Resume

• 2017

  Member

  North American Association of Sports Economists

  Attendee of American Economic Associate Annual Meetings

  January 2013

  Member

  American Economic Association

• 2015

  Attendee of the 2017 SEA Meetings

  Member

  Southern Economic Association

  Member

  Western Economic Association International

• 2014

  Member

  European Association of Labour Economists

• 2007

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

  Primary Field:\t Labor Economics\nSecondary Fields:\tApplied Econometrics

  Economics of Education

  Economics

  Cornell University

• 2003

  “Africology Professor Unravels Race and Representation” (By Sarah Vickery

  Appeared in UWM College of Letters & Science InFocus – Mar. 2018

  UWM College of Letters & Science News – April 19

  2018) \nAvailable at: https://uwm.edu/letters-science/news/africology-professor-unravels-race-and-representation\n\n“The Day After Football: What Would Happen if Football Vanished?” (By Mike Curkov

  Aired on CBS 58 News – Nov. 22

  2017) \nAvailable at: https://www.cbs58.com/news/the-day-after-football-what-would-happen-if-football-vanished\n\n“African American College Football Coaches Tend to Get the Axe Sooner Than Their White Peers”(Appeared in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education – May 18

  2015) \nAvailable at: https://www.jbhe.com/2015/05/african-american-college-football-coaches-tend-to-get-the-axe-sooner-than-their-white-peers/\n\n“‘You’re Fired’ Examines Brief Tenure of NCAA’s Black Football Coaches” (By Sarah Vickery

  Appeared in UWM Report – Apr. 30

  2015) \nAvailable at: https://uwm.edu/news/youre-fired-examines-brief-tenure-of-ncaas-black-football-coaches/\n\n“Africology Professor Finds Black Coaches Likelier to be Punted” (By Sarah Mann

  Appeared in UWM College of Letters & Science InFocus – Apr. 2015) \nAvailable at: http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/publications/upload/2015-April-InFocus.pdf\n\n“Tax Breaks Could Give Teams an Edge” (By Ben Cohen

  Appeared in The Wall Street Journal – Jul. 2

  2013) Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324436104578581790607855384\n\n“How Local Tax Rates Affect High-Income Professionals” (By Victor Fleischer

  Appeared in The New York Times – Dec. 18

  2012) \nAvailable at: https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/how-local-tax-rates-affect-high-income-professionals/\n\n“Study: NBA Teams in States with Low Income Taxes Sign Better Free Agents” (By Tony Manfred

  Appeared in Business Insider – Aug. 16

  2011) \nAvailable at: https://www.businessinsider.com/nba-income-tax-free-agency-2011-8

  Media Appearances and Mentions

  Invited Presentations

  Department of Africology

  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  Milwaukee

  WI April 2018\n\nDepartment of Economics

  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  Milwaukee

  WI

  March 2018\n\nSouthern Economic Association Annual Meeting

  Tampa

  FL

  November 2017\n\nCommunity Brainstorming Conference

  Milwaukee

  WI

  January 2017\n\nDepartment of Africology

  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  Milwaukee

  WI

  2016\n\nDepartment of Economics

  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  Milwaukee

  WI

  2016\n\nDepartment of Economics

  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  Milwaukee

  WI

  February 2014\n\nCommunity Brainstorming Conference

  Milwaukee

  WI

  January 2014\n\nDepartment of Africology

  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

  Milwaukee

  WI

  March 2013\n\nOffice of the Comptroller of the Currency

  U.S. Department of the Treasury

  Washington

  DC

  February 2013\n\nU.S. Census Bureau

  U.S. Department of Commerce

  Suitland

  MD

  February 2013\n\nCornell Labor Economics Seminar

  Ithaca

  NY

  August 2012\n

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

  Graduated Summa cum Laude\nMinor in Business Administration

  Statistics

  Economics

  Mathematics

  University of Florida

• Lecturing

  Econometrics

  Public Policy

  Employment Discrimination

  Stata

  Labor Economics

  Teaching

  Statistics

  Economics

  Data Analysis

  Economics of Education

  Higher Education

  Research

  University Teaching

  Applied Econometrics

  Housing Discrimination

  Policy Analysis

  The conditional spatial correlations between racial prejudice and racial disparities in the market for home loans

