Research

Working Papers

Equity Frictions and Firm Ownership (June 2021) -- R&R at Review of Economic Studies

Equity frictions have much larger effects on aggregate output than debt frictions. Frictions in equity markets also rationalize how there is higher wealth inequality in European countries in which debt, rather than  external equity, is the primary source if financing for firms.

Nonlinear Pricing and Misallocation (January 2023) 

(with Gideon Bornstein)

We develop a general equilibrium model of heterogeneous firms that are allowed to engage second-degree price discrimination . We show how the deviation from the strong assumption of linear pricing breaks the relationship between markup dispersion and misallocation and instead point to misallocation across consumers of the same firm.

The Aggregate Importance of Intermediate Input Substitutability (September 2022) ,NBER WP version

(with Cian Ruane)

We estimate long-run elasticities of substitution between intermediate inputs for Indian manufacturing plants using India's trade liberalization for identification. We find a high degree of substitutability at the plant-level between 8 broad categories of material inputs, significantly above the Cobb-Douglas benchmark of 1; intermediates and value added as well as energy, materials, and services are complements even in the long run.

Distribution Costs  (May 2022) -- R&R at AEJ: Macro

(with Cian Ruane)  

Distribution expenses incurred by Indian manufacturing firms are large -- over half of labor costs; disproportionately higher for larger firms and declined by one third between 2000 and 2010. Through the lens of a quantitative model, improvements in the distribution sector over that time lead to consumption gains of 41%.

Network-Based Hiring: Local Benefits; Global Costs (June 2020), NBER WP version

(with Arun G. Chandrasekhar and Melanie Morten)

Hiring a worker out of one's network, relative to a stranger, has potential two benefits: reducing moral hazard and removing asymmetric information. We show that while the former benefit is always welfare-improving, having the option to hire a friend whose type is known can lead to welfare losses.

Work in Progress

Houses and Families across Countries [WiM talk]

(with Kurt Mitman, Monika Piazzesi, and Martin Schneider)

We model the technology of housing services as a function of family size and show how this helps us explain several fact about expenditure shares, ownership status, and savings rates of couples vs singles. We leverage the presence of young (and not so young) adults living with parents to teasing out the importance of rental and credit markets for understanding differences in ownership rates across countries.

Self-Employment within the Firm (January 2023: fieldwork complete)

(with Vittorio Bassi, Jung H. Lee , Tommaso Porzio, Ritwika Sen, and  Esau Tugume)

We propose a theory of firms in which  productivity is a function of task assignment within the firm. We collect data on Ugandan manufacturing firms, estimate the model, and show that firms closely resemble a set of self-employed individuals rather than a classic firm in which the entrepreneurs productivity scales.