Douglas McKee
Research Scientist and Lecturer
Yale University
Economic Growth Center
P.O. Box 208269
New Haven, CT 06520-8269
tel: 310-266-2438
Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Development Economics, Labor Economics, Health Economics, Structural Estimation
Publications
"Health Consequences of Forest Fires in Indonesia" (with Elizabeth Frankenberg and Duncan Thomas), Demography, 2005. (abstract, paper)
"The Longer-term Effects of Human Capital Enrichment Programs on Poverty and Inequality: Oportunidades in Mexico" (with Petra Todd) Forthcoming in Estudios de Economía. (abstract, paper)
Working Papers
"Forward Thinking and Family Support: Explaining Retirement
and Old Age Labor Supply in Indonesia" (Revise and Resubmit)
(abstract,
paper)
This article develops a structural dynamic model of
retirement for developing countries and estimates this model
using Indonesian data. The model incorporates forms of old
age support that are common in developed countries, such as
government pensions, as well as mechanisms that are more
important in developing countries including coresidence with
family members, transfer payments, and health-related changes
in labor productivity.
"Do Good Kids Finish First? Characterizing the Bequest Motive
in Mexico" (with Beth Soldo) (Under Review)
(abstract,
paper)
This paper tests the major bequest motive theories using
longitudinal data (the Mexican Health and Aging Study)
that include a population-representative sample of bequests
and bequest plans in Mexico. Results show that children who
provide support to parents and have more frequent contact with
them were significantly more likely to receive higher future
bequests than their siblings.
Work in Progress
"The Evolution of Latent Health over the Life Course"
(with Fabian Lange)
(abstract)
In this project, we propose a new method to estimate rich dynamic
models of health that exploits longitudinal observations of multiple
health measures. We combine standard tools from factor analysis with
the method of simulated moments. Our method works with continuous as
well as discrete measures and corrects for mortality
selection. We demonstrate the method by estimating health processes
for men and women using data from the Health and Retirement Study.
"The Role of Dynamics in the Health-Education Gradient"
(with Fabian Lange)
(abstract)
It is well known that among elderly Americans, education and
good health are positively correlated. In this paper we develop
and estimate static and dynamic models that reveal how much
inequality in old age is driven by differences in health at
age 50 (the beginning of our sample) and how much stems from
differences in the aging process.
"The Impact of Teacher Training and Information
Technology on Student Outcomes: Evidence from the Intel Teach for the
Future Program in Costa Rica" (with Sarah Mayer)
(abstract)
Intel Teach for the Future is an international program that trains
teachers how to incorporate information and communications technology
into their classrooms. In Costa Rica, the program has reached 30% of
public elementary and high school teachers over the last ten years.
We match data on program roll out over time across the country to
nationally representative household survey data and use both temporal
and spatial variation to estimate causal effects of the program on
student retention, college-going, employment, and wages.
"The Intergenerational Transmission of Smoking and Schooling" (with
Vida Maralani)
(abstract)
Across birth cohorts of Americans, education and smoking
status in families of origin have become more aligned. We use a
two-sex demographic projection model, which accounts for the statuses of
both men and women, combined with simulations to examine how changes in
assortative mating affect the distribution of smoking and education in
future generations.
"Retirement Behavior in Mexico After the 1997 Pension Reform"
(abstract)
In 1997 the Mexican government replaced its existing defined
benefit pension program with a system of privately managed
individual retirement accounts for all formal sector workers.
In this paper I model retirement behavior in this new policy
context and incorporate important factors such as private saving,
family support, and migration between urban and rural areas.
"Cross-Cohort Changes in the Returns to Schooling, Early
Work Experience, and Unobserved Skills"
(with Marigee Bacolod and V. Joseph Hotz)
(abstract)
This study uses two cohorts of the National Longitudinal
Survey to examine how the wage returns to schooling, early work
experience, and unobservable skills changed for
young men and women in the United States over the latter half
of the twentieth century.
"The Dynamics of Schooling and Occupational Choice in the
United States" (with Moshe Buchinsky)
In this paper we develop and estimate a structural dynamic model of
schooling and occupational choice using the NLSY79. We pay
close attention to the sensitivity of the model to different
assumptions about how individuals forecast the evolution of
returns to schooling and experience in different occupations
and industries.
Teaching
Fall 2009
- ECON 466: Economics of Aging
Spring 2010
- ECON 462: Economics of Human Capital in Latin America
Fall 2010
Spring 2011
- ECON 462: Economics of Human Capital in Latin America
- HPA 583b: Methods in Health Services Research
Software
I spend a fair amount of my time writing code to either set up data, solve models, or estimate models. I use Stata when I can, but I tend to write programs in C when Stata can't do the job. There are lots of resources out there for learning Stata, but it's much harder for economists to get up to speed programming in C. I've written down a few C programming tips that might help.
When it comes to writing up my analyses, I use LaTeX. It's a wonderful and efficient tool for preparing documents with lots of math and it's straight-forward to automate the construction and inclusion of tables, figures, and bibliographies. I've also found that as I push LaTeX harder and harder, it becomes more and more like programming. Even in its simplest incarnation, you still have to compile your document and worry about syntax errors! As is the case for Stata, there are lots of resources on the web for learning LaTeX. I've put together a few of my favorite LaTeX links to help people get the most out of this powerful document markup language.
In the course of my research, I sometimes write code that other people might find useful. I've packaged up a few of those pieces here.