Rebecca Brough

Research

Publications

1. Refugees’ Economic IntegrationJournal of Economic Literature 64(3):950–983, 2026with Dany Bahar and Giovanni Peri
2. Eliminating Fares to Expand Opportunities: Experimental Evidence on the Impacts of Free Public Transportation on Economic and Social DisparitiesAmerican Economic Journal: Economic Policy 17(3):1–34, 2025with Matt Freedman and David Phillips
3. High Schools Tailored to Adults Can Help Them Complete a Traditional Diploma and Excel in the Labor MarketAmerican Economic Journal: Economic Policy 16(4):34–67, 2024with David Phillips and Patrick Turner
4. Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Means-Tested Public Transportation Subsidies on Travel BehaviorRegional Science and Urban Economics 96:103803, 2022with Matt Freedman and David Phillips
5. Can Transportation Subsidies Reduce Failures to Appear in Criminal Court? Evidence from a Pilot Randomized Controlled TrialEconomics Letters 216:110540, 2022with Matt Freedman, Dan Ho, and David Phillips
6. Understanding Socioeconomic Disparities in Travel Behavior During the COVID-19 PandemicJournal of Regional Science 61(4):753–774, 2021with Matt Freedman and David Phillips

Other Working Papers

1. Teacher Marriage Barswith Wenni Yang
   Abstract

   Women’s increased participation in the workforce was one of the most significant changes in the US labor market over the past century. An often-cited but understudied reason participation rates remained so low during the first half of the twentieth century was the marriage bar, a policy that prohibited married women from working. We collect new data on the adoption of marriage bars in teaching across US cities between 1900 and 1940. Using the 1880–1940 full-count censuses and a difference-in-differences design, we show that marriage bars changed the composition of teachers. They decreased the share of married women teachers by 3.9 percentage points (22 percent) and increased the share of single women teachers by 3.1 percentage points. The decline came from fewer married women being hired and fewer teachers remaining after they married. These effects were large enough to decrease the share of married women in local professional and white-collar work overall. We find little evidence that the composition effects persisted after the bars were likely abandoned during World War II. Using linked censuses, we then follow single female teachers to assess how marriage bars affected the trajectory of their work and family lives. We show that while marriage bars did not change whether these women married or worked, they did change whether the two were combined; young single teachers were 20 percent less likely to be married and in the labor force a decade later, driven almost entirely by teaching. Discriminatory employment policies therefore shaped both who worked in an occupation and the family decisions of the women in it.

   Paper Link
2. Better Outcomes, Lower Costs: Evidence from Competitive Bidding in WICwith Grace Ortuzar
   Abstract

   The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) serves about 40 percent of U.S. infants, and infant formula is one of its largest expenses. We study the introduction of sole-source infant-formula rebate contracts awarded through competitive bidding, which most states adopted between 1987 and 1993. Using a new compilation of state participation and cost data and a stacked difference-in-differences design, we find that the rebate system’s savings allowed WIC to expand and improve infant health. WIC participation increased by 14 percent, and dollars per participant did not change, suggesting that additional enrollment is the main channel for rebate money. Average birth weight rose by 3.6 grams, and the share of small-for-gestational-age births fell by 2 percent. The gains are concentrated among births to mothers with at most a high-school education and in states that cut WIC caseloads for lack of funds, with some evidence of larger gains for higher-order births, consistent with spillovers from older siblings’ enrollment.

   Paper Link

Selected Works in Progress

1. Citizenship Policy and Immigrant Women’s Integration: Evidence from the 1922 Cable Act
   Abstract

   The 1922 Cable Act repealed automatic citizenship for foreign-born women marrying citizens after a specific date, effectively introducing naturalization requirements for first-generation female immigrants in the US. Using newly digitized marriage records and a regression discontinuity design around couples’ marriage dates, I study the effects of naturalization requirements for women on their and their children’s integration outcomes. Naturalization requirements reduced married women’s probability of obtaining citizenship by 15–18 percentage points in the medium run but did not affect citizenship status in the long run. Naturalization requirements negatively affected women’s integration, decreasing their probability of speaking English by 3 p.p. and increasing the likelihood that daughters are given names common among immigrants, but otherwise had no effects on women’s labor force participation or employment. I also find some evidence that sons are less socially integrated: they are 3 p.p. less likely to volunteer for WWII and possibly less likely to marry natives. These results highlight the unique role that mothers’ access to citizenship plays in creating a home environment for social integration.
2. Cash vs. In-Kind: Evidence from the Introduction of SSI and the Food Stamp Cash-Outwith Marianne Bitler, Amelia Hawkins, and Lucie Schmidt
3. Multigenerational Effects of Divorce
4. Food Assistance Programs and the Retail Price of Foodwith Marianne Bitler

Teaching

Teaching assistant, UC Davis Teaching evaluations

• ECN 140: Econometrics Winter 2023
• ECN 130: Public Microeconomics Spring 2023
• ECN 102: Analysis of Economic Data Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022
• ECN 01A: Principles of Microeconomics Fall 2021

Undergraduate Research Fellow Group

• Group leader Spring 2024, Fall 2025