Béla Figge

Conflicting societal goals can lead to national and local policies that are at odds with each other. National policies promoting the adoption of solar photovoltaics may be counteracted by local policies defining the aesthetics of the built environment. As solar photovoltaic energy approaches grid parity globally, non-pecuniary barriers to the adoption of this important renewable energy source become increasingly salient. Using a unique survey of municipalities regarding such building codes and administrative data on all solar installations in Germany, a leader in solar adoption, we document the impact that municipalities amending their building codes to restrict solar installations, often with an eye toward preserving the historical nature of the town, has on solar adoption. We find that municipalities that implement solar policies have 10.4 percent less solar photovoltaic capacity than municipalities in the control group. We confirm our results when applying spatial techniques and analyzing the impact of such policies on regulated areas within municipalities.

This paper provides the first causal estimates of how Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) affect fertility. CPCs counsel pregnant women toward carrying to term and operate more than 2,500 locations nationwide, outnumbering abortion clinics roughly three to one. I develop a simulated instruments strategy that addresses endogenous CPC placement by constructing counterfactual expansion paths from a hazard model of organizational entry. 2SLS estimates show that CPCs reduce log abortion rates by 8% to 18% across the age distribution. Monte Carlo experiments with synthetic data and known treatment effects confirm that the simulated instrument recovers the true causal parameter under severe designed endogeneity.

Solar mandates are spreading rapidly. We leverage California’s frontrunner experience to examine their economics. First, we parameterize an engineering model to estimate private payoffs from solar adoption in residential new construction. Second, we test for a ``solar gap'' by comparing payoffs with observed adoption. Although estimated payoffs are generally positive, adoption varies widely. Most buildings do not adopt solar despite positive estimated payoffs, which explain little of the variation in adoption decisions. Third, we evaluate San Francisco’s citywide and California’s statewide mandates. Both mandates increased solar adoption considerably.

The Lucy Calkins Units of Study Program is a widely used program that consists of materials and methods for teaching reading and writing in Grades K–8. In a school district in metro Atlanta, the Lucy Calkins Programs in reading and writing have, at most, very small average effects on student achievement in ELA relative to the “business as usual” approach of using other reading and writing programs.

When comparing students with similar scores on either side of the passing threshold, pooling together all assessments, and controlling for student demographics, we find that passing a CTE technical assessment has no impact on the likelihood of attending college. While estimates are not precise enough to rule out potential positive or negative effects, our results suggest that (if anything) effects are more likely to be negative or zero than positive. We similarly find no impact on college-going when we restrict the analysis sample to a subset of the most popular tests (with some exceptions). For those on the margin of passing a CTE technical assessment, the signal afforded to students from passing the assessment does not appear to affect students’ propensity to attend college. That passing among this slice of students has no impact on college attendance suggests that, while the tests may be indicative of learning (a hypothesis we are not in a position to confirm), they do not seem to alter students’ future academic plans.

There are hundreds of studies of the effects of social-emotional learning (SEL) programs, but only a small fraction of them provide causal evidence on the impacts of school-based “universal” (non- targeted) programs on student achievement.The most reliable studies of universal school-based SEL programs—those employing randomized controlled trials and large samples of students—showed positive effects of SEL on student achievement, on average, but there is substantial variation in the estimated impacts across studies. On average, SEL programs implemented in elementary schools tended to be more effective than those employed in secondary schools. However, impacts do not appear to vary consistently with the intensity of program delivery or with the economic status of the students a school serves. There are a variety of popular SEL programs, but the evidence base on the effects of any particular program on student outcomes is thin. The most frequently studied programs tend to garner mixed results.