Patrick Denice
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About Patrick
Denice’s work focuses on education and labor market inequality in the U.S. Specifically, he is interested in students' complex pathways to and through postsecondary education, including a focus on older adults who return to school, as well as the potential of school choice policies to attenuate or exacerbate inequality and segregation. Current work looks at high school students’ course-taking patterns (particularly in STEM) and pandemic-related disruptions to college-going. Additional projects examine the implications of workplace institutions and practices—including unions and policies barring workers from discussing their earnings with their colleagues—for workers' wages.
Contributions
When They Choose Public Schools, What Do Parents Want?
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Publications
Draws on a unique survey of U.S. workers to examine employers’ policies on pay discussions and whether workers engage in such talk with their coworkers. Theorizes pay talk as a challenge to managerial discretion, and hypothesizes that organizational attributes related to pay-setting influence workers’ willingness to discuss wages and salaries with colleagues. Managers, in turn, combat such challenges to their discretion by instituting pay secrecy rules.
Examines how segregation in urban public schools and the spatial mismatch between school-age children and relatively high-performing schools relate to the shares of Black, Hispanic, and White students enrolled in charter schools, one particular school choice mechanism. Finds that, as the degree of geographic imbalance between Black school-age children and high-performing schools increases, so too does the share of Black students who enroll in charter schools.
Examines whether the availability of new charter schools in Kansas City, Missouri, shapes patterns of segregation using student-level data between 2012 and 2016. Finds that White students are over-represented among those who switch into new charter schools, and that they enter schools with lower proportions of Black students and higher proportions of other White students.
Draws on survey and transcript data from students at three large universities in the United States to find that major switching is widespread, and that many students change their majors multiple times. Students appear to change majors in an effort to better fit their interests and abilities, as students seek out majors that are generally less competitive and easier. Major change further contributes to gender segregation, particularly in STEM fields.
Addresses two issues limiting understanding of the spatial and demographic distribution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: (1) COVID-19 infections and deaths are collected at a high level of geographic aggregation, and (2) these counts are not tallied by sociodemographic group, including race/ethnicity. Illustrates the correlation between COVID-19 infections and the percentage of residents who are Black, finding areas with higher shares of Black Canadians also see more infections.
Draws from qualitative data - including interviews with parents as well as school and district leaders - this paper highlights the successes and lingering challenges of implementing a system of school choosing that aims to be more centralized, transparent, and accessible than the fragmented system that existed previously.
Examines whether the dissemination of organizational financial information shifts power dynamics within workplaces, finding that employees whose managers share financial information earn about 8 to 12 percent more than employees whose managers keep such information secret.
Discusses the expansion of the higher education market through open-access schools (like for-profit institutions) and how it has given traditionally disadvantaged students the opportunity to attend college. Argues that for-profit students who either don’t complete a degree or earn a two-year degree do not earn more in wages than those with only a high school diploma.