  Many studies have shown the existence of disparities in loan denial rates between blacks and whites that cannot be accounted for by observable applicant characteristics. Examining the link between racial gaps in home loan denial rates and prejudicial attitudes toward blacks measured by questions in the General Social Survey

  this article shows not only that blacks are more likely to be denied conventional home mortgages but that denial rates among blacks for these loans are also geographically correlated with racial prejudice

  particularly among first-lien home purchase loans and loans from depository lenders. However

  among Federal Housing Administration-insured loans guaranteed by the government in the event of borrower default

  this study finds no evidence of a statistical relationship between racial prejudice and loan denials among black applicants. Results are consistent with taste-based discrimination by discriminatory lenders; however

  one cannot rule out that statistical discrimination is at least partially driving the results.\n\n许多研究表明，黑人与白人的贷款拒绝率之间存在差异，这一差异无法用可观察的申请人特征来解释。本文研究住房贷款拒绝率的种族差距与一般社会调查中对黑人偏见态度之间的联系，不仅显示黑人更有可能被拒绝授予传统住房抵押贷款，而且对黑人的这些贷款拒绝率也与种族偏见在地理上相关，尤其是在首次留置权购房贷款和存款贷款人的贷款中。然而，在政府为借款人违约提供担保的联邦住房管理局保险贷款中，本研究未发现种族偏见与黑人申请人贷款受拒之间存在统计学关系。结果与歧视性贷款者基于口味的歧视一致；然而，人们不能排除统计学上的歧视至少部分推动了相关结果。

  The conditional spatial correlations between racial prejudice and racial disparities in the market for home loans

  Objective:\nThe Healthier Options for Public Schoolchildren (HOPS) intervention aimed simultaneously to change school policies regarding the nutritional content of school-provided meals

  nutrition and healthy lifestyle curricula

  and other school-based wellness activities. Researchers examined how HOPS affected students’ academic achievement

  attendance and behaviour.\n\nDesign:\nLongitudinal study of 23

  335 elementary-school students aged 4–16 years enlisted in kindergarten to grade 8 in the 2005–2006 school year and followed through until the 2008–2009 school year.\n\nSetting:\nHOPS was implemented in 11 Buffalo (New York) public elementary schools at the start of 2007–2008 school year and concluded in January 2009; 34 other district elementary schools were chosen for comparison.\n\nMethod:\nAdministrative records were obtained containing student demographics

  mathematics and English test scores

  and attendance and disciplinary records. A difference-in-differences approach was used to measure the HOPS intervention’s effect on mathematics and English test scores and the proportion of days present or not suspended. Significance was tested at 1% and 5% levels.\n\nResults:\nAnalysis comparing students in intervention and comparison schools revealed an increase in standardised mathematics test scores among all students (p < .05)

  with particularly strong impacts on girls (p < .01)

  African American and Hispanic students (p < .01) and economically advantaged students (p < .01). HOPS had an adverse impact on attendance and disciplinary referrals (p < .01)

  although the effects were small.\n\nConclusion:\nWhen considering the implementation of a school-based wellness programme

  administrators should consider its academic benefits. Research into the effectiveness of programmes such as HOPS at improving cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes of school-aged children is particularly relevant given recent US Department of Agriculture rollback of whole grain

  sodium and milk requirements.

  Improvements in standardised test scores from a multi-component nutrition and healthy living intervention in a US elementary-school setting

  By using a data set of professional basketball players' free agent contracts from the National Basketball Association (NBA) between the 2001-2002 and 2007-2008 seasons

  which has rich data on worker productivity

  the author is able to identify the effect that changes in income tax rates have on the labor migration decisions of NBA free agents. After controlling for other observable characteristics of teams

  cities

  and states

  the author finds that an increase in the marginal income tax rate faced by NBA basketball players that play for a given team leads to a decrease in the average skill of the NBA free agents that migrate to that team.

  Tax Avoidance: How Income Tax Rates Affect the Labor Migration Decisions of NBA Free Agents

  I seek to determine whether race is a factor in how black representatives vote in the United States House of Representatives; if so

  this suggests electing more black representatives may improve the economic and political position of blacks if policy positions taken by black representatives on bills that fail to pass would provide tangible positive impacts to members of the black community if passed. Confounding the impact of legislator race

  districts represented by blacks on average are quite different than those represented by whites. While past research on this topic uses linear regression techniques with undesirable properties

  I improve on past research using matching techniques with more desirable properties. Utilizing a combination of Mahalanobis and propensity score matching

  within-caliper matching

  and exact matching using data from the 100th–113th Congress

  I show black representatives are more likely to vote in agreement with the majority of the Congressional Black Caucus on all votes and on Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

  Americans for Democratic Action

  and Congressional Quarterly key votes

  indicating a substantive racial impact on roll-call voting.

