Research

Job Market Paper

"Estimating Spatial Heterogeneity in the Labor Market Effects of Place-Based Business Incentive Deals"

Abstract: "This paper uses comprehensive and hand-collected microdata on business tax incentive deals to provide the first evidence of how the labor market effects of these deals differ within county by proximity to the incentivized firms’ facilities. I use a novel nested matching approach to identify untreated census tracts that are similar to tracts surrounding large incentive deals in counties of less than one million people. I find that seven years after the incentive deals, the share of the population with college degrees and the median incomes in tracts closest to the deals increase by 5% and 3%, respectively. Effects on share college-educated and income, however, are negative for tracts further from the deals. Divergent effects on share college-educated and income are primarily driven by incentive deals for non-manufacturing facilities and expansions of existing facilities. Additionally, tracts nearest to the deals experience population declines of 14% seven years after the deals. These results indicate that incentive deals for large facilities induce people to move away, particularly when the subsidized project is a new facility or a manufacturing plant. Deals subsidizing existing, non-manufacturing facilities draw in college-educated workers at the expense of lower-educated incumbent residents, who leave the area. The stated purpose of these incentive deals is often to help vulnerable workforces in economically depressed areas by stimulating job growth and investment. The finding that these deals cause significant displacement of the non-college-educated population, together with negligible employment gains for surrounding areas, indicates that large incentive deals in small to mid-sized counties are not accomplishing these goals."

Publications

"Effects of Emigration on Labor Markets in Migrant Origin Areas: Evidence from Internal Migration in Indonesia" with Marieke Kleemans

Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 179, February 2026

Abstract: "We study the effects of internal migration in Indonesia on labor market outcomes of non-migrants in origin areas. To address endogeneity of the decision to migrate, we instrument emigration rates with shift-share labor demand shocks in destination areas interacted with historical migration patterns. Using detailed longitudinal data from over 36,000 individuals, whom we observe over a 27-year period, we find that a one percentage point increase in the emigration rate leads to a 3.42% increase in hourly income for those who stay in origin areas. Given the high degree of informality in Indonesia, we then look separately at effects for formal- and informal-sector workers. In line with a dual-sector labor market model, we find that employment effects are concentrated in the formal sector and income effects are most pronounced in the informal sector. Even though emigrants tend to be higher-educated, lower-educated non-migrants benefit the most as they switch to formal sector work and benefit from higher earnings in the informal sector."

Working Papers

"Wage Implications of Racial Segregation in Workplace and Residential Areas" with David Albouy

Abstract: "Workers spend about three times as much time in and around their place of work as they do in their residential neighborhood outside of their own home. Despite this, little is known about the salience of racial segregation in workplace areas compared to residential areas. In this paper, we measure segregation of Black and non-Hispanic white workers in workplace and residential areas using three different indexes: isolation, η², and dissimilarity. We find that across all three indexes, metropolitan areas tend to be much less segregated in the neighborhoods in which people work as opposed to in the neighborhoods in which they reside. Measures of workplace area segregation also have far stronger relationships with wages, particularly of Black workers, regardless of the index being used. Within metropolitan areas and occupations, a 10 percentage point increase in workplace area isolation -- which captures the share of Black workers in the metropolitan area and the concentration of Black workers in each workplace "neighborhood" -- is associated with a 10% decrease in Black wages relative to white wages. However, 10 percentage point increases in workplace area η² and dissimilarity -- which both measure segregation conditional on the share of Black workers in the metropolitan area -- are associated with 17% and 12% increases in Black wages relative to white wages, respectively. This is consistent with Black workers being paid higher wages in areas with higher concentrations of largely Black-staffed and/or -owned businesses, which is one potential explanation of these findings."