APRe Publications

Research in this area considers the impact of public policies and the social environment on the health, education, and wellbeing of persons

Amuedo-Dorantes, C., Kaushal, N., & Muchow, A. N. (2021). Timing of social distancing policies and COVID-19 mortality: county-level evidence from the U.S. Journal of Population Economics, 34(4), 1445–1472.

Using county-level data on COVID-19 mortality and infections, along with county-level information on the adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), we examine how the speed of NPI adoption affected COVID-19 mortality in the United States. Our estimates suggest that adopting safer-at-home orders or non-essential business closures 1 day before infections double can curtail the COVID-19 death rate by 1.9%. This finding proves robust to alternative measures of NPI adoption speed, model specifications that control for testing, other NPIs, and mobility and across various samples (national, the Northeast, excluding New York, and excluding the Northeast). We also find that the adoption speed of NPIs is associated with lower infections and is unrelated to non-COVID deaths, suggesting these measures slowed contagion. Finally, NPI adoption speed appears to have been less effective in Republican counties, suggesting that political ideology might have compromised their efficacy.

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Cantor, J., & Laurito, A. (2021). The new services that opioid treatment programs have adopted in response to COVID-19. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 130, 108393.

COVID-19 has exacerbated the opioid epidemic and transformed how programs treat opioid use disorder. In response to the pandemic, the federal government modified guidelines to allow opioid treatment programs (OTPs) greater flexibility in the provision of medication for opioid use disorder. We conducted a telephone survey of 31.10% of OTPs in the contiguous United States between June and July 2020. We contacted a random sample of 477 facilities and obtained responses from 373. The survey asked questions about new patient intake, screening for COVID-19, social distancing measures, as well as new treatments offered due to changes in federal government policy. We calculated percentages of positive and nonpositive responses to each survey question. We estimated logistic regressions of facility-, county- and state-level predictors of each treatment approach. Most OTPs are taking new patients (91%). Roughly 83% of them screen for COVID-19 symptoms for in-person visits and about 92% use social distancing measures. More than half of OTPs provide curbside treatment (83%) or telehealth (81%). Less than a quarter of OTPs offer medication drop off (21%) or pick up by a trusted person (32%) when patients need to quarantine due to COVID-19. Results from multivariable logistic regressions show that OTPs in states that had a shelter-in-place policy are more likely to socially distance for in-person visits than those in states without such a policy.

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Laurito, A., & Schwartz, A. E. (2019). Does School Lunch Fill the “SNAP Gap” at the End of the Month?. Southern Economic Journal, 86(1), 49-82.

This article investigates the relationship between the timing of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit payments and participation in school lunch and breakfast using the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey. An event study approach examines participation over the five-day window before and after the SNAP payment. We find that school lunch participation decreases by 17–23 percentage points immediately after the SNAP payment among 11–18 year olds while breakfast drops by 19–36 percentage points. The decline begins the day prior to payment. We find no effects for 5–10 year olds. Models examining participation over the full SNAP month using individual fixed effects yield similar findings. Among teenagers, participation in school lunch and breakfast decline in the first two weeks of the SNAP month, increasing afterward. Non-school meals show the opposite pattern. Overall, results indicate SNAP households rely more on school lunch and breakfast toward the end of the SNAP month.

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This area of research considers how law, policy, and the social context influence immigrant integration.

Muchow, A., & Bozick, R. (2022). Exploring the role of legal status and neighborhood social capital on immigrant economic integration in Los Angeles. Demographic Research, 46, 1-36.

This paper examines the extent to which immigrant legal status conditions economic integration in the United States and whether neighborhood social capital moderates this relationship. Relying on a large probability sample of individuals residing in Los Angeles County, we employ inverse probability of treatment-weighted linear regressions to compare the labor market outcomes of undocumented immigrants to those of immigrants with varying forms of legal status and to examine how neighborhood social capital moderates the link between legal status and economic attainment. We find two distinct modes of economic incorporation: one of steady work and higher wages among immigrants with citizenship status, and one of lower earnings and greater reliance on self-employment among immigrants in the country without documentation. Our results suggest that neighborhood social capital does not improve the labor market prospects of undocumented immigrants and in some cases may penalize them. By extending research on immigrant economic integration, this study highlights the labor market penalties experienced by undocumented immigrants, the limitations of neighborhood social capital in facilitating their integration into the American economy, and the potential value of self-employment.

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Laurito, A. (2022). The Effect of Home Country Natural Disasters on the Academic Outcomes of Immigrant Students in New York City. Education Finance and Policy, 17(2), 309-334.

