Research

Working Papers

“Gender Differences in Comparative Advantage Matches: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data”
Job Market Paper [details]

“The Effects of the Venezuelan Refugee Crisis on the Brazilian Labor Market” (with Samyam Shrestha)
Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Economic Geography [details]

“Difference in Differences with Bad Controls” (with Carolina Caetano, Brantly Callaway, and Stroud Payne)
Working Paper [details]

“Labor Market Effects of an Environmental Disaster: Evidence from the 2015 Mariana Dam Failure”
Working Paper [details]

Selected Work in Progress

“Immigration Enforcement and Business Dynamics” (with Samyam Shrestha)

Abstract:

We analyze whether reducing the undocumented immigrant population affects the local business dynamics and the entrepreneurial climate by leveraging the temporal and spatial variation in the implementation of the Secure Communities (SC) program. SC relies on data-sharing between local law enforcement agencies to identify and arrest undocumented immigrants. We find that the SC implementation at the commuting zone level reduced the number of establishments and establishment entries, and increased establishment exits in the construction sector, along with a decrease in job creation. As expected, we find no effect on economic sectors with a traditionally low percentage of immigrant workers. Surprisingly, we also find no significant effects in the agricultural sector. We are currently working on testing four potential mechanisms to explain the effects in the construction sector, which we call the entrepreneurial drain effect, the chilling effect, the labor cost effect, and the consumption effect respectively.

“The Effects of Crime on Firm Entry and Exit: Evidence from Rio de Janeiro” (with Samyam Shrestha)

Abstract:

This paper examines the effects of crime on firm entry and exit in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, using data on the universe of firms and establishments in the city from 2007 to 2017. By spatially locating firms and merging this information with granular neighborhood-level crime data, which includes detailed records of crime type, time, and severity, we investigate how crime influences the local business environment. We address endogeneity and simultaneity issues through an instrumental variable approach, leveraging spatiotemporal variations in the Pacifying Police Unit program that deployed the Brazilian military across Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods in the lead-up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympics. We identify neighborhoods with persistently high crime levels that did not receive military intervention to serve as a control group. Our hypothesis is that firms are more likely to enter areas where crime has been reduced and less likely to exit them. We explore heterogeneity at the level of crime type, firm size, industry, and productivity distribution.