Research
Research
“Occupational Hazard: An Analysis of Birth Outcomes Among Physician Mothers" (with Anupam B. Jena & David Slusky) (2026). Journal of Public Economics, 260, 105680.
Press: KU Today, The Harvard Gazette
"Downstream Effects of Post-Dobbs Abortion Bans: Births Rates and WIC" (2026). Economic Inquiry, 64(3), 830-843.
Press: KU Today
"Nurse Practitioner Scope of Practice Law and Safety Net Participation: Evidence from WIC" (with Owen Fleming) (2026). Contemporary Economic Policy, 44(3), 634-655.
"Critics' Pick or Social Media Smash: The Effect of Critics' Reviews and Social Media on Broadway" (with Kathy Paulson Gjerde). (2025). Applied Economics Letters, 32(13): 1933-1940.
"Between Babies: What Longitudinal Claims Data Reveals About Pregnancy Spacing and Maternal Health" (with Elizabeth Anderson, Joseph Bommarito, Yurong Zhang, & Misty Heggeness) - Draft Available Upon Request
Abstract
The American College of Gynecologists recommends at least 18 months between pregnancies to ensure maternal health is not adversely affected. However, prior empirical studies of this recommendation often fail to account for the systematic difference between mothers with short and long interpregnancy intervals (IPIs). Using 2018 to 2024 insurance claims from a nationally representative sample of women who gave birth in 2018 or 2019, we estimate nested OLS linear probability models that progressively add month-year and state-level fixed effects, prior health characteristics, and maternal and community characteristics to evaluate how much of the association between interpregnancy intervals and maternal health can be explained by these differences. Overall, including birth, maternal, and community controls attenuate the effect of IPIs on maternal health complications. Compared to the reference of 18–24 months, the fully specified model shows persistent associations between IPIs shorter than 12 months and perineal laceration and preterm labor. They also show an association between longer intervals and elevated anemia, hypertensive disorders, and premature rupture of membranes. Crucially across outcomes, we find no difference between the 12–18-month and the 18–24-month intervals, challenging the universal 18-month recommendation.
"Childbirth, Telehealth Adoption, and Mental Health Therapy: An Analysis using U.S. Insurance Records" (with Yurong Zhang, Elizabeth Anderson, Joseph Bommarito, & Misty Heggeness) - Draft Available Upon Request (Revise and Resubmit)
Abstract
After childbirth, women often find it difficult to attend mental health therapy appointments due to childcare demands. The expansion of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic potentially provided the flexibility to receive therapy. This study used individual insurance records from 2018 to 2023. The sample includes a cohort of women aged 25 to 54 who gave childbirth between 2018 and 2019. The primary outcome is mental health therapy visits. We investigate the relationship between telehealth adoption and mental health therapy following childbirth. Therapy visits increased post childbirth (p<0.001), along with large increases in mental health symptoms. After controlling for childbirth and symptoms, individual telehealth adoption was positively associated with therapy visits (p<0.001). Event study estimates show that therapy visits remained elevated up to 24 months after telehealth adoption (p<0.001), with a modality shift from in-person therapy to telehealth-delivered therapy. This association was larger among mothers in rural areas, new to therapy, privately insured, and younger. Telehealth facilitated mental health therapy after childbirth, when mental health care needs surged. Telehealth is an important policy lever to improve mental health therapy visits, especially among the population who face logistic barriers to accessing mental health services.
"Driving the Distance: How Abortion Access Affects Infant and Maternal Health"
Abstract
Abortion clinic closures lower abortion rates and raise birth rates, in part by increasing the continuation of high-risk, non-viable, and unintended pregnancies. But do these shifts have downstream effects on infant and maternal health? Using 2009-2019 U.S. national vital statistics and facility data from the Myers Abortion Facility Database, I find that a 100-mile increase in distance to the nearest abortion provider leads to a 5.2% increase in deliveries past 42 weeks of gestation, a 2.2% increase in high birth weight, and a 21.4% rise in congenital heart disease. Additionally, fetal and infant mortality due to developmental complications increase by 27.9% and 23%, respectively. Except for an increase in vaginal tearing, I find no discernible effect on maternal health. My results suggests that if all counties were within 50 miles of an abortion provider, approximately 793 fetal and 646 infant deaths could have been prevented.
"Zoom Meetings and Midnight Feedings: Labor Market Changes Among Parents of Infants" (with Misty Heggeness & Yurong Zhang) (Under Review)
Abstract
Raising children is time and resource intensive and, on average, disproportionately influences the daily lives of women. This study builds on already existing evidence showing that, in a society where women are increasingly high-skilled and educated, more flexibility in the timing and location of work increases women's attachment to the labor market. Recent fertility studies have shown a decrease in age at first birth and an increase in births among highly educated women potentially driven by increased work flexibility in white collar jobs. Using a two-year panel from the Current Population Survey, we focus on women who gave birth within the year prior to March 2020 to examine how infant parents shifted labor market behavior after March 2020. We find that highly educated mothers substituted labor market exits, staying in the labor market and increasing leave from work. Fathers substituted increased leave for work time. The ripple effects of this phenomenon on long-term parent-child attachment, as well as child and parent outcomes, should continue to be studied in the future.
"Beyond the Fourth Trimester: Extended Postpartum Health and Healthcare Trajectories by Insurance Type" (with Elizabeth Anderson, Joseph Bommarito, Yurong Zhang, & Misty Heggeness)
"The Financial Fallout of the 2022 Abortion Ban for Children" (with Yurong Zhang)
"Nowhere Else to Roe: Impacts of Out-of-State Abortion Travel From Abortion Banning State" (with Andie Hall)
"Pregnancy as a Diagnostic Window for Maternal Conditions by Insurance and Rural Residence: A Retrospective Cohort Study" (with Joseph Bommarito, Elizabeth Anderson, Yurong Zhang, & Misty Heggeness)
"Where Do Baby Boxes Appear?" (with Owen Fleming & Balikis Kabir)
"The Economics of Child Care and Child Care Licensing in Kansas" (with Misty Heggeness & Jennifer Babitzke), United Women's Empowerment, 2024