Visiting Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University (2025-2026)
Ben H. Williams Professor, Baylor University (2022–present)
Professor of Economics, Baylor University (2019–present)
Visiting Professor of Economics, UT-Austin (2020–2022)
Associate Professor, Baylor University (2013–2019, tenured)
Assistant Professor, Baylor University (2007–2013)
Affiliations
President, Mixtape Consulting (2021–present)
Advisor, Geminos (2022–present)
Research Affiliate, Computational Justice Lab (2018–present)
Education
Ph.D. Economics, University of Georgia, 2007
B.A. Literature, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, 1999
Research Interests
Mental health care, sex work, corrections, drug policy
Publications
“The role of repugnance in markets: How the Jared Fogle scandal affected patronage of subway,” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 229, January 2025, 106848.
“Temporary gains and permanent costs in methamphetamine precursor control,” International Journal of Drug Policy, June 2024, 104501.
“Adverse Impacts of Mental Health Needs Assessment on Jail Outcomes: Evidence from Transition Age Youth and Adults” (with Jonathan Seward, Karen Clay, and Vivian S. Vigliotti), Journal of Human Resources, 2024, Vol. 59, Supplement 282.
“Did Craigslist's Erotic Services Reduce Female Homicide and Rape?” (with Gregory DeAngelo and John Tripp), Journal of Human Resources, January 2024, 59 (1) 280–315.
“The Long-term Effects of the Rwanda Genocide on Child Work” (with Yoo-Mi Chin and Van Pham), Economic Development and Cultural Change, accepted.
“Children on the Move: Progressive Redistribution of Cash Transfers among Refugees” (with Berk Ozler, Çiğdem Çelik, P. Facuno Cuevas, and Luca Parisotto), Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 153, Number 102733, November 2021.
“Systematic review and meta-analysis of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among Ph.D. students” (with Emily N. Satinsky, Tomoki Kimura, Mathew V. Kiang, Rediet Abebe, Hedwig Lee, Xiaofei Lin, Cindy H. Liu, Igor Rudan, Srijan Sen, Mark Tomlinson, Miranda Yaver, and Alexander C. Tsai), Nature: Scientific Reports, 2021, Vol. 11, Article 14370.
“Fracking and Risky Sexual Behavior” (with Gregory DeAngelo and Brock Smith), Journal of Health Economics, 2020, Vol. 72.
“How far is too far? New evidence on abortion clinic closures, access and abortions” (with Jason Lindo, Caitlin Myers, and Andrea Schlosser), Journal of Human Resources, 2020, Vol. 55(4), 1137–1160.
“Revisiting the Effect of Warrantless Domestic Violence Arrest Laws on Intimate Partner Homicides” (with Yoo-Mi Chin), Journal of Public Economics, 2019, Vol. 179.
“Decriminalizing Prostitution: Surprising Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health” (with Manisha Shah), Review of Economic Studies, 2018, Vol. 85(3), July, 1683–1715.
“Health Anxiety and Medical Utilization: The Moderating Effect of Age Among Patients in Primary Care” (with Thomas A. Ferguson, Jackson O. Griggs, and Lance P. Kelley), Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2017, Vol. 51, October, 79–85.
“Prostitution, Hours, Job Amenities and Education” (with Todd Kendall), Review of Economics of the Household, 2017, 15(4), 1055–1080.
“Identifying Demand Responses to Illegal Drug Supply Interdictions” (with Keith Finlay), Health Economics, 2016, Vol. 25(10), 1268–1290.
“Violent Video Games and Violent Crime” (with Michael Ward and Benjamin Engelstatter), Southern Economic Journal, 2016, 82(4), 1247–1265.
“Willingness-to-Pay for Pharmaceutical Retail Convenience: Evidence from a Contingent Choice Experiment” (with Keith Finlay and Charles Stoecker), PLoS-One, 2015, 10(5): e0126790.
“Are Prescription-only Precursor Control Laws a Prescription to Lower the Social Costs of Methamphetamine?” (with Keith Finlay and Charles Stoecker), International Journal of Drug Policy, 2015, 26(11), November, 1144–1149.
“Prostitution 3.0: A Comment” (with Todd Kendall), Iowa Law Review Bulletin, 2014, 98:131–141.
“Parental Substance Use and Foster Care: Evidence from Two Methamphetamine Supply Shocks” (with Keith Finlay), Economic Inquiry, 2013, 51(1), 764–782.
“The Long-run Effect of Abortion on Sexually Transmitted Infections” (with Christopher Cornwell), American Law and Economics Review, 2013, 15(1), Spring, 381–407.
“Prostitution 2.0: The Changing Face of Sex Work” (with Todd Kendall), Journal of Urban Economics, 2011, 69(3), 273–287.
