Taylor Watson

Working Papers

"From Your Pocket to Your Boss's: Tax Credits & Wage Theft"

Wage theft is a pervasive issue for American workers, yet research on the subject is stymied by underreporting: workers fear retaliatory firing if they report. This paper investigates if reporting decisions are affected by work-contingent government transfers, as they should make remaining employed more attractive, increasing the cost of being fired. Using variation in state Earned Income Tax Credits over time, I find that increases in transfers are associated with lower reporting counts, analyzing at the ZIP code level. To confirm that this decrease truly reflects changes in reporting rather than a decrease in wage theft itself, I estimate the relationship between transfers and several intensive-margin outcomes of wage theft. Finding no evidence that transfers decrease wage theft intensity, I conclude that transfers reduce reporting propensities.
"How Does Utilization of Physician Administered Drugs Respond to Medicare Part B Payment Incentives?"

With Angelique Acquatella, Keith Ericson, and Amanda Starc

"Provider Payment Systems and Incentives"

In Stella R. Quay (ed.), International Encyclopedia of Public Health, Third Edition

With Angelique Acquatella, Tianxu Chen, and Randall P. Ellis

NLRB Elections Archive

Archive of NLRB elections files from 1977-2010, pulled via FOIA request and cleaned in Stata.
State Wage Theft Data Project

To address the lack of data on wage theft at the state level, I have been collecting state archives via FOIA requests. While there is significant heterogeneity across states in the amount and quality of data, I believe it will still be useful for future analyses. Please drop me a line if you're interested in learning more.