My research agenda currently covers two broad areas: school nutrition programs and performance signals in educational contexts.
Drafts, slides, and replication packages will be linked once available.
Gender Biased Resistance to Harsh Feedback
Under Revision [Working Paper] [Slides] [Replication Package]
Presentations: AEA/ASSA Annual Meeting 2026 (Philadelphia, PA); UF Applied Microeconomics Reading Group 2025 (Gainesville, FL); SEA Annual Conference 2024 (Washington, DC); UF Statistics Department Winter Workshop 2024 (Gainesville, FL)
Previously "Resistance to Feedback: Experimental Evidence of Gender Bias in Accepting Harsh Feedback"
Universal Free Meals and the Distribution of Student Achievement in the Post-Pandemic Era
Under Revision [Working Paper] [Slides] [Replication Package]
Abstract: This paper evaluates the effects of universal free school meals (UFM) on the distribution of student achievement. Exploiting the timing of a pandemic-era USDA policy and data from Florida, I estimate UFM’s effects on reading and math achievement and chronic absenteeism. Consistent with recent work, I find no evidence of improvements in overall student performance; however, this result masks heterogeneity across the distribution of student achievement. Specifically, I find that UFM significantly reduces the proportion of students performing at both the lowest (inadequacy) and highest (mastery) levels. I argue that these adverse effects among top performers are consistent with peer and class size effects induced by increased attendance of lower-achieving students.
Presentations: APPAM Fall Research Conference 2025 (Seattle, WA); UF Applied Microeconomics Reading Group 2024 (Gainesville, FL)
Subsumes "There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: School Meals, COVID Recovery, and Fiscal Substitution''
Evaluating Evaluators: Experimental Evidence of Sequential Biases in Performance Evaluations (with Perihan Saygin and Mark Rush)
Analysis Stage [Working Paper] [Slides] [Replication Package] Pre-registered: AEARCTR-0013780.
Abstract: Many educational and professional outcomes depend on performance evaluations. These evaluations might be in the form of admission or hiring decisions, or selection of an award or scholarship/grant, or even loan applications. We aim to identify and explore accuracy in performance evaluations using data from an incentivized peer grading assignment in a large introductory economics course. Through our experimental design, we are able to randomize the quality, perceived identity, and order of a series of assignments to be graded. We find strong evidence of sequential biases: assignments graded first and those graded after a particularly strong assignment tend to receive lower scores. Our findings are consistent with a contrast effect model in which evaluators enter the experiment with overly-optimistic beliefs of student performance. We simulate sequential biases in a structural model and propose policy interventions to limit these biases.
Presentations: SEA Annual Conference 2025 (Tampa, FL); WATE-FL 2025 (Gainesville, FL); UF Applied Microeconomics Reading Group 2024 (Gainesville, FL)
Reactions to Feedback: Grades, Effort Allocation, and Performance (with Perihan Saygin, Thomas Knight and Mark Rush)
Analysis Stage [Working Paper] [Slides] [Replication Package] Pre-registered: AEARCTR-0010898.
Abortion Access, Prescription Contraceptives, and Fertility Decisions (with Di Fang and Tianze Jiao)
Analysis Stage [Working Paper] [Slides] [Replication Package]
Presentations: UF Applied Microeconomics Reading Group 2025 (Gainesville, FL)
The Demand for Over-the-Counter Contraceptives after Dobbs (with Holly Stidham)
Analysis Stage [Working Paper] [Slides] [Replication Package]
On Rank Effects (with Carlos Estrada and Thomas Knight)
Experiment & Data Collection [Working Paper] [Slides] [Replication Package] Pre-registered: AEARCTR-0014216.