Job Market Paper

Abstract: When choosing where to attend college, students may also consider future job opportunities in the city where the college is located, especially when post-graduation mobility is limited by migration frictions. This paper examines how such frictions shape college choices in China, where mobility is constrained by both formal migration restrictions and informal barriers. Using a national administrative dataset on four-year college admissions from 2005 to 2011, I show that relaxing migration restrictions through hukou reforms enabled colleges in cities that implemented reforms to attract higher-quality students. The largest gains occurred at colleges located in cities that are economically more developed than students' origins, consistent with improved local labor market prospects as the underlying mechanism. Counterfactual analysis based on a college choice model indicates that expanding hukou access to higher-wage cities strengthens the sorting of stronger students toward those destinations. However, when informal migration frictions are lower, students face lower post-graduation migration costs and become less sensitive to wages in college cities; as a result, sorting toward high-wage destinations weakens. Aggregate welfare rises as migration frictions decline, although the gains are unevenly distributed. These results highlight the role of both formal and informal migration frictions in shaping spatial skill sorting and welfare.


Presentations:

American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA 2026

Southern Economic Association (SEA) Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL 2025

Western Economic Association International (WEAI) Annual Meeting, virtual day 2025 

Midwest Economics Association (MEA) Annual Meetings, Kansas City, MO 2025

KDSA Research Symposium, West Lafayette, IN 2024 (Best Presentation Winner Award)


Publications 

Forthcoming in Economic Development and Cultural Change [Link] [Manuscript] [Supplementary Appendix]

Abstract: This paper shows that natural disasters with higher spatial clustering are associated with positive selection in migration. Focusing on extreme precipitation events in rural Chinese counties, I analyze their effects using census and rainfall data within a difference-in-differences framework. The results show that natural disasters significantly increase out-migration, primarily by worsening local economic conditions. More spatially clustered disasters induce stronger response from younger, male, and better-educated individuals, who are associated with longer migration distances and better economic outcomes. A migration decision model suggests that more spatially clustered disasters may exacerbate inequalities in mobility. Targeted subsidies for individuals with lower productivity and higher migration costs could help promote more equitable access to economic opportunities.


Working in Progress

[Preliminary draft available upon request]

Abstract: To understand how students make college choices and how skilled individuals are geographically distributed, we develop and estimate a spatial general equilibrium model in the context of China. The model features two stages: students first choose colleges while anticipating post-graduation migration costs; graduates then choose work locations. The framework incorporates idiosyncratic matches between students and colleges, which generate within-college quality dispersion, and idiosyncratic matches between graduates and locations, which capture heterogeneity in job fit. We parameterize these matches and derive gravity equations for both college and labor market choices. Preliminary results show that the gravity equations implied by the model closely match empirical patterns.