Doing the Math
Financial literacy and financial crime: A regression discontinuity approach
Paul Freed & John Hackney
Journal of Financial Economics, July 2026
Abstract:
This study investigates how financial literacy shapes the propensity of individuals to commit financial crime. Using state-level administrative data on criminal charges linked to comprehensive public records , we exploit a policy-based discontinuity in grade level assignment based on individual birth dates that exogenously requires certain high school cohorts to attend a financial literacy course. Our estimates suggest that exposure to the course reduces the propensity to commit financial crime by 37%. The reduction is driven by declines in embezzlement and is stronger for low-income individuals. Additional evidence suggests that the reductions are primarily explained by improvements in household balance sheets.
Artificial Intelligence and Grade Inflation
Igor Chirikov
University of California Working Paper, May 2026
Abstract:
Generative AI tools can undermine the informational value of grades by performing graded course tasks. I analyze the impact of AI on grade distributions across more than 500,000 grades at a large research university from 2018 to 2025 using a difference-in-differences design. Courses with more AI-exposed tasks, such as writing and coding, saw substantial grade increases after ChatGPT’s release: the share of A grades rose by 13 percentage points, or about 30% relative to the 2022 baseline. These increases were larger where homework carried greater weight, consistent with AI substituting for student work rather than broad learning gains from AI.
The effects of comprehensive pay reform on achievement in urban schools
Eric Hanushek et al.
Journal of Urban Economics, May 2026
Abstract:
Academic performance of disadvantaged students has been stubbornly hard to improve, particularly in urban schools. The Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) addressed this problem in 2015 with a radical change in the structure of teacher compensation, basing it entirely on classroom effectiveness as determined by an evaluation system incorporating achievement growth, classroom observations and student surveys. We evaluate this institutional change with synthetic control methods that compare math and reading achievement in Dallas ISD schools with achievement for schools in other high-poverty Texas districts. We find large and significant positive effects on math achievement that increase steadily over time. For reading, there is no clear evidence of improvement in Dallas ISD relative to the synthetic control. A mechanism analysis shows that changes in teacher composition account for a majority of the math achievement increase.
Perfectionism is accelerating over time: A cross-temporal meta-analytic review of 35 years of college student data
Thomas Curran, Andrew Hill & Pia Marie Pose
Psychological Bulletin, March 2026, Pages 255-287
Abstract:
Research indicates that perfectionism is on the rise among college students. This study updates and expands on this work in several ways. First, we investigate whether self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism continue to increase in tandem with personal standards, concerns about mistakes, and doubts about actions. Second, we examine generational differences in higher order dimensions of perfectionism (perfectionistic strivings and concerns). Third, we investigate whether changes in gross domestic product per capita and inequality account for temporal differences. Fourth, we test whether relationships between perfectionism and psychopathology are changing over time. Cross-temporal meta-analyses of 307 samples encompassing 82,939 American, Canadian, and British college students revealed that self-oriented perfectionism, concerns over mistakes, and doubts about actions increased linearly. Socially prescribed perfectionism followed a quadratic trajectory, with a notable acceleration starting in the early 2000s. At the higher order level, perfectionistic strivings increased linearly, whereas perfectionistic concerns followed a quadratic trajectory. Declining gross domestic product per capita was associated with higher perfectionistic strivings, while rising inequality was associated with steeper increases in perfectionistic concerns. Furthermore, correlations between perfectionism and psychopathology remained stable over time. Overall, results reveal that college students increasingly perceive others as excessively demanding while becoming more demanding of themselves, accompanied by growing indecisiveness, uncertainty, and sensitivity about making mistakes.
Breaking the Early Bell: Lessons from the First Statewide Mandate on School Start Times
Jialu (Gloria) Dou et al.
NBER Working Paper, May 2026
Abstract:
We examine the impact of California’s Senate Bill 328 (SB 328), the first statewide mandate requiring later school start times for middle and high schools, on adolescent sleep, mental health, and academic outcomes. Using difference-in-differences and event-study designs across five data sources, we find that SB 328 increased the share of students sleeping at least 8 hours per night by 13%, meeting the CDC-recommended minimum for this age group. Average mental health effects are imprecisely estimated, but boys show significant reductions in sadness, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation, and Hispanic students, who experienced the largest sleep-timing shifts, show parallel reductions in difficulty concentrating; together these patterns are consistent with a dose-response relationship between sleep improvement and mental well-being. Math and English scores in grade 8 improved by approximately 0.08–0.10 standard deviations, with the largest gains among Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students. A within-state analysis using teachers’ commute arrival times as a proxy for pre-policy school start times corroborates these findings, and shows academic gains accumulating over 2023–2025 alongside a suggestive decline in high school dropout rates. The absence of effects on chronic absenteeism rules out an attendance-driven mechanism, pointing instead to the direct cognitive benefits of aligning school schedules with adolescents’ biological rhythms.
