Research

Working Papers

The Economic Effects of the Subminimum Wage (labor economics)

When economists theorize the employment effects of the minimum wage, they often refer to the minimum wage as if it is a single number. In practice, the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act paired with state level policy suggest a vector of possible minimum wages that may be paid out within a state or city based on firm level and employee level characteristics. This paper introduces a framework to model a vector of minimum wage tiers and their effect on employment, applied to the example of  the bunching estimator from Cengiz, Dube, Lindner, and Zipperer 2018. I expand on this estimator by adding an identification of workers allowed to be paid at the lower minimum wage rate. I find no statistically significant change in employment after and increase in the headline minimum wage, even after controlling for a state's subminimum, but there are ambiguous results on the effect from the subminimum itself. 

The Double Bottom Line and Sales (public economics and corporate governance)

States across the U.S. have designed a new form of legal designation for firms, the benefit corporation, which is defined by its dual objective: the maximization of shareholder profit, while also providing some public good. There are no tax or policy benefits conferred to benefit corporations, and the designation is voluntary. If the firm fails to meet either objective, the board of directors may hold the CEO accountable, and likewise, the CEO may evoke success in one objective to make up for losses in the other. While classical economic theory suggests that competitive firms should receive no revenue for providing the public good, some proponents of benefit corporations suggest it as a form of branding to consumers. This paper tests if firms see a gross sales increase in response to reorganizing as a benefit corporation by combining firm data from B-Lab and Mergent, and under a difference in difference regression, finds reorganizing as a benefit corporation does not increase gross sales, and at worst marginally reduces gross sales.

The Effect of Household Labor on Employment Matching  (labor economics)

Households determine their willingness to participate in the labor force based on the expected return to their time. This can be a function of wages for their time spent working for an employer, but should also include their time spent working for their household. If employers seek to fill their vacancies, offering higher wages may help the household finance the services consumed within their home, but  offering flexible work arrangements and paid family leave as a part of their compensation contract may be more attractive to those who are not already in the labor force. I adopt the job search framework made popular by Pissarides, Diamond, and Mortensen to identify the difference in the match rate among vacancies with family leave, compared to those that do not. By calculating the unemployment rate for each household type using the Current Population Survey, and calculating the vacancy rate for each firm type using the Minnesota Job Vacancy Survey,  the resulting frictional unemployment of households with a high demand for hour flexibility suggests the following: [results pending]