Welcome!
I am a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. I am interested in applied microeconomics and applied macroeconomics .
I will be on the job market in the academic year 2022-2023 and am available for interviews at the ASSA meetings.
Please find my résumé here.
Research
Worker Sorting, Worker Discipline and Development (with Antoinette Schoar and David Atkin)
(Job market paper) PDF
Abstract: A growing literature explores the impact of home-based versus office-based work. Differences in productivity may arise due to a treatment effect of the office or from workers with different productivity levels sorting into office or home work. If more productive workers find working in the office less costly (a selection effect) or more complementary to their skills (a selection on treatment effect), we expect a positive selection into office work. But if more productive workers have stronger preference for home work or face bigger constraints in choosing their preferred allocation, the selection effect could be negative. To quantify these forces we conduct a randomized experiment in the data entry sector in India that exogenously allocates workers to the home or office. We find that the productivity of workers randomly assigned to working from home is 18 % lower, two thirds of which manifests itself from the first day of work with the remainder due to quicker learning by office workers over the subsequent weeks. We find negative selection effects for office based work: workers who prefer home-based work are 12 % faster and more accurate at baseline. We also find negative selection on treatment: workers who prefer home work are much less productive at home than at the office (27 % compared to 13 % for worker who prefer the office). These negative selection effects are partially explained by subgroups that might face bigger constraints in selecting into office work, such as people with children or other home care responsibilities as well as poorer households.
Theory and evidence as drivers of economists’ opinions regarding the impact of fiscal stimulus (with Edward E. Leamer)
Abstract: We explore how the opinions of economists regarding the impact of a fiscal stimulus have evolved over the last century. In describing the evolution of economists’ opinions, we contrast deductive methods based on words, pictures and math including calibrated models versus inductive methods using data images, tables of statistics and estimated models.
Local Fiscal Spending and Spillovers (work in progress)
Abstract: As limited evidence of the efficacy of national fiscal spending is available, in recent times, economists have shifted their focus to estimating local fiscal spending multipliers using exogenous sub-national spending shocks to infer the national fiscal multiplier. I highlight the importance of accounting for spillover effects while estimating local fiscal multipliers. I use a novel high-dimensional estimation technique that imposes singular value sparsity on the spillover network. Considering two distinct fiscal policy changes of defense spending and income tax cuts, it provides evidence for two facts: local fiscal spending changes the output and employment in neighboring geographies. If spillovers are not accounted for, estimates of the local fiscal multipliers tend to be overestimated.
Teaching
Primary Instructor
Econ 102- Macroeconomic Theory
Teaching Assistant
Econ 1 - Principles of Economics
Econ 41 - Statistics for Economists
Econ 102 - Macroeconomic Theory
Econ 103 - Introduction to Econometrics