Technological Change and Demand for Redistribution (submitted)
Latest draft: January 26, 2026
Job Market Paper
Abstract: I study how technological change drives rising income inequality and non-increasing tax progressivity from 1978 to 2018. Linking occupational data with individual survey responses on preferences for income redistribution, I document that workers in computer-intensive occupations support redistribution less, tracking shifts in occupational earnings. Motivated by these findings, I develop and estimate a quantitative model embedding occupational sorting, technological change, and voting over redistribution. I find that rising equipment efficiency, productivity shifts, and composition changes reduce progressivity and increase inequality, while changes in returns to time investment offset these forces. Political feedback further depresses progressivity and amplifies inequality.
Dynamics of U.S. Tax Progressivity: A Quantile Approach (with Wentao Hu, Kun Ho Kim, Wei Biao Wu) (submitted)
Latest draft: June 2, 2025
Abstract: This paper investigates the dynamics of U.S. tax progressivity from 1978 to 2022 by conducting year-by-year quantile regression and simultaneous inference on progressivity estimates. We find that: (i) the least-squares fit of the widely used log-linear tax function capturing the residual income elasticity worsens during recessions, (ii) the U.S. progressivity is counter-cyclical at all income quantiles, with stronger counter-cyclicality at higher income quantiles; (iii) the constancy of the progressivity is rejected in the 1980s with a gradual decline and during recessions with jumps in the progressivity. During recessions, least-squares-implied tax rate is unusually higher than those from the quantile approach.
The Expansion of Social Media Platforms through Intangible Investment (with Xiaohan Zhang) (submitted)
Latest draft: December 24, 2025
Abstract: Social media platforms have expanded rapidly since the early 2000s as households shifted time toward online leisure, despite modest growth in measured labor and physical capital. To understand this gap, we build a multi-sector dynamic general equilibrium model in which platforms use online traffic and invest in intangibles, including leisure-enhancing technologies and data-intensive capital. Calibrating the model to time-use data, firm financial statements, and website traffic, we infer intangible values and productivity paths. From 2003 to 2023, platform growth is driven mainly by intangible accumulation and platform productivity, with intangible investment rising from 0.11% to 3.27% of GDP.
Endogenous Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Social Security in General Equilibrium (submitted)
Latest draft: March 31, 2026
Abstract: This paper studies how endogenous voter turnout shapes intergenerational redistribution and capital accumulation in a dynamic political economy model. I embed turnout in an overlapping generations framework with repeated voting over pay-as-you-go Social Security policy. Endogenous turnout opens two strategic channels absent under exogenous turnout: a static channel through which participation affects contemporaneous political weights, and a dynamic channel through which current policy alters future capital, political weights, and policy. Analyzing transition dynamics in response to U.S. demographic projections under alternative political regimes, I find that mandatory voting eliminates turnout asymmetries but amplifies taxes and lowers long-run capital and welfare.
Selected Works in Progress
Skill-promoting Policy and Changes in Technology and Labor Market Power (with Han Gao)
Online Leisure and Digital Platforms in an Open Economy (with Xiaohan Zhang)
Simultaneous Inference of Regression with Time-varying Random Coefficients (with Wentao Hu, Kun Ho Kim, Wei Biao Wu)
Discussion Slides
Discussion Slides for “Perceived versus Calibrated Income Risks in Heterogeneous-agent Consumption Models,” by Tao Wang
Discussion Slides for “Unmasking Social Security: Navigating the Impact on Welfare Distribution,” by Eungsik Kim
Discussion Slides for “Does Protectionism Save Domestic Jobs?: New Evidence from Tariffs on Washing Machines,” by Jaerim Choi