CAREER: Market Imperfections and the Welfare Measurement of Government Intervention

研究者开发了理论模型和实证方法，以促进我们对市场不完善的理解，并改进政府政策对福利影响的衡量。中心主题是，许多市场摩擦为政府干预提供了潜在的理由，但也使衡量这些干预的价值（或缺乏价值）变得困难。本研究旨在提供工具，以准确衡量个人对政府在保险市场政策（如补贴和授权）、医疗补助和食品券等非市场商品以及基于地方的政策方面的政策变化的支付意愿，并特别关注旨在改善弱势社区低收入儿童结果的政策。这项研究围绕三个主题展开：信息、通过非市场商品进行再分配、地位和向上流动。从信息的角度来看，该项目显示了个人关于未来不良事件的私人信息如何阻止私人保险市场为这种风险提供保险的能力。这为政府干预提供了一个潜在的理由，但它也表明，传统方法系统性地低估了纠正政策的价值。研究者提供了纠正现有方法的方法，以及利用事前反应来了解未来不良事件的新方法。从通过非市场商品进行再分配的角度来看，许多政府支出是通过非市场商品提供的（例如医疗保险补贴、食品券）。研究者开发工具来正确衡量这些政策的影响，并将其纳入福利框架，将其影响与具有类似分配发生率的其他政策进行比较。最后，从地方和向上流动的角度出发，本项目探讨了我们如何识别和衡量针对弱势背景和社区儿童的政府政策对福利的影响。这包括对随机对照试验的分析（与当地住房管理部门合作），以帮助减少寻求搬到更好的社区抚养孩子的家庭所面临的障碍。

The investigator develops theoretical models and empirical methods to advance our understanding of market imperfections and improve the measurement of the welfare impact of government policies. The central theme is that many market frictions which provide potential rationales for government intervention also make it difficult to measure the value (or lack thereof) of those interventions. This research aims to provide tools for accurate measurement of individuals' willingness to pay for government policy changes towards insurance market policies (e.g. subsidies and mandates), non-market goods such as Medicaid and food stamps, and place-based policies, with a particular focus on policies aimed at improving outcomes for low-income children in disadvantaged neighborhoods.This research is aligned on three themes: information, redistribution through non-market goods, and place and upward mobility. From an information standpoint, this project shows how individuals' private information about future adverse events can prevent the ability of private insurance markets to insure this risk. This generates a potential rationale for government intervention, but it also suggests traditional approaches systematically under-estimate the value of corrective policies. The investigator provides methods for correcting existing methods, as well as new methods that exploit ex-ante responses to learning about future adverse events. From a redistribution through non-market goods standpoint, many government expenditures are provided via non-market goods (e.g. health insurance subsidies, food stamps). The investigator develops tools to correctly measure the impact of these policies and nest them into a welfare framework that compares their impacts to other policies with similar distributional incidence. Finally, from a place and upward mobility standpoint, this project addresses how we can identify and measure the welfare impact of government policies targeted towards children from disadvantaged backgrounds and neighborhoods. This includes analyses of randomized controlled trials (in collaboration with local housing authorities) to help reduce the barriers faced by families seeking to move to better neighborhoods in which to raise their children.