The Civil Rights Act of 1991 formally established the right to a jury trial in employment discrimination cases in which the plaintiff seeks compensatory or punitive damages. It also introduced the possibility of emotional distress damages in these cases. Economist Jose Lopez will examine the effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 on the incidence of jury trials in cases of employment discrimination and the probability of the plaintiff winning in such trials.

Exposure to toxic chemicals threatens the well-being of those exposed early in life. Per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), manufactured chemicals that accumulate in the environment and the human body, are likely very toxic. Economists Irene Jacqz and John Voorheis will investigate the long-run impacts of early childhood exposure to PFAS on educational attainment and earnings.

First-generation, low-income, and certain racial/ethnic groups are less likely to have role models who attended higher education and their communities possess less “collective knowledge” about college. Consequently, these undergraduates do not take advantage of all resources—such as attending office hours, meeting with faculty, and obtaining academic assistance. Economists Lisa Abraham, Neil Thakral, and Linh Tô will examine the extent to which increased engagement with college career center resources improves the labor market outcomes of less-advantaged college students.

This grant is co-funded with the Carnegie Corporation.

Organizations are investing in internal training programs to facilitate the adoption of digital technologies among their workers, including upskilling and reskilling initiatives. However, thus far, these investments have yielded disappointing returns. Economists Raffaella Sadun and Jorge Tamayo will investigate the challenges faced by organizations implementing these initiatives. They will conduct in-depth interviews and surveys for their study.

Expectations about job finding tend to be biased as job seekers over or underestimate their labor market prospects. Overconfident individuals may forgo realistic opportunities to apply for jobs beyond their reach, extending their job search while underconfident individuals may only search and apply for jobs that have lower wages, missing out on better opportunities. Economists Philip Kircher and Michele Belot will evaluate an intervention that aims to help job seekers better identify well-fitting job opportunities. They will conduct a randomized control trial for their study.

In 2015, with the encouragement of then-trustee Richard Thaler, five RSF behavioral economics summer institute alumni organized the first Early Career Behavioral Economics (ECBE) Conference at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Following the success of this conference, these same scholars have organized annual conferences that alternate between the U.S. and Europe, with RSF sponsoring the four U.S. conferences.

Randomized control trials have tested how interventions such as deterrence, punishment, and employment affect violence and other criminal behavior, but they have not considered how these interventions may impact the participants’ social networks. As most offenders report offending with others, changing one person’s criminal behavior could plausibly change that of others. Economists Sara Heller and Ashley Craig will examine whether violence-reduction interventions change criminal behavior of others in participants’ social networks.