I am a Foundation Professor in the School of Public Affairs and a faculty affiliate in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University, as well as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). Previously, I was the George Soros Visiting Chair in the School of Public Policy at Central European University, a Visiting Professor in the Department of Economics and Business Economics at Aarhus University, and a Fulbright Fellow at Aalborg University.
My research focuses on the economics of child care and early childhood education, early human capital formation, and the social safety net. Some of my recent work examines the spillover effects of non-child care policy — including minimum wages, interior immigration enforcement, and reproductive technology — on the child care market. I have also studied the impact of children's early exposure to child care on their cognitive and social-emotional development.
My work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed outlets, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Educational Researcher, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. My research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, and other institutions.
My work has been featured in major news outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Atlantic, TIME, and Bloomberg. I have spoken about child care and early education as a guest on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, The Indicator, Shankar Vedantam's Hidden Brain, and KJZZ's The Show.
