Research

Job Market Paper

"Estimating Spatial Heterogeneity in the Labor Market Effects of Place-Based Business Incentive Deals"

Abstract: "This paper uses comprehensive and hand-collected microdata on business tax incentive deals to provide the first evidence of how the labor market effects of these deals vary within counties by proximity to the incentivized firms’ facilities. I use a novel nested matching approach to identify untreated census tracts that are similar to tracts surrounding large incentive deals in counties of less than one million people. I find that in areas containing the nearest 50,000 pre-deal residents, employment rates increase by 0.6 percentage points and per capita incomes increase by 3% within seven years of the deals. Increases in employment and income do not exist beyond 5 miles from the incentivized firms, highlighting the importance of studying within-county effects. Deals also cause gentrification within the areas containing the nearest 50,000 pre-deal residents. The share of college-educated residents increases by 7% seven years following the deals, suggesting that rather than solely benefiting incumbent residents, increases in employment and income are at least partly due to changes in local labor force composition. Within 20 miles of deals, population declines by 1%, with effects on housing markets pointing to emigration as a result of disamenities and/or gentrification rather than demolition or increasing costs of housing. The stated purpose of these incentive deals is often to help vulnerable workforces in economically depressed areas by stimulating job growth and investment. The findings of this paper demonstrate that while deals attract new college-educated workers, they also cause incumbent residents to move away. It is unclear whether incumbent residents who stay benefit from greater economic opportunity."

Publications

"Effects of Emigration on Labor Markets in Migrant Origin Areas: Evidence from Internal Migration in Indonesia" with Marieke Kleemans

Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 179, February 2026

Abstract: "We study the effects of internal migration in Indonesia on labor market outcomes of non-migrants in origin areas. To address endogeneity of the decision to migrate, we instrument emigration rates with shift-share labor demand shocks in destination areas interacted with historical migration patterns. Using detailed longitudinal data from over 36,000 individuals, whom we observe over a 27-year period, we find that a one percentage point increase in the emigration rate leads to a 3.42% increase in hourly income for those who stay in origin areas. Given the high degree of informality in Indonesia, we then look separately at effects for formal- and informal-sector workers. In line with a dual-sector labor market model, we find that employment effects are concentrated in the formal sector and income effects are most pronounced in the informal sector. Even though emigrants tend to be higher-educated, lower-educated non-migrants benefit the most as they switch to formal sector work and benefit from higher earnings in the informal sector."

Working Papers

"Wage Implications of Racial Segregation in Workplace and Residential Areas" with David Albouy

Abstract: "Workers spend about three times as much time in and around their place of work as they do in their residential neighborhood outside of their own home. Despite this, little is known about the salience of racial segregation in workplace areas compared to residential areas. In this paper, we measure segregation of Black and non-Hispanic white workers in workplace and residential areas using three different indexes: isolation, η², and dissimilarity. We find that across all three indexes, metropolitan areas tend to be much less segregated in the neighborhoods in which people work as opposed to in the neighborhoods in which they reside. Measures of workplace area segregation also have far stronger relationships with wages, particularly of Black workers, regardless of the index being used. Within metropolitan areas and occupations, a 10 percentage point increase in workplace area isolation -- which captures the share of Black workers in the metropolitan area and the concentration of Black workers in each workplace "neighborhood" -- is associated with a 10% decrease in Black wages relative to white wages. However, 10 percentage point increases in workplace area η² and dissimilarity -- which both measure segregation conditional on the share of Black workers in the metropolitan area -- are associated with 17% and 12% increases in Black wages relative to white wages, respectively. This is consistent with Black workers being paid higher wages in areas with higher concentrations of largely Black-staffed and/or -owned businesses, which is one potential explanation of these findings."