Overview
Rebecca Dizon-Ross is an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her research focuses on human capital, education policy, and the behavioral economics of parental investment decisions in low-income families. She uses randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs to study how information, beliefs, and constraints shape investment in children's education and health, with particular attention to developing country contexts and U.S. social safety net populations.
Key Contributions
- Deshpande and Dizon-Ross (2022) — "The (Lack of) Anticipatory Effects of the Social Safety Net on Human Capital Investment." RCT with ~6,000 parents of SSI-recipient children ages 14–17. Tests whether informing parents about age-18 SSI redetermination (actual removal rate ~40–70%) increases human capital investment. Strong first stage (+20 pp belief shift, F=94); null main result (−0.2 pp, 95% CI rules out +1.5 pp). Contradicts expert predictions (+14 pp) and structural model predictions (+11%). Mechanisms: 89% of parents at investment constraint limit; 49% would increase own work rather than child investment; wealth effect reduces college aspirations among informed parents. Central contribution: rejects dynamic discouragement hypothesis; shows information alone insufficient when structural constraints bind. See Dynamic Discouragement.
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