Research

Published Papers

Heating Price and Infant Health [SSRN]
— Forthcoming in American Journal of Health Economics
Disentangling Sources of Variation in C-Section Rates (with Stefanie Fischer, Heather Royer, and Corey White) [NBER]
— Forthcoming in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Flexible Demand Estimation with Nonparametric Income Effect: An Application to Pass-Through and Merger Analysis. (with Yuta Toyama) [Journal Link]
— Journal of Industrial Economics, 2025, 73(1), 186–233.
Does Traditional Price Policy Work for Achieving Low Smoking Rate? – Empirical and Theoretical Evaluation Based on the United States Aggregate Data (with Haruko Noguchi) [Journal Link]
— Applied Economics, 2020, 52(18), 1986–1997. (Based on my undergraduate senior thesis)
Differences in Cancer Patients’ Work-cessation Risk, Based on Gender and Type of Job: Examination of Middle-aged and Older Adults in Super-aged Japan (with Haruko Noguchi, Rong Fu, Cheolmin Kang, Akira Kawamura, Shinsuke Amano, and Atsushi Miyawaki) [Journal Link]
— PLOS ONE, 2020, 15(1), e0227792.
How Do Cardiovascular Diseases Harm Labor Force Participation? Evidence of Nationally Representative Survey Data from Japan, a Super-aged Society (with Rong Fu, Haruko Noguchi, Cheolmin Kang, Akira Kawamura, Hideto Takahashi, and Nanako Tamiya) [Journal Link]
— PLOS ONE, 2019, 14(7), e0219149.

Does Fluoride Still Have Teeth?: Dental Health, Appearance, and Adolescent Self-Esteem (with Cheolmin Kang)

While the benefits and risks of fluoride in drinking water remain central to public health debates, most evidence focuses on relatively high concentrations, often in the context of community water fluoridation. We estimate the causal effects of lower fluoride exposure by exploiting quasi-exogenous variation in naturally occurring fluoride concentrations shaped by regional geology in Japan. Combining longitudinal survey data, medical claims, and patient surveys, we find that fluoride substantially improves childhood dental health. Fluoride exposure also increases self-esteem among adolescent girls, primarily by reducing visible dental problems and improving appearance. We find no evidence of adverse effects on cognitive performance or educational attainment. These findings suggest that fluoride exposure within the low concentration range observed in our setting can yield meaningful dental and psychosocial benefits without detectable cognitive harm, implying that policies aimed at fully removing fluoride from drinking water may forgo important benefits.