This project investigates how retirement and fertility decisions are interconnected across generations in the United States, focusing on grandparents' role as informal childcare providers. Calvo and Hong will use unique restricted-use tax records data from the U.S. spanning almost 30 years combined with rich survey data. Through an event study design, they will analyze how grandparental retirement affects adult children's fertility and labor market outcomes, and conversely, how grandchildren's arrivals influence grandparents' retirement decisions.

Since 1994, RSF has sponsored the highly successful biennial behavioral economics summer institute. Remarkably, most leaders in the field of behavioral economics have been students at one of the past RSF Summer Institutes in Behavioral Economics. Designed for about 30 advanced graduate students with an interest in developing an academic research career in behavioral economics, the institute has been led by trustee David Laibson and Matthew Rabin since 2004. The curriculum includes lectures and seminars and individual mentoring sessions.

In 2010, South Carolina passed prison reform that limited incarceration and reduced sentences for low-level offenders. Economist Analisa Packham will investigate the reform’s impact on crime and outcomes for the formerly incarcerated, including as sentence length, recidivism rates, health, and wage outcomes. She will analyze data from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, the Department of Revenue, and the National Incident-Based Reporting System for her study.

Immigrant populations in schools have rapidly increased in recent years and schools have had to quickly adapt to changing student demographics and needs. Economist Elizabeth Setren and education policy scholar Kirsten Slungaard Mumma will investigate the academic, social, and behavioral impacts of immigration on schools as well as school responses in Massachusetts. They will analyze data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for their study.

Nursing homes have long faced staffing shortages, which are exacerbated by low pay and poor working conditions. Increasing immigration and employing immigrant workers could be a remedy for these challenges. Economists Delia Furtado and Karen Shen, economist and legal scholar Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, and public policy scholars Krista Ruffini and Yulya Truskinovsky will investigate the impact of greater local availability of immigrant workers on nursing home staffing practices and job quality.

This grant is co-funded with the Hewlett and Spencer Foundations.

This grant is co-funded with the Carnegie Corporation of New York.