Research

My research is in applied microeconomics, with particular interests in labour economics, migration, education, conflict, and applied econometrics.

Google Scholar · IZA profile · CEPR profile · St Andrews Research Profile

Current research

Robustness? Range Tests for Equality and Equivalence Across Specifications

PDF · R package · Stata package

“Taming of the Zoo: A Practical Practitioner’s Guide to Staggered-Adoption Difference-in-Differences”

In progress.

Shift-Share Instruments and Dynamic Adjustments: The Case of Immigration

With Joakim Ruist and Jan Stuhler. Revision requested by the Journal of Labor Economics.

Earlier NBER version · IZA Discussion Paper 11307

Applied econometrics

• “A Cautionary Tale of Evaluating Identifying Assumptions: Did Reality TV Really Cause a Decline in Teenage Childbearing?”, with Theodore J. Joyce and Robert Kaestner. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 38(2):317–326, 2020.
  • Earlier IZA version
• “Tweet Sixteen and Pregnant: Missing Links in the Causal Chain from Reality TV to Fertility”, with Theodore J. Joyce and Robert Kaestner. International Journal for Re-Views in Empirical Economics 3(1), 2019.
• “On Measuring and Reducing Selection Bias with a Quasi-Doubly Randomized Preference Trial”, with Theodore J. Joyce, Dahlia K. Remler, Onur Altindag, Stephen D. O’Connell, and Sean Crockett. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 36(2):438–459, 2017.
  • Earlier NBER version
• “Problems with Instrumental Variables Estimation When the Correlation between the Instruments and the Endogenous Explanatory Variable Is Weak”, with John Bound and Regina M. Baker. Journal of the American Statistical Association 90(430):443–450, 1995.
  • Earlier NBER technical working paper
  • 1970 Census data: use https://www.djaeger.org/data/ak2029.dta
  • 1980 Census data: use https://www.djaeger.org/data/ak3039.dta
• “On the Sensitivity of Return to Schooling Estimates to Estimation Methods, Model Specification, and Influential Outliers if Identification Is Weak”, with Juliane Parys. IZA Discussion Paper 3961, 2009.

Education and labour

• “The Demand for Interns”, with John M. Nunley, R. Alan Seals, Carrie L. Shandra, and Eric C. Wilbrandt. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 209:372–390, 2023.
• “Does Classroom Time Matter?”, with Theodore J. Joyce, Sean Crockett, Onur Altindag, and Stephen D. O’Connell. Economics of Education Review 46:64–77, 2015.
  • Earlier NBER version
• “Natives, the Foreign-Born, and High School Equivalents: New Evidence on the Returns to the GED”, with Melissa E. Clark. Journal of Population Economics 19(4):769–793, 2006.
• “Estimating the Returns to Education Using the Newest Current Population Survey Education Questions”. Economics Letters 78(3):385–394, 2003.
• “Do Compulsory School Attendance Laws Alone Explain the Association between Earnings and Quarter of Birth?”, with John Bound. Research in Labor Economics 19:83–108, 2000.
• “Methods for Reconciling the Change in the Educational Attainment Question in the Current Population Survey and Census”. Monthly Labor Review 120(8):36–40, 1997.
• “Reconciling the Old and New Census Bureau Education Questions: Recommendations for Researchers”. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 15(3):300–309, 1997.
  • Data: use https://www.djaeger.org/data/jaeger_jbes97.dta
• “Degrees Matter: New Evidence on Sheepskin Effects in the Returns to Education”, with Marianne E. Page. Review of Economics and Statistics 78(4):733–740, 1996.
  • Data: use https://www.djaeger.org/data/jaeger_page.dta
• “Is Job Stability in the United States Falling? Reconciling Trends in the Current Population Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics”, with Ann Huff Stevens. Journal of Labor Economics 17(4):S1–S28, 1999.
• “Proprietary Higher Education and the Labor Market: What Would We Like to Know?”, November 1999.