“Men in Transit and Prostitution: Using Political Conventions as a Natural Experiment” (with Todd Kendall), The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2011, 11(1), Topics, Article 30.
“Risk Behaviours among Internet-facilitated Sex Workers: Evidence from Two New Datasets” (with Todd Kendall), Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2010, 86(iii), 100–105.
Book Chapters
“A Brief Introduction to Causal Inference in Healthcare” (with Jonathan Seward), forthcoming in Cambridge Handbook on Productivity, Efficiency, and Effectiveness in Healthcare.
“Randomized Trials in Legal Epidemiology” (with Harold Pollack and Alida Bouris), Chapter 13 in Legal Epidemiology: Theory and Methods, 2nd edition, edited by Alexander Wagenaar, Rosalie Pacula, and Scott Burris, Josey-Bass (2023).
“The Economics of Sex Markets: Regulation, Online Technology and Sex Trafficking” (with Manisha Shah), in Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, edited by Dave Marcotte, Springer (2021).
“Examining the Role of Client Reviews and Reputation within Online Prostitution” (with Todd Kendall), in Handbook on the Economics of Prostitution, edited by Scott Cunningham and Manisha Shah, Oxford University Press (2016).
“Prostitution, Technology, and the Law: New Data and Directions” (with Todd Kendall), in Research Handbook in the Law and Economics of the Family, edited by Lloyd R. Cohen and Joshua D. Wright, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited (2011).
“Sex for Sale: Online Commerce in the World's Oldest Profession” (with Todd Kendall), in Crime Online: Correlates, Causes and Controls, edited by Thomas Holt, Carolina Academic Press, Durham NC (2010).
Books
Causal Inference: The Mixtape, Yale University Press (2021)
Co-editor with Manisha Shah, Handbook on the Economics of Prostitution, Oxford University Press (2016)
Works in Progress
“Difference-in-Differences: A Practitioner’s Guide” (with Andrew Baker, Brantly Callaway, Andrew Goodman-Bacon, and Pedro Sant’Anna), revise and resubmit at Journal of Economic Literature Journal of Economic Literature
“Predicting and Preventing Suicides in Corrections” (with Jonathan Seward and Christopher Cornwell)
“Massage Parlor Fees, Expansion and Sexually Transmitted Infections” (with Amanda Ngyuen and Manisha Shah)
“Estimated Effectiveness of the Self Harm Prevention Offices in Texas Department of Criminal Justice” (with Christopher Cornwell and Jonathan Seward)
“Power to the Platform: Online Dating and American Fertility” (with Christine Durrance and Melanie Guldi)
“Can Base ChatGPT be Used for Forecasting Without Additional Optimization” (with Van Pham)
“Unintended Consequences of Life-Saving Pharmaceutical Innovations: How HAART Led to the Resurgence of Syphilis” (with David Beheshti and Nir Eilam)
“ElectionGPT: Using LLMs For Predicting Out of Sample with Presidential Elections” (with Jared Black and Coco Sun)
“Effect of Being Nice to ChatGPT on Task Accuracy, Sentiment and Verbosity” (with Joshua Ramsay)
“Non-Routine Tasks, Spiritual Workers and LLM Bias” (with Joshua Ramsay and Hayley Lam)
Resting Papers
“Imprisonment Shocks and Substance Abuse” (with Sam Kang)
“Sex Ratios and Risky Sexual Behavior” (with Chris Cornwell)
“Understanding the Site-wise Heterogeneity of MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy Treatment on PTSD: A Bayesian Hierarchical Analysis” (with Priyasmita Ghosh and Rebecca Thornton)
Workshops
Founder of Mixtape Sessions, an international workshop platform democratizing access to causal inference. Since 2021, hosted over 50 workshops with more than 7,000 participants. Speakers include Ariel Pakes, Rocío Titiunik, Alberto Abadie, and others.
Microeconomic Theory, Principles, Labor Econ, Crime Econ, Networks, and others
Grants & Awards
Robert and Robin Nitsche Outstanding Research Award, Baylor University (2021)
H.B. Earhart Fellowship, University of Georgia (2003–2007)
Phelps Stokes Fellowship, University of Tennessee at Knoxville (2005–2007)
Knickerbacker Poetry Prize, University of Tennessee at Knoxville (1999)
Robert Wood Johnson Public Health and Law (co-PI, $116,462) — “How does regulating pseudoephedrine access affect methamphetamine-related public health outcomes?” (with Keith Finlay)
NBER Grant on Women, Victimization, and COVID (co-PI, $20,000) — (with Rebecca Thornton, Anual Assamidanov, Greg DeAngelo, and Yunie Le)
Service & Podcast
Host of The Mixtape with Scott, an oral history podcast of economics featuring ~120 interviews with economists including Nobel Laureates and John Bates Clark Medalists.