About Me
I'm an Assistant Professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I previously worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. I completed my Ph.D. in Public Policy at NYU Wagner, where I was a doctoral fellow at the NYU Furman Center.
My research interests include urban economics, public economics, and housing policy. I'm interested in evaluating public programs across multiple dimensions, including program take-up and administration, outcomes for participants, and economic outcomes more broadly.
My current work examines the Housing Choice Voucher program. I use novel administrative data to measure program take-up, evaluate programmatic changes, and study outcomes for tenants.
For more information, see my CV here.
Research
Publications
Pricing for Opportunity: The Impact of Spatially Varying Rent Subsidies on Housing Voucher Neighborhoods and Take-up, with Ingrid Gould Ellen and Katherine O'Regan. Journal of Public Economics, 250, 2025. [Link] [SSRN]
Race, Space, and Take-Up: Explaining Housing Voucher Lease-up Rates, with Ingrid Gould Ellen and Katherine O'Regan. Journal of Housing Economics, 63, 2024. [Link]
Media coverage: New York Times, USA Today, UCLA Housing Voice
Working papers
Participation Costs, Search Time, and Match Quality in the Housing Choice Voucher Program. Revisions requested at Journal of Public Economics.
Abstract: Many social safety net programs struggle with incomplete program take-up, oftentimes due to high participation costs. The Housing Choice Voucher Program involves a complex, multi-step take-up process and coordination with the private rental market, creating considerable barriers to entry for participants. Potential voucher recipients also must navigate an increasingly difficult housing search process in a limited amount of time, making it even more challenging to use their vouchers at all, and to find a home that meets their preferences. In this paper, I evaluate the effects of two unique features of the voucher program: the timing of voucher issuance, and variation in how long voucher recipients are given to search. In the aggregate, the timing of voucher issuance causes a decline in the likelihood of using a voucher within a certain time frame, and but has no effect on the chance of a participant ever using their voucher. However, housing authorities vary in their time restrictions on voucher use and their leniency in granting extensions. At housing authorities that do not offer extensions, end-of-month issuance results in a 6 percentage point decline in voucher success rates. Households at these PHAs see shorter search times, and are more likely to end up in over-crowded housing situations.
The Impact of Source of Income Discrimination Laws on Housing Voucher Success Rates. with Katharine Harwood, Ingrid Gould Ellen, and Katherine O'Regan.
Abstract: Despite the significant benefits the Housing Choice Voucher program provides, recent estimates show that only 60% of households that receive vouchers use them successfully to lease a home. Landlord discrimination against voucher holders is a key barrier. This paper provides the first direct estimates of the impact of laws that prohibit such discrimination (Source of Income discrimination laws) on the ability of new voucher recipients to use their vouchers. Using a staggered difference-in-differences and matching approach, we find that the enactment of a Source of Income discrimination law leads to a three percentage point increase in the likelihood of new voucher recipients using their vouchers in the four years after enactment. Effects grow over time and laws that allow fewer exemptions have larger impacts, as do those enacted at the state rather than the local level. In addition, estimated impacts are larger for households with children.
Do housing vouchers work when rental markets don't? Demand-side assistance amid extreme rental shocks, with Ingrid Gould Ellen and Katherine O'Regan.
Abstract: Housing Choice Vouchers are the primary form of rental assistance in the United States, however many households who receive vouchers struggle to use them in the private rental market. In this paper, we explore how the voucher program performs amid rapidly changing rental market conditions. We find that in 2021 and 2022, when rents increased rapidly, housing voucher success rates dropped dramatically, reaching lows of under 60%. Even for households who were successful in using their vouchers, search times, over-crowding, and costs to housing agencies grew sharply. In exploring potential drivers behind these changes, we show that new voucher recipients were most impacted, and that voucher program performance worsened the most in places that saw the steepest rent increases. We discuss several different implementation features that worked to prevent declines in success rates, encourage faster recovery, or may help to prevent future programmatic downturns.
Works in progress
How Social Connectedness Shapes Residential Outcomes for Voucher Recipients.
Measuring Eviction Filing Risk for HUD-Subsidized Households.