PATRICK BUTTON
(they/them or he/him)
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Tulane University
Executive Director, Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science
About Me
I am an Associate Professor of Economics at Tulane University and the Executive Director
of The Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science (formerly called The Data Hub: Tulane Center for Data Literacy.)
I am also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Affiliate at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, and an invited researcher with
I primarily research discrimination, focusing especially on age and disability, but also sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and ethnicity. I research discrimination two ways:
(1) I quantify discrimination using audit field experiments.
I previously studied hiring discrimination against older workers using resume experiments, where we applied for jobs as younger and older workers to study age discrimination in hiring. I am currently researching sexual orientation and race discrimination in access to mortgages, and gender identity, race, ethnicity, and health insurance status discrimination in access to mental healthcare appointments.
(2) I determine the effects of discrimination laws.
I use variation in time and across states in employment discrimination laws to see if these laws improve employment and hiring, primarily for older workers and individuals with disabilities. I also study how these discrimination laws affect Social Security Disability Insurance application.
In other research, I quantified the (lack of) economic impacts of tax incentives for the film industry, by comparing filming location choice, employment, and business growth in the film industry and related industries after states adopted these aggressive subsidies.
My research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Aging, the Sloan Foundation, the Social Security Administration, the Haynes Foundation, and the Borchard Center for Law and Aging, among others.
Research
Topics: o Research In Progress
o Effects of Recessions and COVID-19 on Older Workers
o Age Discrimination in Employment
o Effects of Disability Employment Discrimination Laws
o Discrimination Against LGBTQIA+ People
o Other Work on Discrimination and EDI
o Tax Incentives for the Film Industry
Notes:
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* = Student / post-doc co-author at time of writing/research.
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Selected research presented below. For everything, please see my CV.
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The links in paper titles go to the published work, which is often gated (requires payment or subscription).
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I provide links underneath each publication for free, open access or pre-publication versions.
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You can find all my open access or pre-publication drafts on ResearchGate as well. Email me if you can't find something.
In Progress
Button, Patrick, Barb Lundebjerg*, Yu Liu*, Luca Fumarco, Benjamin Harrell, and David Schwegman. “Discrimination in Access to Mental
Health Care: Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment.” (Tentative title)
Note: this is a follow up to Fumarco et al. (forthcoming). We are putting this experiment into the field in Jan. 2024.
Button, Patrick, David Schwegman, Javiera Selman,* Tran Nguyen-Phuong*, and Cathy Balfe*. “Sexual Orientation and Racial Discrimination in
Mortgage Lending: An Audit Correspondence Field Experiment."
Related: See Balfe et al. (2022) for the pilot study.
Note: experiment planned to go into the field in Jan. 2024.
Effects of Recessions and COVID-19 on Older Workers
Bui, Truc T. M.*, Patrick Button, and Elyce G. Picciotti*. 2020. "Early Evidence on the Impacts of COVID-19 and the Recession on Older
Workers." Public Policy & Aging Report, 30(4): 154-159. (Open Access)
Related: NBER Working Paper No. 27448.
Neumark, David and Patrick Button. 2014. “Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?” Journal
of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(3): 566-601.
Related: NBER Working Paper, Executive Summary (SF Fed Letter), Pre-Publication Version, Data and Replication Code
Age Discrimination in Employment
Burn, Ian, Patrick Button, Luis Munguia Corella,* and David Neumark. 2022. "Older Workers Need Not Apply? Ageist Language in Job Ads
and Age Discrimination in Hiring." Journal of Labor Economics, 40(3): 613-67.
Related: Online Appendix, Pre-Publication Version, NBER Working Paper
Button, Patrick, Mashfiqur Khan,* and Mary Penn*. 2022. "Do Stronger Employment Discrimination Protections Decrease Reliance on Social
Security Disability Insurance? Evidence from the Social Security Reforms." Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 22: 100370.
Related: Online Appendix, Pre-Publication Version, Working Paper
Burn, Ian, Patrick Button, Ted Figinski, and Joanne Song McLaughlin. 2020. "Why Retirement, Social Security, and Age Discrimination Policies
Need to Consider the Intersectional Experiences of Older Women." Public Policy & Aging Report, 30(3): 101-106. (Open Access)
Related: NBER Working Paper
Button, Patrick. 2020. “Population Aging, Age Discrimination, and Age Discrimination Protections at the 50th Anniversary of the Age
Discrimination in Employment Act.” In Czaja, Sara J., Joseph Sharit, and Jacquelyn James (Eds.). Current and Emerging Trends in Aging and Work. Springer: New York.
Related: Pre-Publication Version, NBER Working Paper, EEOC Testimony
Neumark, David, Ian Burn, Patrick Button, and Nanneh Chehras. 2019. “Do State Laws Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Reduce
Age Discrimination in Hiring? Evidence from a Field Experiment.” Journal of Law and Economics, 62(2): 373-402.
Related: Online Appendix, Pre-Publication Version, Data, NBER Working Paper
Neumark, David, Ian Burn, and Patrick Button. 2019. “Is it Harder for Older Workers to Find Jobs? New and Improved Evidence from a Field
Experiment.” Journal of Political Economy, 127(2): 922-970.
