Research

Abstract:

The proliferation of standardized testing has raised concerns about its distortionary effects on both school and student behavior. While previous literature has extensively documented high-powered misconduct by teachers and administrators, there is little systematic evidence on how exam pressure may lead students to commit academic dishonesty. This paper investigates interpersonal student cheating during high school exit exams in Vietnam, a setting where educational success is highly coveted. Using individual-level data from a large province, I leverage the quasi-random assignment of students to test rooms to estimate peer effects on test day. I find that students from low-ranked schools performed better when taking exams with students from elite schools. High-achieving elite peers are particularly valuable. However, the gains were concentrated in multiple-choice and quantitative tests, but absent in essay exams. Moreover, the positive effects virtually disappeared after a testing overhaul increased the stakes of the exams. Backed by institutional details, these suspicious patterns provide credible evidence that discreet interpersonal cheating was once prevalent: non-elite students quickly formed networks with elite peers to cheat for their own benefit. It took a major reform to reshape student incentives and eliminate this malpractice.

Presentations: Columbia University, Masaryk University, NTNU, SOLE-EALE-AASLE 2025, Workshop on Education Economics and Policy 2023

Abstract: 

This paper studies how residential segregation by race and education affects job search through neighbor networks. Using confidential microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau, I measure segregation for each characteristic at both individual and group levels. To establish causality, I combine a mover-stayer design with a spatial fixed-effects approach based on different layers of neighborhoods. Consistent with existing theories, I find that residential segregation influences neighbor-based informal hiring through both in-group competition and homophily channels. At the individual level, the more segregated an individual is, the less likely they are to become a coworker of a new neighbor on the same block. This holds irrespective of race and level of schooling, suggesting that in-group competition is at play. In contrast, at the group level, higher segregation along either dimension raises the probability of any future coworkership on the block for all racial or educational groups, indicative of homophily. The impacts are largest for the most socioeconomically disadvantaged demographics: Blacks and those without a high school education. These heterogeneous effects call for careful customization in policy-making, as blanket measures are more likely to exacerbate than mitigate inequality.

Presentations: Columbia University, NTNU, Oslo Empirical Labor Market Research Workshop 2023, FSRDC Annual Research Conference 2023, Center for Fertility and Health - Norwegian Institute of Public Health 2023

Abstract:

How does extending unemployment insurance (UI) affect the labor force participation among marginally attached workers? We assess this question in the context of extending the potential unemployment benefit duration from 12 to 24 months in Norway. Using a sharp regression discontinuity design and longitudinal employer-employee data, we find that extending UI by 12 months increased the incidence of long-term unemployment spells by five percentage points, but only among men. The extension improved long-run labor market attachment by increasing employment and labor income by 15-20%. Recall hires account for 90% of the initial employment effect, but only 33% three years later, as workers gradually transition to new firms. Our findings suggest that employers can play a crucial role in shaping the effects of UI by alleviating barriers to labor market re-entry.

Presentations: Oslo Empirical Labor Market Research Workshop 2024, EALE 2024

Abstract:

While a large literature has studied the effects of company stock on firm productivity and CEO pay, much less is understood about the risks of owning company stock in the event of shocks that are outside employees' control. When skills are specific to a firm or industry, the consequences of shocks to the firm may have more detrimental effects on both labor earnings and employees' financial wealth. However, evidence remains scarce due to difficulties in measuring employment and ownership structure, as well as identifying exogenous shocks to firms. This paper helps fill this gap using the Norwegian economy during the financial crisis as a laboratory. We combine administrative records of owners of listed and unlisted companies with employee income and wealth and changes in (i) employer-specific and (ii) individual portfolio-specific profits as plausibly exogenous labor market and financial shocks. Our empirical analysis yields two main findings. First, we find that employer-owners suffer larger earnings losses than regular employees following an unexpected profitability shock to the firm. These effects are concentrated among employer-owners with longer tenure in the firm, providing some support of higher firm-specific human investments. Second, we find that a shock to the financial portfolio has about twice as large impacts among employer-owners as regular owners, and are driven by owners with more than 10% stake, i.e., the founders. We explore mechanisms and find that wealth effects are similar among highly concentrated financial portfolios vs. less concentrated portfolios. Taken together, our evidence indicates that founders of companies face long-lasting economic costs of macroeconomic shocks, possibly due to important interactions between human and financial frictions.

Presentations: SOLE 2024

Abstract: 

We use monthly Current Population Survey data to document employment changes during the COVID-19 pandemic at the occupation, industry, and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) levels. From March to April 2020, job losses were larger for occupations with higher physical proximity or lower work-from-home feasibility, especially for lower-paying occupations. Nonessential industries also experienced greater declines in employment. Such occupational and industrial susceptibility to COVID-19 contributes to the variation in employment changes across MSAs: Employment shrinks more in MSAs with larger pre-crisis fractions of workers employed in occupations with higher infection risk. From April to June 2020, occupations and industries that were hit harder recouped more jobs, but the recovery was only partial. Moreover, the gains were concentrated in lower-paying occupations and a few industries. Taken together, these abrupt changes in employment following the COVID-19 outbreak are unprecedented and potentially have long-term implications for occupational inequality and regional disparity.