The Effects of School Phone Bans: National Evidence from Lockable Pouches
Hunt Allcott et al.
NBER Working Paper, April 2026
Abstract:
Schools across the U.S. have sharply restricted student use of phones during the school day. We evaluate one type of restriction -- lockable phone pouches -- using nationwide data combining large-scale surveys, GPS pings, standardized test scores, and school administrative records, along with sales records from the largest pouch provider. Using a staggered difference-in-differences design, we find that pouch adoption substantially reduces phone use as measured by GPS pings and teacher reports. In the first year after adoption, disciplinary incidents increase and student subjective well-being falls, consistent with short-term disruption. However, effects on well-being become positive in later years and disciplinary effects fade. For academic achievement, average effects on test scores are consistently close to zero. High schools see modest positive effects, particularly in math, while middle schools see small negative effects. We find little evidence of effects on school attendance, self-reported classroom attention, or perceived online bullying.
Youth Mental Health and School Smartphone Bans: Early Evidence
Henry Saffer
NBER Working Paper, May 2026
Abstract:
This paper is the first to examine the causal effects of school smartphone bans on the mental health of youth in the US. Time series data show that the mental health of youth has been declining for the past decade. Several researchers argue that easy access to social media and other internet sites provided by smartphones is to blame. To provide causal evidence of the effects of these bans, I rely on synthetic difference-in-difference models and the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) from 2016 to 2024. Currently, there are data for only one state with two post-ban periods and two states with one post-ban period, which makes the results preliminary evidence only. The outcome variables are screentime and measures of psychological wellbeing. Overall, these early results provide no clear evidence that the school ban policy reduced screentime or improved psychological wellbeing. Future studies with additional years of data, when they are available, are needed to increase power and to estimate the longer-term effects of school bans on youth mental health.
Automation and Human Capital Adjustment: The Effect of Robots on College Enrollment
Giuseppe Di Giacomo & Benjamin Lerch
Journal of Human Resources, May 2026, Pages 733-760
Abstract:
This work analyzes the link between automation and education by investigating the impact of the introduction of industrial robots on college enrollment in the US. We exploit exogenous variation in the adoption of robots across US local labor markets and show that for every additional robot adopted, four individuals enroll in college. This result is driven by rising enrollment rates in local community colleges. We also observe a shift in graduations towards more applied fields. Finally, we show that the increase in college enrollment is primarily due to reduced opportunity costs, rather than an increase in the college wage premium.
Informal connections outweigh coauthorship ties in academic impact
Lluís Danús et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 5 May 2026
Abstract:
Past work has documented the importance of formal collaboration, particularly coauthorship, in increasing research productivity and innovation. However, we know much less about how informal collaboration relates to publication success. Informal ties facilitate the exchange of intangible resources like mentoring, guidance, and feedback. These interactions form a support structure that aims to improve ideas and facilitate the successful development of research projects. However, these informal exchanges are difficult to measure because they do not leave as clear a trail as coauthorship ties. We uncover this layer of informal communication around scholarly outputs by parsing the information contained in the acknowledgment sections of published articles. Our data include political science articles authored by scholars from 2003 to 2023. We analyze scholars’ embeddedness in this informal structure of collaboration and reveal that 1) informal ties create a larger and denser network of support than coauthorship ties; 2) disconnection from informal networks is associated with lower productivity and impact; and 3) informal ties are a more relevant predictor of publication success than formal collaborations (i.e., coauthorship), even after matching for gender, seniority, methodological orientation, geographical location, and institutional prestige. Using coarsened exact matching and random forest regressions, we demonstrate that informal support structures are significantly associated with citation impact, creating gaps in who benefits from these connections.
The Achievement Effects of Scaling Early Literacy Reforms
Sarah Novicoff & Thomas Dee
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, June 2026, Pages 589-612
Abstract:
While legislators have implemented many “science of reading” initiatives in the last 2 decades, the evidence on the impact of these reforms at scale is limited. In this pre-registered, quasi-experimental study, we examine California’s recent initiative to improve early literacy across the state’s lowest-performing schools. The Early Literacy Support Block Grant (ELSBG) provided teacher professional development grounded in the science of reading as well as aligned supports (e.g., assessments and interventions), new funding (about $1,000 per student), spending flexibility within specified guidelines, and expert facilitation and oversight of school-based planning. Our preferred specification finds that ELSBG generated significant (and cost-effective) improvements in English Language Arts (ELA) achievement in its first years of implementation (0.14 standard deviation) as well as smaller improvements in math.