A primary way that natural resources affect a locality is through the demand for labor, with
greater extraction requiring more workers. Shifts in labor demand can be measured through …

Do natural resources benefit producer economies, or is there a “Natural Resource Curse”,
perhaps as the crowd-out of manufacturing productivity spillovers reduces long-term …

We study how the recent housing boom and bust affected college enrollment during the
2000s. We exploit cross-city variation in local housing booms, which improved labor market …

I survey the evidence on patterns in US high school graduation rates over the period 1970–
2010 and report the results of new research conducted to fill in holes in the evidence. I begin …

The US coal industry has experienced economic decline over the past several decades,
which has resulted in a loss of mining jobs and severe economic hardship in many coal …

Coal mining has a long legacy of providing needed jobs in isolated communities but it is
also associated with places that suffer from high poverty and weaker long-term economic …

Human capital is among the most important drivers of long-run economic growth, but its
macroeconomic determinants are still not well understood. This paper demonstrates the …

The authors explore the educational response to fracking—a recent technological
breakthrough in the oil and gas industry—by taking advantage of the timing of its diffusion …

This paper explores the labor market and schooling effects of the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative, which provides work authorization to eligible …

This paper studies human capital responses to the availability of the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary work authorization and …