Research
Applied economics on food security, transit equity, and public policy. All research includes methodology documentation and replication materials.
AI Research Methods
↑ TopHow we integrate AI into rigorous research workflows: from Claude Code configuration to building reproducible pipelines.
Building Personal AI Infrastructure
How CLAUDE.md, skills, hooks, and MCP servers combine into a research system that improves over time.
Creating Skills for Research
Turn repetitive workflows into reusable commands. Part 4 of the Claude Code Guide.
Spawning Agents: When to Delegate
Using the Task tool to delegate work to agents with their own context windows. Part 3 of the Claude Code Guide.
Open-Source Methods
↑ TopTutorials for researchers transitioning from licensed software to Python. The same econometrics, spatial analysis, and machine learning, with free tools.
How to Estimate Difference-in-Differences in Python
A statsmodels workflow for event study estimation, with the diagnostics that separate credible estimates from noise.
How to Build a Classifier When 94% Accuracy Means Nothing
A scikit-learn workflow for imbalanced classification, with the evaluation metrics that actually matter.
Spatial Analysis with GeoPandas: From Joins to Autocorrelation
A spatial analysis workflow from point-to-polygon joins through spatial weights, Moran's I, and LISA cluster detection.
Food Security
↑ TopFood access, SNAP enrollment, grocery store distribution, and the complex relationship between geography and food insecurity in California.
The Food Desert Myth
Zero food deserts by federal definition, yet SNAP participation varies 4.7x across similar communities.
Hidden Mobility Deserts
When nearby stores are unreachable: 13 census tracts with grocery stores under 0.5mi but 30+ minutes by transit.
The Vulnerability Paradox
Why high-vulnerability communities sometimes have better geographic food access than low-vulnerability areas.
Transit Equity
↑ TopHow transit access shapes economic opportunity. Mobility measurement, accessibility indices, and transportation barriers.
Hidden Mobility Deserts
2.7M transit routes reveal 13 census tracts where nearby destinations are unreachable by public transit.
Transit Equity and Race
Analyzing racial disparities in transit access across California communities.
Housing Tenure and Transit
How housing stability affects transit access patterns in urban California.
Education Policy
↑ TopSchool funding, special education budgets, and how districts respond to fiscal constraints, stimulus funding, and federal mandates.
How California Protected Special Ed, Then Shifted Cuts
California's 2008 funding floor prevented $1.2B in special ed cuts, but districts shifted cuts to general education.
Stimulus Saved Schools, Then Made Things Worse
How ARRA funding created a fiscal cliff for school districts after the Great Recession.
The Unfunded Mandate
IDEA promised 40% federal funding for special education. Four decades later, it's still at 15%.
Health Policy
↑ TopHealthcare spending, Medicaid program integrity, and evidence-based policy evaluation. Applying applied economics methods to health policy questions using public administrative data.
What 227 Million Rows of Medicaid Data Can and Can't Tell Us
HHS published the largest Medicaid dataset in history. Here's what it contains, what's missing, and why the gap matters for fraud screening.
When the Label Is Wrong
40% of LEIE exclusions stem from license revocation or student loan defaults, not fraudulent billing.
The Classifier
Logistic regression matches complex ML on honest validation. Model complexity adds noise, not signal.
Frequently Asked Questions
↑ TopWhat makes this research different?
Every analysis includes full methodology documentation, data sources, and reproducible code. We use AI to accelerate the research process while maintaining peer-review standards. The goal is rigorous findings that arrive while policymakers can still act on them.
How do we use AI in research?
AI accelerates data collection, validation, and documentation. The thinking and judgment remain human. Our AI Methods section documents exactly how we integrate large language models into rigorous research workflows.
Can we replicate these findings?
Yes. Replication materials for published work are available on our GitHub repository. We believe in open science: if the analysis cannot be reproduced, it has not been demonstrated.
What geographic area does this cover?
Most research focuses on California. Food security and transit equity analyses use county-level data; education policy research covers statewide school finance patterns.
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