**Primary Research Focus: **Behavioral Economics

Secondary Research Focuses: Applied Microeconomics and Experimental Economics

References:

• Leonardo Bursztyn (Committee Co-chair)
• John A. List (Committee Co-chair)
• Alex Imas

Job Market Paper: “The Hidden Curriculum”

[Abstract] We study the hidden curriculum: informal, tacit strategies crucial for academic and career success. These unobserved actions are a critical barrier to information acquisition and limit upward mobility. Using observational and survey data from over 100,000 U.S. college students, we document significant gaps in academic and labor market outcomes, with first-generation students falling behind continuing-generation peers in “hidden” actions like proactively engaging with faculty and joining organizations. Through a field experiment at UC Berkeley, we identify two main channels driving this gap: lack of awareness and low subjective beliefs about returns. Information treatments substantially increase willingness to invest in hidden curriculum actions for first-generation students, closing the gap with their more informed peers. Finally, we develop an AI college advisor to further isolate these mechanisms in an online experiment. At baseline, first-generation students devote less search effort to hidden curriculum topics and exhibit lower propensity to switch topics. However, when the AI actively steers conversations toward hidden curriculum actions–increasing awareness–these gaps narrow, providing additional evidence that information constraints drive hidden curriculum underinvestment.