"The Impact of United States Assimilation and Allotment Policy on American Indian Mortality" (with Grant Miller and C. Matthew Snipp)
Revise and Resubmit at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Abstract: In contrast to earlier United States policies of open war, forcible removal, and relocation to address the “Indian Problem,” the Dawes Act of 1887 focused on assimilation and land severalty — making American Indians citizens of the United States with individually-titled plots of land rather than members of collective tribes with communal land. Considerable scholarship shows that the consequences of the policy differed substantially from its stated goals, and by the time of its repeal in 1934, American Indians had lost two-thirds of all native land held in 1887 (86 million acres)—and nearly two-thirds of American Indians had become landless or unable to meet subsistence needs. Complementing rich qualitative history, this paper provides new quantitative evidence on the impact of the Dawes Act on mortality among American Indian children and adults. Using 1900 and 1910 U.S. population census data to study both household and tribe-level variation in allotment timing, we find that assimilation and allotment policy increased various measures of American Indian child and adult mortality from nearly 20% to as much as one third (implying a decline in life expectancy at birth of about 20%) — confirming contemporary critics’ adamant concerns about the Dawes Act.
"A Business Case for Human Rights at Work: Experimental Evidence on Labor Trafficking and Child Labor at Brick Kilns in Bangladesh" (with Grant Miller, Kim Babiarz, Debashish Biswas, Nina Brooks, Jessie Brunner, Sania Ashraf, Aprajit Mahajan, Sameer Maithel, Shoeb Ahmed, Moogdho Mazab, M. Rofi Uddin, Mahbubur Rahman, Stephen P. Luby)
Abstract: Globally, coercive labor (i.e., forced, bonded, and/or trafficked labor) and child labor are disproportionately prevalent in environments with weak regulatory enforcement and state capacity. Effective strategies for addressing them may therefore need to align with the private incentives of business owners, not relying on government action alone. Recognizing this, we test a ‘business case’ for improving work conditions and promoting human rights using a randomized controlled trial across nearly 300 brick kilns in Bangladesh. Among study kilns, rates of coercive and child labor are high: about 50% of sampled workers are trafficked, and about 70% of kilns use child labor. Our experiment introduced a production method that increased kiln productivity and revenue, and we test if these productivity gains in turn increase worker “compensation” (including better work conditions). Because adoption of the method requires important changes in worker routines, we also test if providing information to kiln owners about positively incentivizing workers to enhance adoption (and hence business revenue) can lead to better work conditions. We find no evidence that productivity gains alone reduced labor trafficking or child labor, but adding the information intervention reduced child labor by 25-30% without reducing revenue or increasing costs.
"Digital Market Concentration: An Institutional and Social Cost Analysis" (Senior Thesis which received High Honors from the Bowdoin College Economics Department)
Abstract: In this thesis, I develop an analysis of the industry concentration seen in digital markets today. I begin with a description and argument for the use of institutional economics. This framework allows for the integration of an interdisciplinary approach to economics. My analysis details the socioeconomic and political impacts, as well as the underlying market dynamics that have pushed digital markets towards concentration. I offer novel explanations for the lack of firm behavior that should theoretically increase profit, the existence of barriers to competition, and consumer behavior that focus on the role of social institutions. I also detail many of the social costs of these concentrated markets, such as their impact on democracy, power to influence social institutions, and the impact they have on concentration in other markets. This is done to show that the fears surrounding monopolies do not end with prices. Even in digital markets, where many times prices are very low, if not zero, there are reasons that monopoly is economically inefficient and socially sub-optimal. However, due to the path-dependent nature of the extreme benefits associated with digital markets, policymakers cannot reasonably propose breaking up these companies. Instead, they must use the power of the government to counteract the conglomerations of social power seen in these private companies in search of an optimal outcome.
"Combining Hidden Markov Models and MCMC techniques to detect social network structure among college students from dining hall data" (with Jack O'Brien and John Hood)
This was a advanced collaborative study undertaken by John Hood and I in the spring semester of our senior year. Due to time constraints this paper is still in development stages, though hopefully will be resurrected soon.
"The One-Child Policy and Fertility Decline in China" (with Grant Miller, Kim Singer Babiarz, Paul Ma, Nick Shankar, and Tiffany Zhu)