Christopher Mills

I am the Wilson Family Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. My research focuses on topics in labor and public economics. I use experiments and administrative data to understand and improve service delivery, with an emphasis on AI deployment and investments in children and families. I completed my Ph.D. in Economics at Princeton University.

I am visiting MIT Sloan during Fall 2026.

Working Papers

• Better Together? A Field Experiment on Human-Algorithm Interaction in Child Protection 

(with Marie-Pascale Grimon)

Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Political Economy

• The Intergenerational Persistence of Child Maltreatment

(with Jason Baron, Ezra Goldstein, and Emily Putnam-Hornstein)

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Safe from Harm? Peers and Criminal Capital Formation in Congregate Foster Care

(with Sarah Font)

Journal of Human Resources

Work in Progress

• Cash vs. Care: Decomposing the Child Safety Effects of Childcare Subsidies

(with Alex Hoagland, Maripier Isabelle, and Boriana Miloucheva)

• The Impacts of Early-Life Child Protection Contact on Child and Family Well-being

(with Katherine Rittenhouse)

• Automation and Public Service Quality: Evidence from Foster Care Digitization [Preliminary Policy-Oriented Slides]

• Disparities and Accuracy in Child Maltreatment Reporting: Evidence from Quasi-Randomly Assigned Physicians (with Hayden Chu,  Kate Musen, Jessica Pac, and Laura Stilwell)

• Racial Disparities and Decision Tools in Child Protection 

(with Emily Putnam-Hornstein)

• More Money, Fewer Problems? The Effect of Foster Care Payments on Children's Quality of Care  (with Anna Chorniy and Kate Musen)