Doug Miller received his degree in Economics from Princeton
University in 2000. His research examines the impact of economic
forces, social policy, and the environment on health.
Miller also serves as a Faculty Research Fellow for the National
Bureau of Economic Research. He has measured the effects of
business cycles, inheritances, Head Start, the Earned Income Tax
Credit, and air pollution on infant, child, and adult
health. He also works in the area of applied econometrics,
using and building tools for measuring casual effects and for
conducting accurate statistical inference. He also has
research interests in development economics.
1151 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
At the core of debates about Head Start is evidence of its
effectiveness, which has been questioned due to the reduction in
test score gains, known as test score “fade-out”, in the years
following participation. However, short-term test score gains may
not accurately reflect the impacts of the program. A number of
studies suggest that the program yields long-term improvements
that include social, cognitive and physical well-being. These
findings show that, overall, Head Start produces a positive
return on investment.
In the recent recession, unemployment nearly doubled to 9.5
percent by mid-2009. This figure is powerful in and of
itself, but does not tell the whole story.
Linking income and health has been a notorious challenge for
researchers. With multiple sources of income such as earnings,
cash transfer and near cash transfer programs, it is difficult to
isolate their effects on health. The 1993 expansion to the Earned
Income Tax Credit (EITC), the largest and most recent of federal
expansions to date, provided researchers a unique opportunity.
Head Start is a federally funded early childhood educational
intervention program designed to reduce disparities in preschool
outcomes. While a recent impact study may indicate that Head
Start is ineffective, our Research Affiliates are investigating
further to assess whether the program’s long-term effects improve
the life chances of participants.
Does the Great Recession impact certain segments of the
population more dramatically? Researchers find that the effects
are not uniform across demographic groups, and have been felt
most strongly for men, black and Hispanic workers, youth, and low
education workers.
Health outcomes for children and adults vary dramatically across
neighborhoods, even after statistically controlling for various
individual- or family-level risk and protective factors. These
patterns have generated concern among both policymakers and
scientists that health outcomes may be causally affected by
neighborhood attributes. In this paper, researchers estimate the
causal effects on child mortality from moving into less
distressed neighborhood environments.
Since the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA), atmospheric
concentration of local pollutants has fallen drastically. A
natural question is whether further reductions will yield
additional health benefits. Investigators in this project further
this research by addressing two related research questions: (1)
what is the impact of automobile driving (and especially
congestion) on ambient air pollution levels, and (2) what is the
impact of modern air pollution levels on infant health? These
questions directly impact children living in congested,
impoverished neighborhoods.
Is there a positive health impact to families receiving the
Earned Income Tax Credit, a central piece in the U.S. safety net
for families with children? Researchers conclude that the
sizeable increase in income for eligible families significantly
improved birth outcomes for both whites and African Americans,
with larger impacts for births to African American mothers.
