Research

WORKING PAPERS

1.     Plant Behavior and Pay Transparency: The Effect on Female Employment and Capital Investment Reallocation -- A Difference-in-Discontinuities Design  [Revise and Resubmit: Journal of Law and Economics]

2. Adding Stress in Banking: Transparency Disclosures and Corporate Risk Culture (with Jyothsna Harithsa and Abena Owusu) [under review]

3. International Corporate Debt Structure: Evidence from the COVID-19 Shock (with Bill B. Francis and Zenu Sharma) [under review]

4. Taxes Under Stress: Bank Stress Tests and Corporate Tax Avoidance (with Bill B. Francis and Jyothsna Harithsa) [under review]

5. Mass Shooting Exposure and Borrower Behavior: Evidence from Fintech Lending (with Sen Li) [under review]

6. Racial Protests and Credit Access (with Alberto Ortega)

PUBLICATIONS

PEER-REVIEWED & INVITED PUBLICATIONS

5. "The Self-Employment Effects of Secure Communities in the United States" (with Alejandro Gutierrez-Li).  AEA Papers and Proceedings (previously the American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings)(forthcoming), May 2023.

4. "Mass-Shootings and Peer-to-Peer Lending" (with Sen Li and Abdullah Al Mahmud). Finance Research Letters 47, June 2022.

3. “Self-Reporting Race in Small Business Loan Applications:  A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Evidence from PPP Loans in Durham, NC” (with William A. Darity, Jr.). AEA  Papers  and  Proceedings 112 (previously the American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings), May 2022.

2. "Stress Testing and Bank Business Patterns: A Regression Discontinuity Study" (with Suzanne Steele). Journal of Banking and Finance 135, February 2022.

1. “The Rise of Brazil in Global Trade" with Ricardo Lopez (2015). In: O. Morrisey, R. A. Lopez, and K. Sharma, Eds, Handbook on Trade and Development. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

WORK IN PROGRESS

1. The Economics of Self-Reporting Race in Loan Applications (with Vicki Bogan, William A. Darity Jr., and Bill A. Francis)

2. Hawthorne Effect in Banking (with Brian Clark, Bill Francis, and Suzanne Steele)

3.    Financial Subsidies, Female Employment, and Plant Performance –  Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment” (with Ricardo Lopez) 

4.    “Pay Compression in Banking” (with Zenu Sharma and Johan Maharjan)

POLICY REPORTS AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS

1.  “Income Supplements versus Building Assets and the Racial Wealth Gaps” (with William ”Sandy” Darity, Jr., Monica Garcia-Perez, Trevon Logan, William Gale, Noral Cahill,  and Tori Cook).  (June 2022). A Publication  of  the  Samuel  DuBois  Cook  Center  on  Social  Equity  at  Duke  University, Duke University, Durham, NC: June 2022.

Description: We explore whether income supplements or asset-building innitiatives are more effectives at closing the racial wealth gaps.

2.  “Oil and Blood:  The Color of Wealth in Tulsa,  Oklahoma” (with C. Aujean Lee,  Randall Akee, Lauren Russell, Jorge Zumaeta, and William ”Sandy” Darity, Jr.).  (November 2021). A Publication  of  the  Samuel  DuBois  Cook  Center  on  Social  Equity  at  Duke  University, Duke University, Durham, NC: November 2021.

Description: We study the long-term relationship between racial violence (1921 Tulsa Massacre) and racial-ethnic wealth and income inequality, focusing on homeownership and entrepreneurship in Tulsa. 

3.  “Black Wall Street of the South:  From Reconstruction to the Pandemic” (with M'Balou Camara, Andre D. Vann, William ”Sandy” Darity, Jim Harper, Bertha Johnson, Addison Malone, Henry McKoy, Carl Webb,  and Gwendolyn Wright) (August 2021). A Publication of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, Duke University, Durham, NC: August 2021.

Description:: We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on black-owned small businesses in Durham, NC (one of the most prominent Black Wall Street in the US), with a focus on analyzing the discriminatory practices of financial institutions using the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as our case study. 

4.  “Race, Phenotype, and Economic Disparities:  Evidence from Los Angeles, California” (with Aaron Colston, William ”Sandy” Darity, Lauren Russell, and Jorge Zumaeta). (August 2021). A Publication of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University , Duke University, Durham, NC: August 2021. 

Description: We investigate and decompose the relationship between race, skin tone (colorism), attractiveness, and racial-ethnic wealth and income gaps across different racial-ethnic groups. 

5.  “The Color of Wealth in Baltimore” (with Aaron Colston, William ”Sandy” Darity, Lauren Russell,  and  Jorge  Zumaeta).   (August  2021). A  Publication  of  the  Samuel  DuBois  Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, Duke University, Durham, NC: August 2021.

Description: We study the relationship between household exposure to incarceration and the racial-ethnic wealth and income gaps across different racial-ethnic groups.

6.  “Remittances:   Stimulating  Human  Prosperity  through  Micro-Enterprises  in  El  Salvador” (2009), Fifth Summit of the Americas:  Third Essay Contest, Organization of American States, 9 March 2009.  – Best Paper Award, OAS Third Annual Essay Contest

Description: I investigate how the flow of immigrant remittances from the US affects entrepreneurship and micro-enterprises in El Salvador.