Research

Seasonal Allergies and Mental Health: Do Small Health Shocks Affect Suicidality? 

(with Shooshan Danagoulian and Joelle Abramowitz)

Journal of Health Economics - [Link]

The Muslim Ban and Preventive Care for Children of Middle Eastern Ancestry 

(with Shooshan Danagoulian, Daniel Grossman, and David Slusky)

Forum for Health Economics & Policy, 2025 - [Link]

Association of Licensure and Relationship Requirement Waivers with Out-of-State Tele-Mental Healthcare, 2019-2021 

(with Antonios Koumpias and Lewei Alison Lin)

Health Affairs Scholar, 2023 - [Link]

Long-haul COVID: Healthcare Utilization and Medical Expenditures 6 Months Post-diagnosis 

(with Antonios Koumpias and David Schwartzman) 

BMC Health Services Research, 2022 - [Link]

Nurse Practitioner Scope of Practice Law and Safety Net Participation: Evidence From WIC

(with Lilly Springer)

Revise and Resubmit, Contemporary Economic Policy - [Link]

Abstract: Nurse practitioner (NP) scope of practice (SOP) reform has been shown to improve access to healthcare, leading to direct health benefits. However, given that NPs are likely to practice in underserved areas, liberalizing SOP may also have spillover benefits on safety net program participation, which would amplify the benefits of SOP expansion for underrepresented populations. In this paper, we study these potential spillovers by examining the effect of NP SOP expansions on enrollment in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Leveraging the staggered rollout of NP SOP expansions across states, we find that starting 4-5 years after SOP expansion, total WIC participation increases by 4% in treated states, which rises to 6.8% one decade after SOP expansion. This increase in total WIC enrollment is driven by increases in the enrollment of women and children. Mechanism analyses suggest that while access to healthcare is an important channel, the effect may also be driven by the fact that NPs are trained to deliver holistic, patient-centered care. Our results suggest that spillovers on safety net program participation are another pathway by which NP SOP expansions can improve the health and well-being of underserved populations. 

The Effect of Federally Qualified Health Centers on Childhood Utilization of Preventive Care

Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management - [Link]

Abstract: The health center program aims to address barriers to health care access through the grant funding of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). However, recent FQHC openings have been shown to be less likely to target areas with greater need, potentially undermining the public health benefits of program expansion. This paper studies whether the establishment of an FQHC influences childhood receipt of preventive care among Medicaid beneficiaries in Michigan. I estimate the effect of FQHC establishment on childhood preventive care utilization using an event study framework with a stacked difference-in-differences design that exploits plausibly exogenous variation in the timings of FQHC openings across primary care service areas in Michigan. Results indicate that the opening of an FQHC increases utilization of preventive care at FQHCs but displaces care from non-FQHCs, resulting in no effect of FQHC establishment on overall preventive care use. Subgroup analyses show that the substitution of FQHC for non-FQHC care is most prominent in rural areas, wherein FQHC opening has the greatest reduction in distance to care. The results suggest that recent expansions of the health center program may have yielded little public health benefits. 

Quality of Childhood Preventive Care Delivered by Non-Physicians: Evidence from Medicaid Claims

Working paper - [Link]

Abstract: The share of patients receiving primary care from non-physician practitioners (NPP) has experienced sizable growth in recent years. As these providers have different training and licensing requirements than physicians, the growth of the NPP workforce stands to affect quality of care. In this paper, I study these quality implications as it pertains to childhood preventive care by estimating the effect of using nurse practitioners (NP) and physician associates (PA) for early childhood primary care on preventive care outcomes. Using an instrumental variables strategy that exploits quasi-random variation in provider type assignment at a child’s first well-visit, I find that Medicaid-insured children seeing more NPs in early childhood achieve the same preventive care outcomes as children seeing physicians. However, I find that receiving more early childhood care from PAs decreases the likelihood of complying with well-visit and vaccination periodicity guidelines, which results in subsequently worse health outcomes for children seeing PAs. These findings suggest that while NPs are equivalent substitutes for physicians in terms of the quality of pediatric preventive care, PAs are not. 

Effects of Air Pollution on Children's Health:  Case Study of the Detroit Incinerator'

(with Sara Syeda, Phillip Levy, and Shooshan Danagoulian)

Childhood Health Shocks and Family Structure

(with Huong Ngyuen)

Environmental Impact on Suicide: Heat and Seasonal Pollen

(with Shooshan Danagoulian and Joelle Abramowitz)

Pollen Emissions and Seasonal Allergies: Evidence from Grocery Purchases 

(with Shooshan Danagoulian)

The Effect of Online Sports Gambling Laws on Time Use 

(with Olanrewaju Yusuff and Tejendra Singh)