Labor, health, and education economist

I am a lead research economist at Northwestern University’s Research and Innovation for Social and Economic Inclusion Lab. I use causal inference methods, field experiments, and administrative data to study discrimination, ethnic identity, immigration, mental health, education, and labor markets.

I am also a research affiliate at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics and Tulane University’s Murphy Institute. Before joining Northwestern, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane from 2023 to 2026. I earned my PhD in Economics from the University of Houston in 2023.

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Research statement · Teaching statement · Diversity statement

Outside economics, I play soccer, snowboard, hike with my dogs, and follow Houston sports and FC Barcelona.

Recent highlights

Research news

Revise and resubmit at Economica: “Peer Effects in Adolescent Mental Health”
Spring 2026: Presented “Immigration Enforcement and Hispanic Identity” at the NBER Economics of Race and Stratification conference
$140,747 from J-PAL’s Social Policy Research Initiative: School-choice discrimination field experiment
Revise and resubmit at the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management: “The Effect of Anti-Asian Attitudes on Asian Identity in the U.S.”

Research

All publications, working papers, and active projects appear below so the homepage also works as a complete research overview.

* Student coauthor at the time of writing.

Publications

The Impact of Hispanic Last Names on Educational and Labor Market Outcomes

Hussain Hadah

Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, published online 2025; 9(1), 1–11 (2026). doi: 10.1007/s41996-025-00177-3.

People likely to have Hispanic surnames complete 0.39 fewer years of education, and men earn 5 percentage points less, than otherwise similar children of interethnic couples.
- Preprint
- Final version
- Code
- Data
The Effect of Racial and Ethnic Attitudes on Hispanic Identity in the U.S.

Hussain Hadah

Southern Economic Journal, published online 2024; 92(2), 338–358 (2025). doi: 10.1002/soej.12749.

A one-standard-deviation increase in state-level bias reduces self-reported Hispanic identity by 4 percentage points among people with Hispanic ancestry.
- Preprint
- Final version

Working papers

Peer Effects in Adolescent Mental Health

Hussain Hadah

Revise and resubmit at Economica.

Friends' mental health is strongly associated with adolescents' own mental health, academic achievement, physical health, and risky behavior.
The Effect of Anti-Asian Attitudes on Asian Identity in the U.S.

Hussain Hadah

Revise and resubmit at the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

A one-standard-deviation increase in state-level bias reduces self-reported Asian identity by 9 percentage points across generations.
- Preprint
Immigration Enforcement and Hispanic Identity

Hussain Hadah and Augustine Denteh

Under review.

Secure Communities reduces self-reported Hispanic identity on average, with declines among first- and third-generation children but increased identification among second-generation children.
- Preprint
The Effects of Waiting Periods on Firearm Suicides in the U.S.

Hussain Hadah, Gael Compta, and Ali Saffouri

Under review.

Firearm-purchase waiting periods reduce firearm suicides by 0.92 deaths per 100,000, or 12 percent, overall, with larger reductions for men, White adults, and adults aged 55 and older.
- Preprint
- IZA DP No. 18624
Immigration Enforcement, Sanctuary Cities, and Rising Hispanic Suicide Rates

Hussain Hadah

Under review.

Secure Communities increases suicide rates among Hispanic adults aged 34 and older by 0.11 per 100,000 overall, with increases among men and decreases among women.
- Preprint
- IZA DP No. 18613
Longitudinal Evidence on the Economic Returns to Disability Services

Michelle Yin, Hussain Hadah, and Regina Seo

RISEI Lab, Northwestern University.

Uses longitudinal administrative records to study the labor-market returns to disability services.
The Labor Market Impacts of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act: Evidence from the Virginia Longitudinal Data System

Michelle Yin, Hussain Hadah, and Regina Seo

RISEI Lab, Northwestern University.

Uses Virginia longitudinal data to estimate how the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act affects labor-market outcomes.
Democracy and Ethnic Favoritism: Evidence from Africa

Hussain Hadah and Bariş Alan*

Under review.

Evidence of ethnic favoritism is mixed overall but stronger within the democracy-only and anocracy-only samples.
- Preprint
- Code
- Data

Works in progress

Sexual Orientation and Racial Discrimination in Mortgage Lending: An Audit Correspondence Field Experiment

Patrick Button, Hussain Hadah, Javiera Selman, Bariş Alan*, Cathy Balfe*, and Tran Nguyen-Phuong*

In field.
Parent's Choice or School's Choice? Discrimination Against Students in Admission to Private, Charter, and Traditional Public Schools

Hussain Hadah, Patrick Button, Douglas Harris, Barbara Lundebjerg*, and Bariş Alan*

In design. Funded by a J-PAL Social Policy Research Initiative grant of $140,747.
- Russell Sage LOI
- J-PAL Slides
Auditing Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Racial Biases, Misinformation, and the Misallocation of Government Resources

Patrick Button, Clare Daniel, Hussain Hadah, Julie Hernandez, Mirya Holman, and Anna Mahoney

In design.
Assimilation of Hispanics and Arabs in America

Augustine Denteh and Hussain Hadah

In progress.
Endogenous Hispanic Identity and Ethnic Gaps in the U.S.

Hussain Hadah

Writing.