Sessions that caught my eye in the ASSA program

Economics of Higher Education

Lightning Round Session

 Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025   8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (PST)

 Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Golden Gate 3

Hosted By: American Economic Association

• Chair: Caroline Hoxby, Stanford University

Cap-and-Apply: Unintended Consequences of College Application Policy in South Korea

Taekyu Eom

, 

SUNY-Buffalo

 

•  View Abstract

 

College Course Shutouts

Kevin Mumford

, 

Purdue University

Richard Patterson

, 

Brigham Young University

Anthony Yim

, 

Brigham Young University

 

•  View Abstract
 
•  Download Preview (PDF, 3.27 MB)

Do Double Majors Face Less Risk? An Analysis of Human Capital Diversification

Andrew S. Hanks

, 

Ohio State University

Shengjun Jiang

, 

Wuhan University

Xuechao Qian

, 

Stanford University

 

Bo Wang

, 

Nankai University

Bruce A. Weinberg

, 

Ohio State University

•  View Abstract

 

Inequality-Aware Market Design

Paper Session

 Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025   10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (PST)

 Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Union Square 1 and 2

Hosted By: Econometric Society

• Chair: Piotr Dworczak, Northwestern University

Waiting or Paying for Healthcare: Evidence from the Veterans Health Administration

Anna Russo

, 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

•  View Abstract

Optimal Redistribution via Income Taxation and Market Design

Mohammad Akbarpour

, 

Stanford University

Pawel Doligalski

, 

University of Bristol

Piotr Dworczak

, 

Northwestern University

 

Scott Duke Kominers

, 

Harvard University

•  View Abstract

Should the Government Sell You Goods? Evidence from the Milk Market in Mexico

Diego Javier Jimenez Hernandez

, 

Chicago Federal Reserve

 

Enrique Seira

, 

Michigan State University

•  View Abstract

Taxing Externalities without Hurting the Poor

Mallesh M. Pai

, 

Rice University

Philipp Strack

, 

Yale University

 

•  View Abstract

Discussant(s)

Vasiliki Skreta

, 

University of Texas-Austin and University College London

Dmitry Taubinsky

, 

University of California-Berkeley

Mohammad Akbarpour

, 

Stanford University

Dan Waldinger

, 

New York University

 

 

Market Design in College Admissions

Paper Session

 Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025   10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (PST)

 Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Union Square 11

Hosted By: Econometric Society

• Chair: Evan Riehl, Cornell University

College Application Mistakes and the Design of Information Policies at Scale

Anaïs Fabre

, 

Toulouse School of Economics

Tomas Larroucau

, 

Arizona State University

Christopher Andrew Neilson

, 

Princeton University

Ignacio Rios

, 

University of Texas-Dallas

 

•  View Abstract

Inequity in Centralized College Admissions with Public and Private Universities: Evidence from Albania

Iris Vrioni

, 

University of Michigan

 

•  View Abstract

Stakes and Signals: An Empirical Investigation of Muddled Information in Standardized Testing

Germán Reyes

, 

Middlebury College

Evan Riehl

, 

Cornell University

 

Ruqing Xu

, 

Cornell University

•  View Abstract
 
•  Download Preview (PDF, 1.12 MB)

 

Finance and Development

Paper Session

 Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025   1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (PST)

 Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Continental Ballroom 9

Hosted By: American Economic Association

• Chair: Martin Kanz, World Bank

Default Contagion in Microfinance

Natalia Rigol

, 

Harvard Business School

Ben Roth

, 

Harvard Business School

 

•  Hide Abstract

Abstract

Joint liability is one of the hallmarks of microfinance. Though it is intended to reduce non-payment, it has also been hypothesized to lead to default contagion, whereby non-payment by one borrower may reduce the likelihood of repayment by groupmates. Utilizing unexpected deaths, we document significant default contagion in one of Chile's largest microfinance institutions. We estimate that a single default causes an additional 0.8 borrowers to default, indicating that nearly half of observed default is due to contagion. 

Credit Contracts, Business Development, and Gender: Evidence from Uganda

Selim Gulesci

, 

Trinity College Dublin

 

Francesco Loiacono

, 

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Miri Stryjan

, 

Aalto University

Andreas Madestam

, 

Stockholm University

•  View Abstract

Discrimination Expectations in the Credit Market: Survey Evidence from India

Stefano Fiorin

, 

Bocconi University

Joseph Hall

, 

Stanford University

Martin Kanz

, 

World Bank

 

•  View Abstract

Discussant(s)

Simone Gabrielle Schaner

, 

University of Southern California

Anna Vitali

, 

New York University

Janis Skrastins

, 

Washington University-St. Louis

 

Diane Coleman, Fierce Foe of the Right-to-Die Movement, (1953-2024)

 A courageous, long-lived disability-rights activist who made an eloquent case against medical aid in dying has died.

Diane Coleman, Fierce Foe of the Right-to-Die Movement, Dies at 71
Her fight for disability rights included founding a group called Not Dead Yet, which protested the work of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and others.   By Clay Risen

"At the core of her critique was the argument that the idea of a “right to die” was evidence of how little society valued people like her and a warning that the health care system was broken.

“It is already possible in some states for impoverished disabled, elderly and chronically ill people to get assistance to die,” she told the House Judiciary Committee in 1996, “but impossible for them to get shoes, eyeglasses and tooth repair.”

"Not Dead Yet showed up at Princeton University in 1999 after the university announced the hiring of Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher who had argued for voluntary euthanasia for people with disabilities.

...

“It’s the ultimate form of discrimination to offer people with disabilities help to die,” she told The New York Times in 2011, “without having offered real options to live.”

The right to contraception is open to question again in the U.S.

 Here's a paper in the J. of Women's health that brings us up to date on contraception law in the U.S.

The Right to Contraception Act: A Present-Day Imperative, by Eli Y. Adashi, Daniel P. O’Mahony, and I. Glenn Cohen, Journal of Women's Health, published online Dec 2024

"For nearly 60 years, the right to contraception was deemed a constitutional right secure by dint of the landmark 1965 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut.1 The court found unconstitutional a Connecticut law declaring that “[a]ny person who uses any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception shall be fined not less than fifty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days nor more than one year or be both fined and imprisoned,” as well as aiding and abetting that act, as applied to a physician and professor who “gave information, instruction, and medical advice to married persons as to the means of preventing conception.”1 In so doing, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the protection afforded by the U.S. Constitution to the “right to marital privacy” and thus to the liberty of married couples to deploy contraceptives absent governmental restriction.1 Seven years later, in Eisenstadt v. Baird, the U.S. Supreme Court extended the constitutional protections of Griswold v. Connecticut to unmarried couples.2
 

"More recently, however, in 2022, doubts have arisen as to the durability of the Griswold v. Connecticut precedent. Specifically, in his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Clarence Thomas urged that “in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”3 It is with an eye to protecting against potential reversal of the right to use contraceptives, especially those viewed by some antiabortion advocates as abortifacients, that congressional Democrats saw to the introduction of the Right to Contraception Act.4,5

...

"All indications are that the Right to Contraception Act is unlikely to advance in the current divided Congress. While some states saw to the establishment of legal or constitutional measures with an eye toward protecting the right to contraception, the trend was hardly uniform. A relevant health care bill in Missouri remains unenacted.7 Uniform Republican opposition to the right to contraception has been underway for some time in Arizona as well.7 Comparable legislation proposed in the Democratic-controlled Virginia legislature by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Richmond) and Del. Cia Price (D-Newport News) was vetoed by Governor Glenn A. Youngkin.7 A house divided has yet to reunite in the spirit of Griswold v. Connecticut."