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Chapter one: Smoking, birth weight, and child development: Evidence from the NLSY79. One important justification for higher cigarette taxes is that pregnant smokers harm their children through in utero exposure. This paper investigates the impact of smoking while pregnant on subsequent child development, using the NLSY79 Mother-Child data, which allows for between-sibling comparisons. In utero exposure is related to an increase in behavioral problems among children and adolescents, but has no effect on intelligence. Targeted smoking cessation interventions may be cost-effective on the basis of nicotine's effects on child and adolescent development, though the optimal cigarette tax based on this justification is very small.

Chapter two: An empirical analysis of "acting white" (with Roland Fryer). There is a debate among social scientists regarding the prevalence of an insidious peer effect commonly referred to as "acting white". Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health which allows one to construct an objective measure of a student's popularity, we demonstrate that there are large racial differences in the relationship between popularity and academic achievement, which we label "acting white". The patterns in the data appear most consistent with a signaling model in which investments in education are thought to be indicative of an individual's opportunity costs of group loyalty.

Chapter three: The political response to recent changes in U.S. wage inequality. While there has been much work on the causes behind recent changes in the wage structure, it is unclear to what extent voters and politicians have agitated for political reforms in response to increasing inequality. This paper investigates House and Senate voting records and House Election results to examine the political response to wage inequality. The results suggest that inequality is related to turnover in the House, leading to a slightly greater number of Democrats on net. Voting records show that inequality leads to polarization by party, with Democrats voting more liberally and Republicans voting more conservatively. The results are consistent with models in which relative position in the income distribution matters, and where the "bite" of inequality hurts the bottom more than the top.