Related: Online Appendix, Pre-Publication Version, AEA P&P Paper, Data, NBER Working Paper, Executive Summary (SF Fed Letter)
Neumark, David, Joanne Song, and Patrick Button. 2017. “Does Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Make It Harder to Get Hired?
Evidence from Disability Discrimination Laws.” Research on Aging, 39(1): 29-63.
Related: Pre-Publication Version, NBER Working Paper
Neumark, David and Patrick Button. 2014. “Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?” Journal
of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(3): 566-601.
Related: Pre-Publication Version, NBER Working Paper, Executive Summary (SF Fed Letter), Data and Replication Code
Effects of Disability Employment Discrimination Laws
Button, Patrick, Mashfiqur Khan,* and Mary Penn*. 2022. "Do Stronger Employment Discrimination Protections Decrease Reliance on Social
Security Disability Insurance? Evidence from the Social Security Reforms." Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 22: 100370.
Related: Online Appendix, Pre-Publication Version, Working Paper
Neumark, David, Ian Burn, Patrick Button, and Nanneh Chehras. 2019. “Do State Laws Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Reduce
Age Discrimination in Hiring? Evidence from a Field Experiment.” Journal of Law and Economics, 62(2): 373-402.
Related: Online Appendix, Pre-Publication Version, Data, NBER Working Paper
Button, Patrick. 2018. “Expanding Employment Discrimination Protections for Individuals with Disabilities: Evidence from California.”
ILR Review, 71(2): 365-93.
Related: Online Appendix, Pre-Publication Version
Armour, Philip, Patrick Button, and Simon Hollands*. 2018. “Disability Saliency and Discrimination in Hiring.” AEA Papers and Proceedings,
108: 262-66.
Related: Pre-Publication Version
Neumark, David, Joanne Song, and Patrick Button. 2017. “Does Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Make It Harder to Get Hired?
Evidence from Disability Discrimination Laws.” Research on Aging, 39(1): 29-63.
Related: Pre-Publication Version, NBER Working Paper
Discrimination Against LGBTQIA+ People
Fumarco, Luca,* Benjamin Harrell,* Patrick Button, David Schwegman, and E Dils*. 2023 “Gender Identity, Race, and Ethnicity Discrimination
in Access to Mental Healthcare: Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment.” NBER Working Paper #28164. Forthcoming in the American Journal of Health Economics.
Related: open-access draft.
Other Work on Discrimination and EDI
Button, Patrick. 2023. “The Do's and Don'ts of Writing Diversity Statements and Some Ideas to Get Started.” In Deryugina, Tatyana (Ed.)
Thriving in Economics: PhD Student Edition. Sequitur News.
Related: Pre-Publication Version
Balfe, Cathy*, Patrick Button, Mary Penn*, and David Schwegman. 2023. “Infrequent Identity Signals and Detection Risks in Audit
Correspondence Studies.” Field Methods, 35(1): 3-17.
Related: Pre-Publication Version, NBER Working Paper
Button, Patrick, and Brigham Walker. 2020. “Employment Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in the United States: Evidence from a
Field Experiment.” Labour Economics 65(4): 101851.
Related: Pre-Publication Version, NBER Working Paper, Registered Pre-Analysis Plan
Tax Incentives for the Film Industry
Button, Patrick. 2021. “Can Tax Incentives Create a Local Film Industry? Evidence from Louisiana and New Mexico.” Journal of Urban
Affairs, 43(5): 658-84.
Related: Pre-Publication Version
Button, Patrick. 2019. “Do Tax Incentives Affect Business Location and Economic Development? Evidence from State Film Incentives.”
Regional Science and Urban Economics, 77: 315-339.
Related: Online Appendix, Pre-Publication Version, NBER Working Paper, Data
Teaching
Urban Economics (ECON 3320)
Labor Economics (ECON 3810)
PhD Econometrics III (ECON 7175)
Economics of Discrimination
(ECON 4970/6970)
Urban economics studies how economics applies to geography, such as issues at regional or local levels. Topics covered include finding and using geographical data, crime, agglomeration, policing, racial bias, economic development incentives, housing, and neighborhood effects. Students will also learn the intuition behind how economists analyze policies or programs using statistical analysis. Syllabus
Labor economics studies labor markets. Topics covered include finding and using population and labor force data, labor supply, labor demand, economic models of the labor market, employment discrimination, and labor market policies (e.g., EITC, minimum wage). The course will also include a short introduction to using STATA to conduct research in labor economics. Students will also learn the intuition behind how economists analyze policies or programs using statistical analysis. Syllabus
Spring 2024
The course covers methodologies that would be in any empirical microeconomist's “toolbox”. These include regression control, instrumental variables, experiments, panel methods, difference-in-differences, and regression discontinuity design. The course will cover the basic theory, applications, and best practices. Students will put this into practice with actual data sets and applications, using STATA. Syllabus
Contact
Office Location: Room B19 (basement level), Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, 7001 Freret St., New Orleans, LA, 70118
Mailing Address: B19 (CAIDS), Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, 6823 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70118