Book
Economics, Sexuality, and Male Sex Work
Cambridge University Press (2017)
Edited Volume
U.S. Census 2020: Continuity and Change
(with Zhenchao Qian)
RSF: The Russell Sage Journal of the Social Sciences Volume 11 (2025) (Issues 1-2)
Published Articles
“Racial Residential Segregation in the United States”
(with John M. Parman)
Abstract: Residential segregation is a central factor in explaining socioeconomic gaps across race and ethnicity in the United States. Place of residence directly impacts access to schools, jobs, and healthcare. There is an ever-evolving literature across the social sciences disciplines documenting the general patterns in residential segregation as well as the causes and consequences of those patterns. This article reviews key parts of that literature. We provide an overview of the measurement of segregation and the general evolution of segregation patterns over time and at different scales. We then review the literatures on both segregation’s determinants and its impact on a range of socioeconomic outcomes. We highlight the potential for new insights to be gained from new approaches to quantifying segregation and new frameworks such as stratification for understanding its complex roots.
“Creating Citizen-Subjects: Reconstruction and the Political Invention of Black Sovereignty”
Abstract: This paper reframes the establishment of public education in the South by Black politicians after the Civil War as a successful attempt to create new citizen-subjects in the United States. Black politicians established the right to education for Black citizens and the mechanism for its institutional and fiscal sustainability. This created a new class of citizens who were explicitly rights bearers and also had claims on resources from the state in a way that defied antebellum American norms of racialized citizenship. Moreover, once established, this right was not abolished. The expansion of the citizen-subject was further institutionalized and the twentieth century expansion of civil rights was predicted on Reconstruction's expansion of the citizen-subject.
“The Long-Run Impacts of Mentoring Underrepresented Minority Groups in Economics”
(with Francisca M. Antman, Sheng Qu, and Bruce A. Weinberg)
Abstract: We conduct a long-run evaluation of one of the oldest professional mentoring programs for underrepresented groups in economics, the American Economic Association Mentoring Program (AEAMP). The AEAMP was established to address the underrepresentation of racial/ethnic minority groups by mentoring doctoral students and new Ph.D.s in economics. We compare professional outcomes of mentees with similar individuals from the same Ph.D. cohort who did not participate in the program. While there are no differences for many outcomes, mentees are more likely to hold a tenure-track or tenured position. Our results point to the potential for mentoring programs to address persistent racial/ethnic disparities.
“Black-Friendly Businesses in Cities During the Civil Rights Era”
(with Lisa D. Cook, Maggie E.C. Jones, and David Rosé)
Abstract: Quantitative analysis of Black business districts and evidence on the magnitude of social change leading up to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in particular as it relates to the accessibility of public accommodations, is limited. We combine newly digitized data on the precise geocoded location of nearly 6,000 Green Book establishments---public accommodations that were friendly towards African American clientele---across major urban areas with existing and new sources of data on social change to understand the dynamics of Black-friendly businesses within cities during the middle of the twentieth century. In doing so, we document a new set of facts. First, we show that the location and growth of Green Book establishments responded to economic forces. Second, we show that there was a large increase in the number of Green Book establishments in cities between 1939 and 1955. Third, for Green Book establishments located in cities for which the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) drew residential security maps, the vast majority (nearly 70 percent) were located in the lowest-grade, redlined neighborhoods. And finally, we show that 1950s urban renewal projects were related to the contraction of non-discriminatory businesses. Collectively, these facts suggest that more research on Black-owned and Black-friendly businesses is needed to fully understand the economics of urban change in the twentieth century.
Non-Representative Sampled Networks: Estimation of
Network Structural Properties by Weighting
(with Chih-Sheng Hsieh, Stanley Ko, Yu-Chin Hsu and Jaromir Kovarik)
Abstract: This paper analyzes statistical issues arising from non-representative samples of a network. Sampled network data could systematically bias the network properties and generate non-classical measurement error problems. Apart from the sampling rate and the elicitation procedure, the biases on network structural measures depend non-trivially on which subpopulations of nodes are missing with higher probability. We propose a methodology, adapting weighted estimators to networked contexts, which enables researchers to recover several network-level statistics and reduce the biases in the estimated network effects. The proposed weighted estimators are consistent and asymptotically normally distributed and have good performance in finite samples. Notably, our approach does not require users to assume any network formation model and is straightforward to implement.
“The Enduring Effects of Racial Discrimination on Income and Health”
Journal of Economic Literature 61 (3): 924-940 [with Shari Eli and Boriana Miloucheva]
"Whitelashing: Black Politicians, Taxes, and Violence"
Journal of Economic History 83 (2): 538-571
“The Evolution of Access to Public Accommodations in the United States”
Quarterly Journal of Economics 138 (1): 37-102 [with Lisa D. Cook, Maggie E.C. Jones, and David Rosé]
Online Appendix
“American Enslavement and the Recovery of Black Economic History”
Journal of Economic Perspectives 36 (2): 81-98
“The Antebellum Roots of Distinctively Black Names”
Historical Methods 55 (1): 1-11 [with Lisa D. Cook and John M. Parman]
“Homefront: Black Veterans and Black Voters in the Civil Rights Era”
American Economics Review (Papers and Proceedings) 111 (May): 32-36. [with Thomas Koch and John M. Parman]
“The Persistence of Historical Racial Violence and Political Suppression: Implications for Contemporary Regional Inequality”
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 694 (1): 92-107. [with Jhacova Williams and Bradley L. Hardy]
“Long-run Analysis of Regional Inequalities in the US”
Oxford Review of Economic Policy 37 (1): 49-69. [with Bradley L. Hardy and John M. Parman]
“Wealth Implications of Slavery and Racial Discrimination for African American Descendants of the Enslaved”
Review of Black Political Economy 47 (3): 218-254. [with Thomas Craemer, Trevor Smith, Brianna Harrison, Brianna, Wesley Bellamy, and William Darity Jr.]
