Papers & publications

Innovation funding mechanisms differ in how they allocate risk, decision authority, and incentives. We develop a framework organized around three questions: Can a funder articulate the work to be done, specify a successful solution, and identify the most capable performers? The answers narrow the set of viable mechanisms and help guide the choice of how to fund research and development.

This paper uses Monte Carlo simulations to quantify the social value of a universal COVID-19 vaccine relative to variant-specific boosters. Even under conservative assumptions about the arrival of new variants, the estimated additional health benefits exceed $900 billion. The paper proposes an advance market commitment to incentivize development.

Rapid vaccination during pandemics can reduce mortality, economic losses, and societal disruption. Vaccine manufacturers, however, often lack sufficient incentives for speed and capacity expansion. This paper examines how governments and international organizations can strengthen these incentives and improve equitable vaccine distribution.

I study the 2009 Colorado Family Planning Initiative, which expanded the availability and affordability of long-acting reversible contraceptives. An event-study design uses geographic variation in access to participating clinics to estimate changes in high school graduation rates. The findings suggest that access to reliable, affordable contraception improves girls’ ability to invest in their education.

Using panel data for S&P 1500 firms from 2000 to 2019, this paper studies diversity in corporate board appointments. A logistic model with two-way fixed effects and a bias correction evaluates how a board’s existing composition and outgoing directors’ demographic characteristics are associated with new appointments by gender, race, and ethnicity.