This paper estimates the impact of home country natural disasters on the academic performance of immigrant students in New York City public schools. It provides credible evidence of these effects by exploiting the exogenous timing of natural disasters relative to testing dates in models with student fixed effects. Natural disasters in the home country lower immigrant students’ test scores in reading by 0.051 standard deviation,  and by 0.028 standard deviation in mathematics. This paper provides strong evidence that the home country is an important out-of-school factor shaping immigrant students’  academic success and shows that children are affected by distal contexts in which they do not directly participate.

Secondary research area: Social Policy

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APRe-Lab research in this area primarily focuses on the causes and consequences of crime and criminal justice contact.

Laurito, A., Schwartz, A.E., & Elbel, B. (2022). Exposure to local violent crime and childhood obesity and fitness: Evidence from New York City public school students. Health & Place. 78.

This paper estimates the relationship between neighborhood violent crime and child and adolescent weight and fitness. It uses detailed data from the Fitnessgram assessments of public school students in New York City matched to point specific crime data geocoded to students’ residential location. Our empirical approach compares the weight and fitness outcomes of students exposed to a violent crime on their residential H-block with those living in the same census tract but not exposed to violent crime in close proximity to their home. We find for adolescent girls, increases in BMI that range from 0.01 to 0.035 standard deviations and an increase in the probability of overweight of 0.5 to 1.7 percentage points. We find little evidence that BMI, obesity, and overweight change as a result of violent crime for adolescent boys, and younger children. Results are not explained by declines in physical fitness.

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Muchow, A. (2022). Can community policing reduce the chilling effect of immigration enforcement on Latinx crime reporting? Evidence from Los Angeles. Crime & Delinquency.

While scholars have linked immigration enforcement with reductions in Latinx crime reporting, little research has examined the tools localities can use to counter reporting declines. This study assesses whether a community policing program adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) offset documented decreases in Latinx domestic violence reporting after President Trump assumed office. Using data on crimes reported to the LAPD between 2014 and 2019, this study finds that while domestic violence reports made by Latinx victims declined elsewhere after Trump took office, they increased in areas exposed to the community policing program. Results suggest that community policing may be a viable tool to encourage help-seeking behavior among residents vulnerable to deportation.

Secondary research: Immigration

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Schwartz, A. E., Laurito, A., Lacoe, J., Sharkey, P., & Ellen, I. G. (2022). The academic effects of chronic exposure to neighbourhood violence. Urban Studies,  59(14): 3005-3021. 

This paper estimates the causal effect of repeated exposure to violent crime on test scores in New York City. We use two empirical strategies; value-added models linking student performance on standardised exams to violent crimes on students’ residential block, and a regression discontinuity approach that identifies the acute effect of additional crime exposure within a one-week window. Exposure to violent crime reduces academic performance. Value-added models suggest the average effect is very small (approximately −0.01 standard deviations) but grows with repeated exposure. Regression discontinuity (RD) models also find a larger effect among children previously exposed. The marginal acute effect is as large as −0.04 standard deviations for students with two or more prior exposures. Among these, it is almost one tenth of a standard deviation for Black students. We provide credible causal evidence that repeated exposure to neighbourhood violence harms test scores, and this negative effect increases with exposure.

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Muchow, A. N., & Amuedo-Dorantes, C. (2020). Immigration enforcement awareness and community engagement with police: Evidence from domestic violence calls in Los Angeles. Journal of Urban Economics, 117.

The unwillingness of Latino and immigrant communities to interact with the police or report crime is a recognized concern of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).  Using data on calls for service dispatched to LAPD patrols from 2014 through 2017, we assess if heightened awareness of immigration enforcement, as captured by a novel Google Trends index on related searches, is associated with reduced calls to report domestic violence in predominately Latino noncitizen neighborhoods.  We find that domestic violence calls per capita dropped in LAPD reporting districts with a higher concentration of Latino noncitizens as awareness about immigration enforcement increased.  The decline provides empirical evidence of the “chilling effect” of immigration enforcement on Latino immigrant engagement with the police, underscoring the need to engage communities increasingly alienated by federal immigration policy.

Secondary research area: Immigration

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Laurito, A., Lacoe, J., Schwartz, A. E., Sharkey, P., & Ellen, I. G. (2019). School climate and the impact of neighborhood crime on test scores. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5(2), 141-166. 

Does school climate ameliorate or exacerbate the impact of neighborhood violent crime on test scores? Using administrative data from the New York City Department of Education and the New York City Police Department, we find that exposure to violence in the residential neighborhood and an unsafe climate at school lead to substantial test score losses in English language arts (ELA). Middle school students exposed to neighborhood violent crime before the ELA exam who attend schools perceived to be less safe or to have a weak sense of community score 0.06 and 0.03 standard deviations lower, respectively. We find the largest negative effects for boys and Hispanic students in the least safe schools, and no effect of neighborhood crime for students attending schools with better climates.

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