I am an applied micro-economist with an interest in the economics of education, labor economics, and inequality.
You can find me at kotta@bgu.ac.il
“Does Remedial Education at Late Childhood Pay Off After All? Long-Run Consequences for University Schooling, Labor Market Outcomes and Inter-Generational Mobility” (with Victor Lavy and Genia Rachkovski), Journal of Labor Economics. Volume 40, Number 1, January 2022, pp. 239–282
Working Papers
Income Shocks, School Choice, and Long-Term Outcomes: Lessons from Child Allowances in Israel
I study how a shock to household income during childhood affects educational decisions and long-term educational outcomes. For identification, I leverage a birthday cutoff rule in a reform to child allowances in Israel, which resulted in similar families receiving substantially different amounts of income. To improve statistical efficiency, I exploit variation in the shock’s intensity by extending the recentered treatment approach in Borusyak and Hull (2021) to a regression discontinuity setting. For Jewish boys, losing USD 1,000 reduces the probability of matriculating high school by 2.3 percentage points (10%); however, I find limited evidence that the reduced child allowances affected other groups. This heterogeneity is explained by Jewish boys’ sorting into lower-quality ultraorthodox schools that are unavailable for the other demographic groups. Transitioning to these ultraorthodox schools could appeal to parents since they provide amenities not found elsewhere, such as longer hours of care, meals, and transport. However, these schools are also among the worst performing in the country. My findings highlight parents’ educational decisions as a mechanism driving the long-term consequences of income shocks during childhood.
Recipient of the Policy Impacts Early-Career Scholars Grant
Starting Together, Diverging Later? Gender Differences in Universal Pre-K’s Long-Term Effects (New!)
I estimate the causal effect of starting to attend universal public pre-K at age three versus age four on school progression and high school achievements. The analysis leverages a dramatic expansion of public pre-K in Arab-majority towns in Israel, which generated within-household variation in siblings' pre-K attendance, enabling a sibling-fixed-effect model. I find that starting pre-K at age three significantly improves school progression, though high school academic achievements remain unaffected. By jointly observing pre-K attendance and long-term outcomes, I document patterns of heterogeneity in both program take-up and treatment effects. The results reveal stark gender heterogeneity, with girls gaining substantially more than boys from early pre-K attendance. Investigation of potential mechanisms yields results consistent with the hypothesis that this gender heterogeneity results from differences in home environments between girls and boys. The findings indicate that in communities with prevalent gender norms, public pre-K can serve as an efficient equalizing force.
Work in Progress
The Income Effects of Reducing Unconditional Cash transfers on Families in Israel (With Naomi Gershoni, Rania Gihleb, Hani Mansour and Yannay Shannan)