Updated: April 22, 2026



Working papers 



This paper tests whether and how local banking market conditions affect mortality rates in the United States. Exploiting the staggered relaxation of branching restrictions in the 1990s across states, we find that banking deregulation decreases local mortality rates. This effect is driven by a decrease in the mortality rate of black residents, implying a decrease in the black-white mortality gap. We provide evidence for expanding the healthcare sector in black communities, access to private health insurance, and home ownership as channels through which local banking markets affect individuals' longevity and decrease mortality inequality.


Selected Presentations: University of Sydney, IWH, Hong Kong Polytechnic, Bank of Finland, SFA Annual Meeting



We examine how corporate financial constraints shape firms’ employment responses to minimum wage policies. Exploiting the federal minimum wage increase during the financial crisis and variation in firms’ debt maturity structures at the crisis onset, we find that financially constrained firms significantly reduce employment. To assess external validity, we analyze staggered state-level minimum wage increases over time. Consistent with the crisis evidence, employment declines in establishments of constrained firms, whereas unconstrained firms expand in areas with a larger supply of minimum-wage workers and higher turnover. Our results highlight the central role of financial constraints in mediating labor policy effects.


Selected Presentations:  Fordham University, the University of Sydney, MFA Annual Meeting, ABFER Annual Conference



We investigate how limiting interest deductibility, as mandated by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, shapes corporate innovation. Using alternative identification strategies, we show that, relative to unaffected firms, affected firms experience significant declines in patent quantity and quality, and narrow the technological scope of their patent portfolios. Cross-country evidence from the enactment of interest-ceiling rules confirms similar effects. The limitation increases firms' tax burden and, more substantially, induces deleveraging, curtailing their capacity for innovative investment. This exposes a novel financing channel linking corporate taxation to innovation, with the debt tax shield functioning as an implicit subsidy.


Selected Presentations:  Chicago Entrepreneurial Finance Workshop 



We use establishment-level data to examine the relation between corporate taxes and financial distress. Using a border discontinuity design, we document that higher corporate income tax rates significantly increase financial distress, particularly for geographically concentrated firms, with sizable spillovers across establishments. We further investigate \textit{how} taxes affect establishment-level financial distress by exploiting the interest limitation rule introduced by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that affected firms experience a decline in financial distress. This occurs because the reduced tax advantage of debt induces firms to deleverage, reducing financial distress through capital structure adjustments.


Selected Presentations: SFS Cavalcade NA, RCF-ECGI Conference, Auburn University, Baruch College, Purdue University, University of Nevada (Las Vegas)



We examine how antitrust enforcement shapes product market dynamics using U.S. government procurement as laboratory. Leveraging large language models to identify DOJ procurement cases, we document a trade-off between broader market participation and procurement performance. Non-defendant contractors, particularly small, women-, and minority-owned businesses, gain market share as antitrust enforcement dismantles the structural barriers erected by anti-competitive conduct. However, enforcement also impairs procurement performance in affected markets, an effect concentrated among new and inexperienced contractors and complex projects, but largely absent in simpler procurements. Our findings provide new insights into how antitrust enforcement influences diverse stakeholder groups in complex product markets.


Selected Presentations:  SDU Finance Workshop, 5th Global PhD Student Colloquium, CICF 2026, NBER Economic Analysis of Regulation



We examine how long-lasting demand shocks shape the structure of CEO compensation and firm outcomes. For identification, we exploit persistent, Census-driven increases in U.S. government spending that expand procurement opportunities and reduce the demand uncertainty of government contractors. Boards respond by increasing CEO pay convexity to better align manager-shareholder interests, raising expected total compensation. Contrary to the rent-extraction hypothesis, effects are symmetric across positive and negative shocks, and are driven by better-governed firms. Stronger risk-taking incentives induce greater investment and improved operating performance, highlighting CEO compensation design as a key channel through which firms respond to persistent demand shocks.


Selected Presentations: Fordham University, the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, the Australasian Finance & Banking Conference, CICF, NFA



This paper examines the role of consultants in firms’ selection of compensation peers. Peer-choice analysis shows that firms are more likely to select peers employing the same consultant. Such a preference amplifies the peer-pay effect (favoring peers with higher-paid CEOs). Firms whose peer group consists of more peers sharing consultants with them have higher median peer pay and CEO pay, lower pay-performance sensitivity, and lower likelihood of consultant turnover. Overall, our evidence suggests that consultants strategically induce firms to select their existing clients with higher-paid CEOs as peers, driven by a familiarity bias and a desire to attract repeat business.


Published Papers




Work in progress 




Inactive Working Paper



We use top managers’ linguistic features in the earnings call to identify corporate moral values, \textit{the set of values and norms that drive moral reasoning within the corporation}. Our analysis reveals significant heterogeneity among public corporations in the United States in their emphasis on universalist and communal moral values. We also show that corporate morality correlates with top managers’ decisions, including foreign market operations, employee treatment, and environmental performance. We next use establishment-level data to identify the impact corporate moral values have on corporate policies using the 2007-2008 financial crisis as a laboratory experiment. Our results indicate that managers in firms with predominant communal morality are less likely to cut employment when there is a stronger social relationship between employees and managers.


Selected Presentations: 2024 ASREC Conference