  Substantive Black Political Representation: Evidence from Matching Estimates in the United States House of Representatives

  It is well known that the hiring rate of black head coaches in major college football is not representative of the number of student-athletes that are black. However

  less obvious is the fact that black head coaches may be treated unfairly when decision-makers decide whether to retain or fire their institution’s current head coach. In this paper

  I use a rich dataset of National Collegiate Athletic Associate football coaches from 1990 to 2012

  containing measures of coaching performance and school expectations

  as well as information on each coach’s race and whether he was fired or retained in each season. Using this data

  I estimate a discrete-time hazard model of the probability that a head coach is fired

  allowing the hazard rate of black head coaches and white head coaches to differ

  and find that black head coaches are 5.28 percentage points more likely to be fired than their white counterparts. Additionally

  I find that black head coaches are more likely to be fired in the initial 3 years of tenure

  and again in their seventh and eighth years

  but that the difference in the probability of release between black and white head coaches in the fourth through sixth years of tenure is small and statistically insignificant.

  You’re Fired!: The Impact of Race on the Firing of Black Head Coaches in Major College Football

  In the past few years there have been numerous high-profile shootings by police

  with wide-spread speculation that a number of these incidents may have been either racially motivated or the result of an abuse of power by law enforcement. While past researchers have used community-level data to test theories of “racial or economic threat

  ” that police target violence at minorities or the poor to prevent redistributive criminal activity and maintain the existing order

  or “reactive hypotheses” of policing

  focused on the use of force to prevent violence against officers and other citizens

  the majority of these studies are dated

  rely on incomplete government data on justifiable police killings

  and fail to consider predictors of police killings such as non-murder violent offense rates

  property crime rates

  or violence against police. However

  recently many internet archives have collected more complete data on police killings

  and I utilize one such source to estimate a negative binomial regression model at the metropolitan area level to test differing theories of the use of deadly force by police. In addition to finding that police-related fatalities are strongly correlated with murder rates

  findings show substantial evidence that police-related fatalities are also strongly correlated with rates of aggravated assault

  motor vehicle theft

  and assault on officers

  factors other studies have not considered. However

  contrary to previous studies mostly considering justifiable killings I find little to no evidence in favor of the “racial or economic threat hypotheses” when examining the total number of police-related fatalities within a metropolitan area.

  Where police use deadly force: A metropolitan area-level analysis of fatalities involving interaction with law enforecement

  This study explores regional bias in Heisman voting from 1990–2016 using a negative binomial regression model with player-year fixed effects. Analysis confirms finalists receive higher vote tallies in home regions

  on average. Additionally

  results show regional vote tallies are decreasing in the fraction of other finalists in-region. Furthermore

  evidence reveals finalists receive higher vote tallies for each game played against in-region teams and lower vote tallies for each game played by other finalists against in-region teams. Analysis is augmented by showing the recent increase in national television coverage of college football has been accompanied by a decline in regional bias.

  The nature of regional bias in heisman voting

  This paper explores the relationship between discrimination towards blacks and the black-white self-employment rate gap

  and provides the first direct empirical evidence that discrimination negatively impacts black self-employment. As a proxy for discrimination

  I construct a measure of prejudicial attitudes using responses from the 1993-2010 General Social Survey. After compiling an index of prejudicial attitudes

  I estimate the relationship between self-employment and this index of prejudicial attitudes using the 2005-2009 American Community Survey. I find that an amount of prejudice equal to the difference in the least and most prejudiced census divisions increases the black-white self-employment rate gap by 24.2%-34.5%.

  Does racial prejudice affect black entrepreneurship?: evidence exploiting spatial differences in prejudicial attitudes

  Existing literature pertaining to discrimination in Brazil often uses education and income as measures of class

  but seldom includes occupational prestige. However

  occupation

  an aspect of daily life and a socioeconomic indicator

  may explain a large amount of variation in acknowledgement of skin color discrimination among blacks and browns in Brazil. In this study

  we examine whether those in different occupations acknowledge skin color discrimination differently. Based on existing literature

  the expectation was that individuals in high status occupations would be more likely to acknowledge skin color discrimination. However

  to the contrary

  our analysis of the 2010 Latin American Political Opinion Project survey

  which utilizes an ordered logistic regression model with controls for education

  expected labor market experience

  gender

  household income

  skin color

  location

  and province

  reveals blacks and browns in less prestigious occupations are more likely to report experiencing color discrimination

  particularly among men. This study offers new insights about perceptions of color discrimination in Brazil by challenging the traditional idea that high status blacks and browns are more aware of color discrimination than those of lower status

  and is important to research on race and ethnicity generally

  bridging studies in sociology

  Latin American studies

  and African diaspora studies.

