Research

Is the Mortality Gap Between Red and Blue States Caused by Government?

(with Jijee Bhattarai & David Slichter)

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In Progress

Abstract

In the US, age-adjusted mortality rates are higher in “red” states, i.e., states with high support for the Republican Party. We ask whether this is due to state-level policies as opposed to confounding variables such as culture. Using a variety of empirical approaches, we find that state policy explains between 0 and 20% of the mortality gap. Scaling this by the size of the (large) gap, red state policies increase mortality risk by 0-3% relative to blue state policies.

The Effects of Accountable Advice

(with Ozlem Tonguc)

In Progress

Abstract

The literature on advised decision making finds that a third-party advisor allows a decision maker to deflect blame for an unfair action and largely escape accountability for this unfair action. In the context of the consulting industry, we ask whether direct accountability of the third-party advisor, i.e. a consulting company, may change both the advice of a third-party advisor and ultimately whether or not the decision maker chooses a fair or unfair action. We answer this question by conducting a lab-experiment in which we vary whether the advisor is accountable or not. We find that direct accountability reduces the probability of both unfair advice and unfair action. We speculate that such accountability applied to the consulting industry may reduce the intrinsic value of firms hiring a consultant through this accountability channel but do not expect firms to no longer hire such agencies as a result.

Is the Red-Blue Achievement Gap Due to State Policy?

In Progress

Abstract

In the US, a popular view is that Democrats exhibit greater support for education, including funding education more generously. Consistent with this fact, students in Democratic states score higher on standardized tests than Republican states. I ask whether these differences are due to differences in state-level policies or confounding due to variables such as attitudes about the importance of education. Using two empirical approaches, I find that state policy does not explain this gap. At most, my estimates imply differences of 0.01 standard deviations of student achieving due to state policy.