PhD Candidate, Department of Economics

Contact Information

Department of Economics
Northwestern University
2211 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208

Phone: 312-927-6574

j.chirakijja@u.northwestern.edu

 

 

Education
Ph.D., Economics, Northwestern University, 2018 (expected)
M.A., Economics, Northwestern University, 2014
M.Sc., Economics, London School of Economics, 2011
B.A. (Hons), Economics, University of Cambridge, 2010

Primary Fields of Specialization
Labor Economics, Public Economics

Secondary Fields of Specialization
Development Economics

Curriculum Vitae
Download Vita (PDF)

Job Market Paper
“The Local Economic Impacts of Prisons”
(Online Appendix)

This paper examines the local economic consequences of prisons using two complementary approaches. The first uses the openings of 230 prisons during the 1990s across the entire United States, and the second uses a quasi-experimental strategy that compares winning and rejected communities in prison site-selection competitions in Texas. I find that prisons decrease housing values by 2-4 percent and lead to substantial changes in neighborhood composition, specifically towards low socioeconomic status individuals. The negative housing value impacts are localized to the neighborhoods that are closest to the new prisons, while the economic benefits of prisons are spread across broader communities. In particular, counties where prisons opened experienced an increase in total employment driven largely by the jobs at the new prisons. Prisons thus fail to create substantial spillovers to other sectors or provide a major boost to local economies beyond the direct effect of prison employment. Lastly, I find that after the opening of a prison, local labor markets in treated counties are less responsive to macroeconomic shocks, consistent with the view that jobs at prisons are “recession proof.”

Other Research Papers
“Surviving the Winter: Inexpensive Heating Reduces Mortality”, with Seema Jayachandran and Pinchuan Ong

This paper examines how the price of heating affects mortality in the US. When the price is higher, households will use less heating, and exposure to cold has been linked to cardiovascular failure, respiratory infections, and other health problems, and is a hypothesized contributor to the pattern of “excess winter mortality.” Heating prices could also affect health if high energy bills lead to cutbacks in food or health care spending. Our empirical approach combines spatial variation across the US in the energy source used for home heating and temporal variation in the national prices of different energy sources; whether natural gas or electricity is used for heating varies significantly across counties, and the relative price of natural gas to electricity varies over time, notably due to the boom in shale production of natural gas during our 2000 to 2010 study period. Using microdata on all deaths in the US, we find that a lower heating price reduces winter mortality. The effect is larger for males and is due mostly to cardiovascular and respiratory causes of death.

“The Impact of Tourism on Economic Development and Household Welfare: Evidence from Thailand” (Work in progress)

In recent decades, tourism has become a major source of foreign revenues and an engine for job creation for many developing countries. However, inflows of tourists may also lead to higher prices of local goods and services thereby raising the cost of living. Using data from Thailand, I study the economic consequences of tourism for local residents by evaluating its effect on household income, wages, and consumer prices. I also evaluate the distributional impact of tourism by quantifying the changes in purchasing power of individuals in different skill and income groups. My empirical approach combines temporal variation in the national tourism level with geographic variation across provinces in their endowment of resources that attract tourism. To measure the attractiveness of each province to tourists, I use the relative length of the description in Thailand tourism guidebooks that is devoted to that particular province.

Article in Conference Volumes
“The Stimulus Effect of the 2008 UK Temporary VAT Cut”, with Thomas F. Crossley, Melanie Lührmann and Cormac O’Dea, Proceeding of the 102nd Annual Conference on Taxation, National Tax Association, 2011

Teaching
Introduction to Applied Econometrics, Economics of Developing Countries, Experimental Economics, Business and Government, Money and Banking, Introduction to Macroeconomics

References
Prof. Seema Jayachandran (Committee Co-Chair)
Prof. Matthew Notowidigdo (Committee Co-Chair)
Prof. Lori Beaman
Prof. Jonathan Guryan