  Color discrimination

  occupational prestige

  and skin color in Brazil

  Objective: In this article

  I test for evidence of own-race bias in voting for the Heisman Trophy.\n\nMethods: To study own-race bias in Heisman Trophy voting

  I use individual vote data from Heisman voters from 2002-2012 and an ordered probit model with controls for player and team performance that flexibly allows votes be affected by a player’s race and racial match between player and voter.\n\nResults: Estimates show nonblack voters are more likely to vote for nonblack players in absolute terms and compared to black voters assuming homogenous voter preferences. Allowing preferences to vary by race

  results show nonblack voters continue to be more likely to vote for nonblack players in absolute terms and are strongly suggestive of a larger relative bias in favor of nonblack players by nonblack voters as compared to black voters.\n\nConclusion: There is a racial component to Heisman Trophy voting and bias is large enough to affect official aggregate results. Racial bias may have affected the award’s winner in multiple Heisman races between 2002 and 2012.

  Evidence of Own-Race Bias in Heisman Trophy Voting

  Transcript to “The Black-White Wage Gap

  the Self-Employment Gap

  and the Home\nLoan Denial Gap: The Impact of Racial Prejudice on Blacks” Speech

  Reviewer for Polk Education Foundation (FL) Scholarships

  Nolan A.

  Kopkin

  Bureau of Labor Statistics

  Cornell University

  University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

  Ithaca

  New York Area

  Courses taught:\n\nIntermediate Microeconomics (PAM 2000)

  Department of Policy Analysis and Management (Fall 2012

  Fall 2011

  Spring 2010)\n\nMultivariate Regression Analysis (PAM 3100)

  Department of Policy Analysis and Management (Spring 2012

  Fall 2010)\n\nPublic Finance (PAM 2040)

  Department of Policy Analysis and Management (Spring 2011)\n\nPrinciples of Microeconomics (ECON 1110)

  Department of Economics (Spring 2010

  Spring 2009

  Fall 2008)\n\nPrinciples of Macroeconomics (ECON 1120)

  Department of Economics (Fall 2009)\n\nIncome Distribution (ECON 4550)

  Department of Economics / School of Industrial and Labor Relations (Spring 2008)\n\nWages and Employment (ILRLE 2400)

  School of Industrial and Labor Relations

  (Fall 2007)

  Graduate Teaching Assistant

  Cornell University

  Worked in the Producer Price Index

  specialized in Nonresidential Building Construction

  Industry Analyst

  Washington D.C. Metro Area

  Bureau of Labor Statistics

  Greater Milwaukee Area

  Courses taught:\n\nBlack Reality: Survey of African-American Society (AFRICOL 100)

  Department of Africology (Fall 2018

  Spring 2018

  Fall 2017

  Spring 2017

  Fall 2016

  Fall 2015)\n\nBlack Workers in the 21st Century (AFRICOL 321)

  Department of Africology (Fall 2016)\n\nEconomic Problems of Black Business (AFRICOL 326)

  Department of Africology (Fall 2018

  Spring 2017

  Spring 2016

  Fall 2015

  Spring 2015)\n\nEconomic Growth and Sustainable Development in Africa (AFRICOL 329)

  Department of Africology (Fall 2013)\n\nInternship-Upper Division (AFRICOL 489)

  Department of Africology (Spring 2014)\n\nSelected Texts/Topics in Africology: Race in Sports (AFRICOL 565)

  Department of Africology (Fall 2017

  Spring 2016)\n\nTheories and Methods in Empirical Research in Africology (AFRICOL 701)

  Department of Africology (Spring 2018

  Spring 2015

  Spring 2014)\n\nAdvanced Methods in Empirical Research in Africology (AFRICOL 880)

  Department of Africology (Fall 2014)\n\nService:\n\nAfricology Graduate Affairs Committee (Fall 2014-Present)\n\nAfricology Graduate Affairs Investigative Sub-Committee (Fall 2015-Spring 2016)\n\nAfricology Grievance Committee (Fall 2013-Spring 2014)\n\nAfricology Master’s Degree Exploratory Committee (Fall 2015-Present)\n\nAfricology Mathematics/Statistics Proficiency Exam Administrator (Spring 2017-Present)\n\nAfricology Political Economy and Public Policy Committee Chair (Fall 2015-Present)

  Member (Fall 2013-Present)\n\nAfricology Seminar Committee Chair (Fall 2016-Present)

  Member (Fall 2015-Present)\n\nAfricology Website/Public Relations Committee Chair (Fall 2014-Spring 2016)

  Member (Fall 2013-Spring 2016)\n\nAfricology Visiting Assistant Professor Search Committee (Summer 2014)\n\nDissertation Committee Chair for Majeed Rahman (Summer 2018-Present)\n\nDissertation Committee Member for Maxime Mianzokouna (Fall 2014-Present)\n\nUWM 4 Health (Fall 2013-Spring 2014)\n\nUWM Faculty Senate (Fall 2016-Present)\n\nUWM Research and Creative Activities Support (RACAS) Award Reviewer (Spring 2017)

  Assistant Professor of Political Economy & Public Policy

  University of Wisconsin Milwaukee