Select Published Papers:
The Village Just Got its First Fridge: Durable Goods and Child Health in China, Oxford Economic Papers 2025
Abstract: This paper uses micro-level data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey to determine how ownership of time-saving household appliances impacts children's health. Ownership of these appliances is found to decrease time allocated to household work and increase the incidence of being overweight for children aged 5 to 18. When the sample is partitioned on the basis of gender, these outcomes are more pronounced among males. I instrument household ownership of time-saving appliances by average ownership rate among households with no children living in the same community as ownership of household durable goods is endogenous. With current concerns of rising rates of obesity and overweight in China, understanding some of the causes of these negative health outcomes is a crucial step in fighting childhood obesity.
A Shortage of Brides: China's One Child Policy and Transitions of Men into Marriage, Research in Economics 2023
Abstract: This paper analyzes the selection of surplus men into marriage by means of a model that explicitly accounts for earnings and wealth. Its central focus is the extent to which relatively scarce brides marry men with comparatively strong economic prospects in terms of earnings or wealth. Results of this study, based on data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, provide evidence that marriage in the age of the one child policy is indeed selective of men who are relatively high earners. This result is robust to a series of alternative specifications of the model.
Abstract: We use micro-level data from the India Human Development Survey to test our hypotheses that ownership of time-saving household appliances results in: an increase in employment rates for married women; and an increase in school enrollment rates and decrease in employment rates for children. We address the concern of endogeneity of appliance ownership by instrumenting household ownership of time-saving appliances by two family-specific time-using household assets and (1) average ownership rate among single women living in the same primary sampling unit (for the adult female sample) or (2) average ownership among households with no children living in the same primary sampling unit (for the child sample). Our results suggest a decrease in married women's and children's employment when ownership of time-saving appliances increases. Disaggregating our measure of employment, we find that married women use time-saving appliances as a substitute for human capital and increase their probability of working in more productive employment outside of the household.
Abstract: Does the ownership of time-saving household appliances have a positive impact on children's outcomes? I use micro-level data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 1989 through 2011 to infer that ownership of time-saving household appliances results in a decrease in time allocated to household work, increase in school enrollment rates, and decrease in labor force participation rates for children aged 12 to 18. When the sample is partitioned on the basis of gender, these outcomes are more pronounced among females. To deal with endogeneity of household durable goods, I instrument household ownership of time-saving appliances by average ownership rate among households with no children living in the same community and two family-specific time-using household assets. With gender equality and women's empowerment being a top priority among developing countries according to the United Nations, the results presented in this paper suggest one effective way to increase girls' school enrollment is to reduce their household obligations. Time-saving appliances are tools that can provide the requisite decrease in time dedicated to household work.
Abstract: This paper examines how the introduction of female inheritance rights implemented in four Indian states between 1986 and 1994 impacts the educational achievement and labor force participation of children. I investigate time varying state amendments to the Hindu Succession Act of 1956, which provided equal inheritance rights to both male and female children. Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series for India (IPUMS India), I find that children living in states that implemented reforms experience an increase in the probability of completing primary school and a decrease in the probability of participating in the labor force. Performing a triple difference analysis, I find that these results are larger for Hindu children, specifically Hindu females and Hindu children living in rural areas.