Research

Research Papers

1) Unobserved Heterogeneity and Skill Loss in a Structural Model of Duration Dependence [July 2020; Review of Economic Dynamics, January 2021]

This paper uncovers how unobserved worker differences and skill loss drive the decline in job-finding rates over the unemployment spell, revealing that training and subsidized employment programs can have different impacts on short- versus long-term unemployed workers.

2) The Unintended Consequences of Meritocratic Government Hiring (with Thanasis Geromichalos) [February 2022; European Economic Review, May 2022]

We show how the combination of overly generous public-sector wages together with meritocratic public-sector hiring can unintentionally harm macroeconomic performance by drawing talented workers away from the private sector, reducing job creation, and lowering GDP.      

  In

3) Intermediation in Over-the-Counter Markets with Price Transparency (with Miroslav Gabrovski) [September 2021; Journal of Economic Theory, December 2021]

This paper challenges traditional modeling perspectives on OTC markets, showing that intermediation can arise in fully decentralized markets with directed search and ex ante price posting, without relying on random meetings or ex post bargaining.

4) Worker Mobility and UI Extensions (with Andreas Gulyas and Johannes Goensch) [December 2023; European Economic Review, February 2024] 

We show how extending unemployment insurance benefits can boost labor force participation and unemployment, while leaving productivity unchanged, emphasizing the need to account for job-to-job transitions and endogenous separations in policy evaluation.                                                          

Older version that includes analysis with workers' life-cycle

5) The Evolution of Labor Market Disparities between Hispanic and non-Hispanic Men: 1970-2019 (with Leslie Stratton) [August 2024; Journal of Population Economics, January 2025]

This paper tracks labor market disparities between Hispanic and non-Hispanic men over the past 50 years, revealing gains in employment for U.S.-born Hispanics but persistent earnings gaps, especially for immigrants, driven in part by language proficiency. 

Older version that includes racial disparities for comparison purposes

6) The Real Effects of Financial Disruptions in a Monetary Economy (with Miroslav Gabrovski, Thanasis Geromichalos, Lucas Herrenbrueck, and Sukjoon Lee) [January 2025; Journal of Monetary Economics, April 2025]

We argue that omitting money in macroeconomic models underestimates the real effects of financial shocks, showing that money can dampen or eliminate these impacts, with inflation playing a crucial role in their propagation.

7) How Much Work Experience Do You Need to Get Your First Job? The macroeconomic implications of bias against labor market entrants (with Shisham Adhikari, Thanasis Geromichalos and Ates Gursoy) [April 2025; Review of Economic Dynamics, October 2025]

This paper shows that training costs for firms bias them against entrant workers, and finds that subsidies to encourage firms to hire entrants can significantly improve job-finding rates and bring the economy closer to constrained efficiency.

8) An Experimental Evaluation of the Over-the-Counter Search Model (with Oleg Korenok and John Lightle) [June 2025;  Submitted]

We experimentally test the prediction of search theory in OTC markets, confirming that more meeting opportunities lower prices when assets are plentiful, but also revealing that trade failures create additional frictions that affect prices.

9) The Effects of Secondary Corporate Loan Trade on Credit Issuance and Job Creation (with Miro Gabrovski and Lucie Lebeau) [October 2024; Revise and Resubmit at the Journal of Monetary Economics; Slides]

This paper explores how the secondary corporate loan market reduces unemployment but increases its sensitivity to productivity shocks, showing that removing secondary market frictions could lower both unemployment and its volatility.

10) Endogenous Realtor Intermediation and Housing Market Liquidity (with Miro Gabrovski and Victor Ortego-Marti) [August 2025; Submitted]

We analyze the role of realtors in housing market liquidity, showing that a shift to random search equilibrium, as suggested by the recent NAR settlement, could raise prices, lower sales, and reduce market entry, potentially harming buyers’ welfare.

11) How does Asset Market Liquidity Affect the Real Economy? A Quantitative Assessment of the Transmission Channels (with Miroslav Gabrovski, Thanasis Geromichalos, Lucas Herrenbrueck, and Sukjoon Lee) [April 2025; Submitted]

This paper shows that while deteriorating corporate bond market liquidity has a modest negative impact on output and unemployment, the effects mask larger offsetting forces, with inflation playing a key role in their interaction.

12) Financial Intermediation, Investment, and Monetary Policy (with Florian Madison) [July 2025; Submitted]

We develop a New Monetarist model in which the effective lower bound on interest rates is driven by bank market power and firm credit constraints, highlighting the role of financial conditions in monetary policy and advocating for a combined approach with macroprudential regulation.

13) Central Bank Interventions and Liquidity in the Treasury Market (and beyond) (with Thanasis Geromichalos, Kuk Mo Jung, Changhyun Lee, and Sukjoon Lee) [August 2025; Submitted]

This paper explores how central bank asset purchases influence market liquidity, showing that interventions in U.S. Treasuries not only enhance their liquidity but also indirectly lower borrowing costs and create spillover effects in other markets.