Mark Chin

Happy Halloween 👻!

this week 4yo Sid asked to buy chocolate while getting groceries to gift to his best friend. I thought it was a kind gesture so I said yes. His BF gifted him back Twizzlers. Yesterday I heard them discuss trading candy again. I am starting to feel like I’m getting played preschool organized crime

Econ of Ed (and other) friends: what are the best studies linking in-college interventions to labor market outcomes? Especially interested in those that improve outcomes via different mechanism than completion. E.g. if a college wants to improve earnings of grads, what should they do?

Thank you!

Sid the 4yo is showing us his art from school today and picked up a sheet he drew and just said totally deadpan “what the heck is this”

Was thinking that D is a time variant status that turns on at certain T but only for certain groups- so G doesn’t always mean treatment until the treatment kicks in. (This could be totally off though!!)

And I guess signs of parallel trends prior to post-period would be an indicator that U2 is unlikely (no other factors dependent on both time and group)

3/3 "Parallel trends":
T and G (time and group) only affect the outcome Y through D; i.e., no

U2->Y
T->U2
D->U2

U2 being some other confounder (another policy that is group/time dependent that might lead to non-parallel trends)

2/ D->Y (treatment affects outcome)
T->Y; T->D (time affects outcome, time affects treatment)
G->Y; G->D (group affects outcome, group affects treatment)
U->G (unobserved factors affect group membership)

1/ Here's the working one in my brain:
D = treatment
T = time
G = group membership (treatment vs. comparison)
U = unobserved confounders

Random Monday question for diff-in-diff enthusiasts - have you ever drawn up a directed acyclic graph (DAG) or seen a DAG that captures the diff-in-diff model and the parallel trends assumption? (If so please share)

They have been extremely consistent in this regard!!

The 4 institutions I've ever been employed by have college football team records that add up to 21-1, with the 1 loss to Alabama (Harvard, Indiana, Swarthmore, and Vandy)

same!!!

Assistant Professor - Diversity and Democracy - Goldman School of Public Policy and the Othering & Belonging Institute University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

dope academic position alert:
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05162

What a time to be in higher ed and doing research on education, politics, and inequality. Feeling thankful in particular this past fall break week for the chance to engage with smart, thoughtful, kind scholars at the 1st MidSouth Ed Policy workshop, and then to see Lucius again (after a decade!)

Wow. This is the paper I have been waiting for. Mobile apps are brain rot, with meaningfully bad economic consequences for those who overuse them.

So good to see you Chloe and hear about your new work!

Horses on the track at Keeneland

Had a great time at the inaugural MidSouth Ed Policy Conference, organized by @rajdarolia.bsky.social, @mikekofoed.bsky.social, and @riacton.bsky.social and truly pulled off by the amazing Emily Wilcox Walls, in my beautiful hometown, Lexington.

Contemporary Child Labor and Declining School Attendance in the U.S. The United States has experienced a 400% increase in reported child labor violations over the past decade, coinciding with declines in K-12 school attendance and enrollment. We examine the causal rela...

New working paper on contemporary child labor in the U.S. and its impacts on school attendance ⬇️

edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1302

With absolute dream team @mimiarnoldlyon.bsky.social @stevebholt.bsky.social & PhD student Ji Hyun Byeon

really important work, Lucy and team! thanks for sharing.

Thank you so much!!

are there data out there measuring americans' views on higher education/value of a postsecondary degree over time (and maybe with geocodes for state)?

the answer to this question doesn't immediately ring a bell for me but does sound like the kind of data that i probably compiled for heather some time ago - let me think about this more!!

Open-Rank Tenure Line Position in Artificial Intelligence in Education and Organizations - Nashville, Tennessee job with Peabody College of Education and Human Development | 37894746 Vanderbilt University invites applications for two open rank tenure-track faculty positions in the area of AI and Education in Organizations.

Open-rank faculty positions in Artificial Intelligence in Education and Organizations at Vanderbilt University. The faculty will work within our new college of connected computing and one of the five departments in Peabody College (including psychology!)

jobs.chronicle.com/job/37894746...

The Segregative Effects of Charter Schools (Forthcoming Article) - I study the effects of charters on student racial segregation, identifying a novel mechanism: the assignment of white and nonwhite students to regular classrooms within their s...

Forthcoming in AEJ: Economic Policy: "The Segregative Effects of Charter Schools" by Angela Crema. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

The Chins love their old dogs

Super excited to host Arne Duncan and Diane Schanzenbach at #AEFP2026! Remember: you now have til Monday to submit your conference proposals! @aefpweb.bsky.social

Join the Doctoral Student Community Group tomorrow at 2 PM ET for a virtual event where panelists will share valuable insights and strategies to help doctoral students navigate the industry job market aefpweb.org/ev_calen...