax Incidence
2010. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 2 (1), February, p.p. 177-208
Click here for pre-publication version, here for Appendix, here for replication archive, or here for earlier working paper version, titled "The Unintended Consequences of Encouraging Work: Tax Incidence and the EITC."

The Value of School Facility Investments: Evidence from a Dynamic Regression Discontinuity Design
with Stephanie Cellini and Fernando Ferreira
2010. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 125 (1), February, p.p. 215-261.
Click here for pre-publication version, here for Appendix, or here for replication archive.

Student Sorting and Bias in Value Added Estimation: Selection on Observables and Unobservables
2009. Education Finance and Policy 4(4), Fall, 537-571
Click here for pre-publication version, or here for replication archive.

Selection Bias in College Admissions Test Scores
with Melissa Clark and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
2009. Economics of Education Review 28(3), June, pp. 295-307.
Click here for pre-publication version.

Affirmative Action in Law School Admissions: What Do Racial Preferences Do?
with Albert Yoon. 2008. University of Chicago Law Review 75(2), Spring, pp. 649-714

Tipping and the Dynamics of Segregation
with David Card and Alexandre Mas
2008. Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(1), February, pp. 177-218.
Click here for replication archive.

Does Competition Among Public Schools Benefit Students and Taxpayers? A Comment on Hoxby (2000)
2007. American Economic Review 97(5), December, pp. 2026-2037.
Click here for pre-publication version; here for Appendix; here for replication, prior versions, & supplementary material; or here for a rejoinder to Professor Hoxby's Reply.

Racial Segregation and the Black-White Test Score Gap
with David Card
2007. Journal of Public Economics 91(11-12), December, pp. 2158-2184.
Click here for pre-publication version, here for data appendix, or here for NBER digest summary for lay audience.

Good Principals or Good Peers: Parental Valuation of School Characteristics, Tiebout Equilibrium, and the Incentive Effects of Competition Among Jurisdictions
2006. American Economic Review 96(4), September, pp. 1333-1350.
Click here for pre-publication version, here for Appendices, or here for data and replication archive [23MB].

Race, Income, and College in 25 Years: The Continuing Legacy of Segregation and Discrimination
with Alan Krueger and Sarah Turner
2006. American Law and Economics Review 8(2), Summer, pp. 282-311.
Click here for pre-publication version.

Was Justice O'Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Years
with Alan Krueger and Sarah Turner
2006. In College Access: Opportunity or Privilege, Michael McPherson and Morton Schapiro, eds, New York: The College Board, pp. 35-46.

College Performance Predictions and the SAT
2004. Journal of Econometrics 121(1-2), July-August, pp. 297-317.
Click here for pre-publication version or here for policy brief.

RESTING PAPERS

Mismatch in Law School
with Albert Yoon
2009. May.

SAT Scores, High Schools, and Collegiate Performance Predictions
2009. June.

NON-ACADEMIC WRITING, VIDEO, TEACHING, ETC.

Click here!