“Do Black Politicians Matter? Evidence from Reconstruction”
Journal of Economic History 80 (1): 1-37.
“Is the Best Interest of the Child Best for Children? Educational Attainment and Child Custody Assignment”
Southern Economic Journal 86 (3): 1041-1080. [with Yang Chen]
“Revenue per Quality of College Football Recruit”
Journal of Sports Economics 21 (6): 571-592. [with Stephen Bergman]
Segregation and Southern Lynching
Social Science History 42 (4): 635 - 675 [with Lisa D. Cook and John M. Parman]
Rural Segregation and Racial Violence: Historical Effects of Spatial Racism
American Jounral of Economics and Sociology 77 (3-4): 821-847 [with Lisa D. Cook and John M. Parman]
On the Marital Status of U.S. Slaves
Explorations in Economic History 69 (1): 50-63 [with Jonathan B. Pritchett]
Segregation and Mortality Over Time and Space
Social Science and Medicine 199: 77-86 [with John M. Parman]
Location matters: Historical Racial Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility
Economics Letters 158: 67-72 [with Rodney J. Andrews, Marcus Casey, and Bradley L. Hardy]
Segregation and Homeownership in the Early Twentieth Century
American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings) 107 (5): 410-414 [with John M. Parman]
The National Rise in Residential Segregation
Journal of Economic History 77 (1): 127-170 [with John M. Parman]
A Time (Not) Apart: A Lesson in Economic History from Cotton Picking Books
(National Economic Association Presidential Address)
Review of Black Political Economy 42 (4): 301-322
The Mortality Consequences of Distinctively Black Names
Explorations in Economic History 59 (1): 114-125
[with Lisa D. Cook and John M. Parman]
Identifying Confirmatory Bias in the Field: Evidence from a Poll of Experts
Journal of Sports Economics 19 (1): 50-81 [with Rodney J. Andrews and Michael J. Sinkey]
On the Heterogeneity of Dowry Motvies
Journal of Population Economics 29 (1): 135-166 [with Raj Arunachalam]
The Effect of Recruit Quality on College Football Team Performance
Journal of Sports Economics 17 (6): 578-600 [with Stephen A. Bergman]
How Central are Clients in Sexual Networks Created by Commercial Sex?
Scientific Reports 4 (7540) [with Chih-Sheng Hsieh and Jaromir Kovarik]
Distinctively Black Names in the American Past
Explorations in Economic History 53 (1): 64-82 [with Lisa Cook and John Parman]
Is there Dowry Inflation in South Asia?
Historical Methods 47 (2): 81-94 [with Raj Arunachalam]
Does the Hot Hand Drive the Market? Evidence from Betting Markets
Eastern Economic Journal 40 (4): 583-603 [with Michael J. Sinkey]
Face Value: Information and Signaling in an Illegal Market
Southern Economic Journal 79 (3): 529-564 [with Manisha Shah]
Are Sports Betting Markets Prediction Markets? Evidence from a New Test
Journal of Sports Economics 15 (1): 45-63 [with Kyle J. Kain]
Economies of Scale in the Household: Puzzles and Patterns from the American Past
Economic Inquiry 49 (4): 1008-1028
Factor Endowments and the Returns to Skill: New Evidence from the American Past
Journal of Human Capital 5 (2): 111-152 [with Joseph Kaboski]
Econometric Tests of American College Football’s Conventional Wisdom
Applied Economics 43 (20): 2493-2518
Profile of Research in OSU Alumni Magazine, 2008
Personal Characteristics, Sexual Behaviors, and Male Sex Work: A Quantitative Approach
American Sociological Review 75 (5): 679-704
Family Health, Children’s Own Health, and Test-Score Gaps
American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings) 100 (2): 195-199 [with Rodney Andrews]
South Africa's Post-Apartheid Two-Step: Social Demands versus Macro Stability
American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings99 (2): 275-281 [with Brahima Coulibaly]
Are Engel Curve Estimates of CPI Bias Biased?
Historical Methods 42 (3): 97-110
The Transformation of Hunger: The Demand for Calories Past and Present
The Journal of Economic History 69 (2): 388-408
Health, Human Capital, and African American Migration before 1910
Explorations in Economic History 46 (2): 169-185
Nutrition and Well-Being in the Late Nineteenth Century
The Journal of Economic History 66 (2): 313-341
Food, Nutrition, and Substitution in the Late Nineteenth Century
Explorations in Economic History 43 (3): 527-545
Is the Calorie Distribution Log-Normal? Evidence from the Nineteenth Century
Historical Methods 39 (3): 112-122