Papers I Love
Inspired by this Planet Money episode from a few years ago, I’m keeping a list of my favorite economics papers over the years.
These are arranged in alphabetical order by last name.
Academic Papers
Abrevaya, Jason. “Are There Missing Girls in the United States? Evidence from Birth Data.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2009.
Acemoglu, Daron, and David Autor, David Lyle. “Women, War, and Wages: The Effect of Female Labor Supply on the Wage Structure at Midcentury.” Journal of Political Economy, 2004.
Alexander, Diane. “How Do Doctors Respond to Incentives? Unintended Consequences of Paying Doctors to Reduce Costs.” Journal of Political Economy, 2020.
Alsan, Marcella and Marianne Wanamaker. “Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2017.
Bleemer, Zachary. “Affirmative Action, Mismatch, and Economic Mobility after California’s Proposition 209.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2022.
Chan, David. “Teamwork and Moral Hazard: Evidence from the Emergency Department.” Journal of Political Economy, 2016.
Conner, Peter and Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein, and Petra Persson. “Targeting Precision Medicine: Evidence from Prenatal Screening” Journal of Political Economy, 2025.
Dell, Melissa. “The Persistent Effects of Peru’s Mining Mita.” Econometrica, 2010.
Derenoncourt, Ellora and Chi Hyun Kim, Moritz Kuhn, and Moritz Schularick. “Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2024.
Deshpande, Manasi, and Tal Gross, Yalun Su. “Disability and Distress: The Effect of Disability Programs on Financial Outcomes.” American Economics Journal: Applied Economics, 2021.
Finkelstein, Amy and Petra Persson, Maria Polyakova, and Jesse Shapiro. “A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Guideline Adherence and Access to Expertise.” American Economic Review: Insights, 2022.
Frakes, Michael and Jonathan Gruber, Timothy Justicz. “Public and Private Options in Practice: The Military Health System.” American Economic Review: Insights, 2023.
Goldin, Claudia and Lawrence Katz. “The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions.” Journal of Political Economy, 2002.
Greenberg, Kyle and Matthew Gudgeon, Adam Isen, Corbin Miller, Richard Patterson. “Army Service in the All-Volunteer Era.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2022.
Schwab, Stephen and Manasvini Singh. “How Power Shapes Behavior: Evidence from Physicians.” Science, 2024.
Qian, Nancy. “Missing Women and the Price of Tea in China: The Effect of Sex-Specific Earnings on Sex Imbalance.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2008.
Wasserman, Melanie. “Hours Constraints, Occupational Choice, and Gender: Evidence from Medical Residents.” Review of Economic Studies, 2023.
Other Media
Talks:
Baicker, Katherine. “Economic Analysis for Evidence-Based Health Policy: Progress and Pitfalls.” NBER Summer Institute, Feldstein Lecture, 2019.
Chandra, Amitabh. “Transformational Medicines Lessons from Social Science.” NBER Summer Institute, ADRD Keynote, 2025.
Podcasts:
Tradeoffs is an award-winning nonprofit news organization on a mission to help the folks on Main Street, Wall Street and Capitol Hill have smarter, more honest conversations about health policy. Founded in 2019 by former Senior Health Care Reporter at Marketplace, Dan Gorenstein, Tradeoffs’ journalism combines data, evidence and storytelling to help people better understand the complicated, costly and often counterintuitive world of health care.
The Mixtape with Scott is a podcast in which economist and professor, Scott Cunningham, interviews economists, scientists and authors about their lives and careers, as well as the some of their work. He tries to travel back in time with his guests to listen and hear their stories before then talking with them about topics they care about now.
Have you ever heard a commonly held belief or a fast-developing worldview and asked: Is that idea right? Or just good on paper? Each week, host Jerusalem Demsas and a guest take a closer look at the facts and research that challenge the popular narratives of the day, to better understand why we believe what we believe.