About Me

I am an Associate Professor of Economics at Tulane University and the Executive Director

of the Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science (CAIDS).

In August 2024, I created the Discrimination, Disparities, and Data Lab (D3L), a research collective that includes an amazing team of 40+ research assistants.

I am also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, and an invited researcher with

J-PAL North America.

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 and projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Aging, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the Sloan Foundation, the Social Security Administration, the Haynes Foundation, and the Borchard Center for Law and Aging, among others.

LinkedIn Google Scholar

RePEc ORCiD

Web of Science Zotero

ResearchGate (ungated papers)

NBER Working Papers

IZA Working Papers

Home: About Me

Home: Research

(Selected) Research

Topics: o Research In Progress

o Audit Field Experiments

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 Tax Incentives for the Film Industry

Notes:

* = Student / post-doc co-author at time of writing/research.
Selected research presented below. For everything, please see my CV.
The links in paper titles go to the published work, which is often gated (requires payment or subscription).
I provide links underneath each publication for free, open access or pre-publication versions.
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, Barbara Lundebjerg*, Yu Liu*, Luca Fumarco, and Benjamin Harrell. “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. (2024). Experiment in the field.

Button, Patrick, Hussain Hadah,* Javiera Selman,* Tran Nguyen-Phuong*, and Cathy Balfe*. “Sexual Orientation and Racial Discrimination

in Mortgage Lending: An Audit Correspondence Field Experiment."

Note: See Balfe et al. (2022) for the pilot study. Experiment in the field.

Skeen, Simone*, Patrick Button, and Daniel Lau*. “Linguistic Markers of Subtle Discrimination Among Mental Health Professionals."

Button, Patrick, Hussain Hadah,* Doug Harris, and Barbara Lundebjerg.* “Parent's Choice or School's Choice? Discrimination Against

Students in Admission to Private, Charter, and Traditional Schools."

Note: Currently funded by a grant from J-PAL North America. Pilot study in the field.

Button, Patrick, Clare Daniel, Hussain Hadah,* Julie Hernandez, and Mirya Holman. “Do Crisis Pregnancy Centers Provide Misinformation?

Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment." (Tentative title)

Note: Pilot in the field in early Spring 2026.

Audit Field Experiments

Sariola, Disa*, Patrick Button, Aron Culotta, and Nicholas Mattei. 2025. “The Illusion of Fairness: Auditing Fairness Interventions with Audit

Studies." Forthcoming at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

Related: Pre-Publication Version

Fumarco, Luca,* Benjamin Harrell,* Patrick Button, David Schwegman, and E Dils*. 2024 “Gender Identity, Race, and Ethnicity Discrimination

in Access to Mental Healthcare: Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment.” American Journal of Health Economics,

10(2): 182-214.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Button, Patrick. 2018. “Expanding Employment Discrimination Protections for Individuals with Disabilities: Evidence from California.”

ILR Review, 71(2): 365-93.

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.

Discrimination Against LGBTQIA+ People

Fumarco, Luca,* Benjamin Harrell,* Patrick Button, David Schwegman, and E Dils*. 2024 “Gender Identity, Race, and Ethnicity Discrimination

in Access to Mental Healthcare: Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment.” American Journal of Health Economics,

10(2): 182-214.

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.

* = Student / post-doc co-author at time of writing/research.

In Progress

Recessions

Age Discrimination

Disability Discrimination

Audits

Film

LGBTQ

Teaching

PhD Econometrics III (ECON 7175)

Spring '24, '26

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

Economics of Discrimination
(ECON 4970/6970)

This course provides an overview of how economists, and other social scientists, quantify discrimination in various markets or interactions (e.g., employment, housing, healthcare). The course focus on mentored data analysis assignments and a research project. Students may also have the opportunity to do paid work in my lab. Syllabus

Fall '26?

Home: Teaching

Contact

Office Location / Mailing Address : Room B19, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, 7001 Freret St., New Orleans, LA, 70118

Home: Contact

Accessibility Statement

Accesibility

In addition to researching disability and being a member of the disability community, I take accessibility very seriously and have been working to improve accessibility in everything that I do. Below is accessibility information on my website. I welcome any feedback (see contact section above) and apologize in advance for any issues you may have in engaging with my website.

Conformance status: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. My website is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard. I believe most should, but there may be the odd case that it does not. My website is also conformant with many, but not all, Level AAA criteria.

Additional accessibility considerations: In addition, my website and most of my documents (my CV, course syllabi) use the Atkinson Hyperlegible font, which improves readability for those with visual impairments and dyslexia.

About Me

(Selected) Research

Teaching

PhD Econometrics III (ECON 7175)

Economics of Discrimination (ECON 4970/6970)

Contact

Accessibility Statement

​

​

Additional accessibility considerations: In addition, my website and most of my documents (my CV, course syllabi) use the Atkinson Hyperlegible font, which improves readability for those with visual impairments and dyslexia.

Date: This statement was created on 7 February 2024 partly using the W3C Accessibility Statement Generator Tool.

Economics of Discrimination
(ECON 4970/6970)