Immigration and migration

• “Skill Differences and the Effect of Immigrants on the Wages of Natives.” In World Scientific Encyclopaedia of Global Migration, Vol. 1, pp. 11–44, 2024. DOI
• “The Economic Diversity of Immigration Across the United States,” with Rachel M. Friedberg. In World Scientific Encyclopaedia of Global Migration, Vol. 1, pp. 45–70, 2024. DOI
• “The Persistence of Self-Employment Across Borders: New Evidence on Legal Immigrants to the United States”, with Randall K. Q. Akee and Konstantinos Tatsiramos. Economics Bulletin 33(1):126–137, 2013.
• “Direct Evidence on Risk Attitudes and Migration”, with Thomas Dohmen, Armin Falk, David Huffman, Uwe Sunde, and Holger Bonin. Review of Economics and Statistics 92(3):684–689, 2010.
  • Earlier IZA version with additional results
• “Green Cards and the Location Choices of Immigrants in the United States, 1971–2000”. Research in Labor Economics 27:131–183, 2007.
• “The Economic Diversity of Immigration Across the United States”, with Rachel M. Friedberg. IZA Discussion Paper 4555, 2009.
• “Skill Differences and the Effect of Immigrants on the Wages of Natives”. Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper 273.
• “Local Labor Markets, Admission Categories, and Immigrant Location Choice”, June 2000.

Conflict and political violence

• “Are Drone Strikes Effective in Afghanistan and Pakistan? On the Dynamics of Violence between the United States and the Taliban”, with Zahra Siddique. CESifo Economic Studies 64(4):667–697, 2018.
• “Can Militants Use Violence to Win Public Support? Evidence from the Second Intifada”, with Esteban Klor, Sami Miaari, and M. Daniele Paserman. Journal of Conflict Resolution 59(3):528–549, 2015.
• “The Struggle for Palestinian Hearts and Minds: Violence and Public Opinion in the Second Intifada”, with Esteban Klor, Sami Miaari, and M. Daniele Paserman. Journal of Public Economics 96(3–4):354–368, 2012.
• “The Shape of Things to Come? On the Dynamics of Suicide Attacks and Targeted Killings”, with M. Daniele Paserman. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 4(4):315–342, 2009.
• “The Cycle of Violence? An Empirical Analysis of Fatalities in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict”, with M. Daniele Paserman. American Economic Review 98(4):1591–1604, 2008.
• “Israel, the Palestinian Factions, and the Cycle of Violence”, with M. Daniele Paserman. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 96(2):45–49, 2006.

Other research

• “The Global COVID-19 Student Survey: First Wave Results”, with Jaime Arellano-Bover, Krzysztof Karbownik, Marta Martínez-Matute, John Nunley, R. Alan Seals, and coauthors. Covid Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers 79:152–217, 2021.
  • Online appendix
  • IZA Discussion Paper 14419
• “Wine Retail Price Dispersion in the United States: Searching for Expensive Wines?”, with Karl Storchmann. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 101(3):136–140, 2011.
• “Coding Geographic Areas Across Census Years: Creating Consistent Definitions of Metropolitan Areas”, with Susanna Loeb, Sarah E. Turner, and John Bound. NBER Working Paper 6772, 1998.

Book reviews and comments

• Review of American Wine Economics: An Exploration of the U.S. Wine Industry, by James Thornton. Journal of Wine Economics 8(3):357–359, 2013.
• “Variability in Punitive Damages: Comment”. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 166:33–37, 2010.

Reports and other publications

• “Strike Out,” with Zahra Siddique. Letter to the editor, Foreign Policy, May/June 2012.
• “The Cycle of Violence and Palestinian Public Opinion,” with M. Daniele Paserman. VoxEU, June 10, 2008.
• “Illegal Immigrants and the Economy”. Letter to the editor, New York Times, June 10, 2006.
  • Barry Chiswick’s op-ed
• “Replacing the Undocumented Workforce”. Center for American Progress, April 2006.
• “Deporting the Undocumented: A Cost Assessment”, with Rajeev Goyle. Center for American Progress, July 2005.

Data and replication files

Where available, data and replication materials are linked directly beneath the relevant paper. Older datasets remain available from the data archive.