WORKING PAPERS

"Generous to Men or Harsh to Women? Experimentally Unpacking Gender Bias in Lending" 

Abstract: I study gender bias in small-business lending using an incentivized framed field experiment in which 720 Egyptian loan officers evaluate past loan applications with randomized names. The same application is approved 6.2% more often with a male name. But is it due to generosity toward men or harshness toward women? The gender gap is concentrated among low-quality loans, through over-approval of male applicants with repayment problems or low credit scores, suggesting generosity toward men. I test strategies to reduce bias. Increasing performance pay tied to repayment outcomes closes the gender gap by reducing approvals of later-defaulted men, whereas bias awareness through IAT feedback does not reduce the over-approval of low-quality men, the margin driving the gender gap via generosity toward men. These findings show that unpacking the margin generating a disparity is key to debiasing policy.

• Best PhD Student Paper Award (🏆Louis Pasteur Prize), Advances with Field Experiments (AFE) Conference 2025 (UChicago)

• Presentations: AEA Annual Meeting 2026 (Development Finance), University of Chicago experimental economics working group, Accelerating Growth for Women Entrepreneurs in Developing Economies conference (EBRD, We-Fi, IDB, IDB Invest, Imperial College London),  Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Finance), KDI School of Public Policy and Management, National Taiwan University (School of Political Science and Economics, invited), Chung-Ang University (virtual), Advances with Field Experiments Conference 2025, EGSC 20th Meeting, FMA Doctoral Student Consortium 2025, Korea America Economic Association (KAEA) Job Market Conference, Korea Association of Applied Economics-DEEP (virtual), Bay Area Behavioral Economics and Experimental Workshop (USF)

"Human-in-the-Loop Bias in AI–Assisted Lending " 

Abstract:  The effectiveness of generative AI depends on how humans use its interactive features. I study human-in-the-loop bias in AI-assisted small business lending through a randomized experiment with 720 loan officers in Egypt. Officers evaluate past loan applications with randomized applicant names while receiving recommendations from a GPT-4o–based chatbot. While AI assistance improves overall screening accuracy, adding interactive features does not provide further gains and may even worsen outcomes by making officers more likely to override correct AI recommendations. I also document gender bias in interactions with AI: when AI incorrectly recommends approving low-quality loans, officers are more likely to question and override the recommendation for female rather than male applicants. These differential responses reallocate credit across genders, reducing approvals of low-quality loans for women while increasing them for men.

PUBLICATIONS

"From Lawn Care to Home Care: Undocumented Immigration and Aging in Place", American Journal of Health Economics, 2025, 11.3: 454–486, with Domininkas Mockus

Abstract: Elderly Americans express a strong desire to stay out of nursing homes as they age (aging in place). Undocumented immigrants play an important role in supporting the elderly who live at home. This paper estimates the effect of changes in undocumented immigration on aging in place. Identification comes from a two-stage least squares research design using the staggered rollout of the Secure Communities (SC) program between 2008 and 2013 that increased the threat of deportation for undocumented immigrants. For communities with a high level of undocumented immigrants, the change in the undocumented labor supply caused by the SC program decreases aging in place by 0.42%. As a general trend, for every 10% decrease in the undocumented labor supply, the percentage of elderly natives aging in place decreases by 0.12%.

"Does Single-Sex Schooling Improve Students' Physical Fitness?: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in South Korea", Economics Letters, 2025, 112279, with Sanghee Mun

Abstract: Leveraging a randomized natural experiment, this study examines the impact of attending single-sex middle schools on students' physical fitness, measured through standardized nationwide physical tests. In South Korea, middle school students are assigned by lottery to either single-sex or coeducational schools within their designated school zones, providing an ideal setting to evaluate the effects of single-sex schooling. Using school-level data covering all middle schools, the study finds that boys attending single-sex schools achieve significantly higher pass rates on standardized physical fitness tests, suggesting improved physical fitness compared to their peers in coeducational schools. However, no similar improvement is observed for girls attending single-sex schools. These findings suggest that single-sex schooling has differential effects by gender, highlighting the need to further research to understand the mechanisms underlying these varied outcomes.