Thanks so much, Hani! It’s a much better paper because of your early feedback!

Atheen, you are too kind!

Thanks for sharing my work!

The findings really chime with the powerful argument made by @lisaharker.bsky.social about our care system pushing young people into independence at too young an age.

www.nuffieldfoundation.org/research/our...

The conclusion is really important: don't assume that investing in 'older' young people doesn't work. Rather think more broadly about the sorts of relational investments most likely to pay-off.

And check out my other papers on the opioid epidemic’s impact on students, Medicaid Rx rules and antipsychotic use, and historical interventions such as minimum wage hikes and salt iodization that improved infant survival and adult wellbeing: katemusen.com/research/

See the full paper here: katemusen.com/uploads/jmp....

In addition to studying the effects of more time in foster care, I show that more lenient enforcement of work and school requirements to stay in care improves economic outcomes for youth. Stricter enforcement pushes kids out of foster care more than it promotes productive activity in foster care.

The benefits far exceed the costs: every $1 spent yields at least $3 in benefits from increased earnings. Extended foster care shows large gains, challenging assumptions about low returns of government investment in older youth.

Using admin data and a difference-in-differences design, I find that each extra year in foster care raises college enrollment 6% and employment at ages 24–26 by 4%. Effects are also larger for youth with fewer outside options without extended foster care.

In 2012, California introduced extended foster care, creating a natural experiment to study the causal effects of additional time in foster care.

15 and 17. Zillennial (1996).

Omg I just realized this is from Janetfest and I am the person in the background. You look so serious that I thought this was from sort of congressional testimony or something. 😂

ATTN: @econsandy.bsky.social