Recipients of PSC Small Grant Awards

PSC graduate trainee Michael Murto wrote his dissertation on the causes of key human capital outcomes in the United States. Beginning with education, he examined how the specific repayment plan structure of student loans changes investment behavior of borrowers and subsequent labor market activity, plausibly affecting both the skills mix–via major selection while in school–and occupation selection–via optimal search behavior on the labor market–of the college-educated workforce. With John Bound, Timothy Waidmann, and Arline Geronimus, Murto examined how the opioid epidemic of the 2000s and 2010s in the United States has led to “spillover” mortality, deaths which are not directly attributable to opioid usage on death certificates but are caused by opioid use. They found evidence that prior estimates of spillover are potentially driven by deteriorating economic and social conditions and that prior estimates are sensitive to time, drug and populations studied, substantially overstating recent contributions of opioid use to life expectancy trends.

Murto won the Albert Hermalin award in 2020.