Research

Working Papers

2025

1. Labor

   The Future of Work: Remote Opportunities and Female Labor Force Participation

   Meng Song

   Under Review

   Abstract Draft Presentation Schedule

   This paper has been or will be presented at the following:

   • 1/27/25: HeLD Seminar, Department of Economics, University of Connecticut
   • 3/22/25: Rising Star Session, Chinese Economists Society 2025 North America Annual Conference
   • 6/20/25: Western Economic Association International (WEAI) 100th Annual Conference
   • 11/24/25: Southern Economic Association (SEA) 95th Annual Meeting

   This paper examines the long-term effects of the expansion of work-from-home (WFH) opportunities accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic on female labor market outcomes. Using a difference-in-differences and event study design, this paper compares individuals in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with higher WFH potential to those in areas with lower WFH potential before and after the pandemic. The results indicate that relative to men, access to WFH opportunities significantly increases the likelihood of female labor force participation, employment, and full-time work. These effects are particularly strong among college-educated mothers and mothers with young children, with benefits diminishing with age. More broadly, the findings suggest that WFH opportunities can explain approximately 21 percent of the observed narrowing in the gender labor force participation gap between 2019 and 2023. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the positive effects of WFH opportunities remain stable over time, with the potential to grow as remote work arrangements become more established and persistent.

2. Education

   Four-day School Week, Student Achievements, and Teacher Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Colorado

   Meng Song and  Ruinan Zhao

   Manuscript Available upon Request

   Abstract

   The four-day school week policy has gained increased attention among school districts in recent years. While existing literature has examined its effects on primary school students’ test scores, health, and risky behaviors in the short run, the impacts on high school students and teachers remain unclear. Utilizing administrative data of students and teachers, we leverage the quasi-randomness of the four-day school week implementation and employ a difference-in-difference approach to explore the causal impacts of the four-day school week on high school students’ academic achievements and teacher labor market outcomes. Our findings reveal that the adoption of the 4-day school week increases dropout rates, reduce freshman college enrollment, but has no statistically significant impact on on-time graduation rates. We further illustrate the policy impacts on teacher retention, recruitment, and productivity. Additionally, we present suggestive evidence that the duration of exposure to the four-day school week, along with the implementation strategy, play an important role in influencing both student and teacher outcomes.

3. Climate & Behavior

   The Global Impacts of Climate Change on Risk Preferences

   Wesley Howden,  Remy Levin, and  Meng Song

   Undergoing Major Rewrite

   Abstract Draft

   We study the direct impacts that long-run experiences of climate change have on individual risk preferences. Using panel surveys from Indonesia and Mexico (total N = 25,000), we link within-person changes in elicited risk preferences to state-level, lifetime experiences of climate change. In line with the predictions of a Bayesian model of learning over background climate risk, we find that in both settings increases in the experienced means of temperature and precipitation cause significant decreases in measured risk aversion, while increases in the experienced variance of temperature in Indonesia and the variance of precipitation in Mexico lead to significant increases in measured risk aversion. We replicate this analysis globally using a survey with a representative sample from 75 countries (N = 75,000) containing an elicited measure of risk preference which we link to country-level, lifetime climate experiences. We find significant results for both the means and variances of both climate variables that are consistent with our panel analyses. Across all settings, experiences of climate variance have first-order effects, with coefficient magnitudes of the standard deviation of climate 0.6-2.6 times that of the climate mean. We develop a novel method for estimating the welfare effects of observed risk preference changes using panel data, and find that the climate-induced changes in risk preferences we observe increased welfare in both Indonesia and Mexico by approximately 1%.

4. Education

   Not the Institution, but the Field: Evidence from Career and Technical High School

   Eric J. Brunner,  Shaun M. Dougherty,  Stephen L. Ross, and  Meng Song

   Manuscript Available upon Request
5. Public Policy

   Framing, Messengers, and Measurement: Lessons from Mixed-Methods Firearm Policy Experiments

   Jennifer Necci Dineen,  Kerri Raissian, and  Meng Song

   Manuscript in Preparation