This dissertation focuses on two topics in international macroeconomics: the identification of the international spillovers of US interest rate shocks, and the study of its main transmission channels. In Chapter 1, I present the Spillover Puzzle of US Monetary Policy - the fact that in response to a US interest...
Chapter 1 investigates asks the question how do financial frictions affect the type of human capital investments that students make in college? To study this question, I build a novel dataset covering more than 700,000 U.S. students, merging commencement records with address histories, credit bureau records, and professional resumes. I...
From daily hygiene habits, such as brushing teeth, to the ingestion of pharmaceuticals, many forms of healthcare are commonly practiced in daily life, at home. How have household healthcare practices changed over time in urban America? Taking Washington, DC as my case study, I examine patterns of household pharmaceuticals access...
This dissertation aims to understand how Black Chicagoans work with institutions and neighbors they distrust to pursue common policy goals – in this case, to remedy state and community violence. I introduce the theory of distrustful cooperation. Using three Chicago neighborhoods as cased studies: Greater Englewood, Bronzeville, and Calumet Heights,...
Motor abnormalities (e.g., dyskinesia, psychomotor slowing, neurological soft signs) are core features of schizophrenia observed from the premorbid period through chronic illness, suggesting motor dysfunction may reflect the pathophysiology of psychosis. Among this list of motor abnormalities, psychomotor slowing in particular is one of the most consistently observed and robust...
Atomistic methods offer a powerful set of tools in the study of materials systems, as they allow materials scientists to ask questions with a high degree of specificity. They are well suited for studying and designing energy materials, critical due to the climate crisis, in part due to their ability...
The importance of understanding indoor microbial exposure is increasingly recognized, particularly concerning the emergence of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. With the advancements of sequencing technologies, our capability of exploring indoor microbial communities has dramatically increased. However, huge challenges remain to translate sequence-based knowledge to actionable interpretations to support human health...
Every music theorist has their own personal reasons for engaging in the craft of theorizing about music. Many discover that there is something special about a theoretic disposition which differs from other sorts of interactions with music. It is often this special something that draws musicians into the discipline: specifically,...
This dissertation explores the economics of health and housing policies. In the first chapter, I discuss information disclosure policies in healthcare. Information disclosure programs can help consumers make better choices, but the consumers who respond the most to the information may not benefit the most or generate the most savings...
Heteroanionic materials are a class of materials of interest for their unique and tunable electronic, ionic, thermal, and optical properties, which are distinct from their homoanionic counterparts due to their multi-anionic nature. Oxynitrides, a type of heteroanionic material, are useful catalysts due to the effect of mixing oxygen and nitrogen...