Racial Disparities in Housing Returns (with Amir Kermani)
American Economic Review 116(1), January 2026: 287–331.
[Link to Ungated Working Paper]
Press Coverage: Mother Jones
The Effects of Medical Debt Relief: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments (with Raymond Kluender, Neale Mahoney, and Wesley Yin)
Quarterly Journal of Economics 140(2), May 2025: 1187–1241.
Press Coverage: New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, Vox, Bloomberg, The Atlantic
The Impact of Financial Assistance Programs on Health Care Utilization (with Alyce Adams, Raymond Kluender, Neale Mahoney, Jinglin Wang, and Wesley Yin)
American Economic Review: Insights 4(3), September 2022: 389-407.
Medical Debt in the US, 2009-2020 (with Raymond Kluender, Neale Mahoney, and Wesley Yin)
JAMA 326(3), July 2021.
Press Coverage: New York Times, Washington Post, Vox, MarketWatch, CBS, Marketplace
Taxing Homeowners Who Can't or Won't Borrow
Accepted, Review of Economic Studies
Links: CESifo Working Paper No. 11185
Abstract: Using high-frequency administrative data covering millions of US homeowners, I document three novel facts about homeowner responses to property tax increases driven by rising home values. First, non-migrating homeowners cut consumption, exhibit financial distress, and do not borrow against their higher home values. These responses run contrary to the predictions of frictionless models, in which homeowners should borrow to avoid costly adjustments. Second, heterogeneity analysis shows that consumption responses do not vary by liquidity, consistent with savings target behavior. In contrast, distress responses are concentrated among liquidity-constrained homeowners. Many homeowners report being debt averse and therefore unwilling to borrow in order to avoid illiquidity and distress. Third, tax hikes induce migration—partly by displacing illiquid homeowners—but do not accelerate neighborhood change. A simple welfare framework reveals that the largest costs of property taxes arise from financial distress among liquidity-constrained homeowners.
Mad as Hell: Property Tax Animus and Financial Distress
Abstract: Property taxes are uniquely unpopular and have been curtailed in 46 US states. This study tests whether property tax animus occurs when rising home values increase taxes and create financial distress. Consistent with this hypothesis, I find that property taxes are more unpopular when governments do not limit how much rising home values can increase taxes, and that financial distress is a key correlate of property tax animus in surveys and real-world voting behavior. Randomized information treatments indicate that distortionary income-based tax relief reduces property tax animus, suggesting that politically sustainable property taxes require distortionary modifications that mitigate financial distress.
Managing Innovation in Firms (with Ingrid Haegele, Isabela Manelici, and José P. Vasquez)
Abstract: Most innovation occurs inside firms, yet little is known about the organizational forces that shape it. We study the role of managers in within-firm innovation using uniquely rich administrative data from a global manufacturing firm that tracks workers’ ideas from invention to patenting and commercialization. Exploiting quasi-random manager switches across teams, we show that managers with hands-on invention experience substantially increase both the quantity and quality of workers’ innovative output. Within four years of the switch, moving from the average manager, who has no experience, to a highly-experienced manager approximately doubles workers’ production of patented inventions. We also find positive effects on patent citations and commercialized inventions, showing that these effects extend beyond patent counts to also reflect technological impact and economic value. Our evidence suggests that managers raise the innovation capability of incumbent workers. Close collaboration transmits know-how, especially in areas farther from workers’ expertise, after which workers become more able to invent independently. We also show that experienced managers foster a work environment more conducive to experimentation and idea development.
How Racial Differences in Housing Returns Shape Retirement Security (with Amir Kermani)
in Reducing Retirement Inequality: Building Wealth and Old-Age Resilience, Eds. Olivia S. Mitchell and Nikolai Roussanov. Oxford University Press, 2025
Trends in Medical Debt During the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Benedict Guttman-Kenney, Raymond Kluender, Neale Mahoney, Xuyang Xia, and Wesley Yin)
JAMA Health Forum 3(5):e221031, May 2022.