Publications/ Accepted Papers
A Quantitative Theory of Domestic Outsourcing: The Role of Wage-Proportional Staffing Fees (Accepted- Journal of Labor Economics)
This paper examines the trade-offs of domestic labor outsourcing, where workers are employed by staffing agencies but managed by user firms. Staffing agencies provide fast job matches in exchange for ongoing wage-proportional fees, which reduce incentives to invest in human capital. I develop a directed search model with endogenous investment and sorting to quantify the trade-off between improved employment prospects and weaker investment incentives. In the calibrated model, the employment benefits of outsourcing dominate, raising average human capital and total utility. However, counterfactuals reveal that when staffing fees are sufficiently high, outsourcing can have adverse aggregate effects.
The Life-Cycle Implications of Temporary Employment Contracts (Forthcoming - AEJ Macro)
Workers with greater job security experience fewer unemployment spells and tend to accumulate more human capital over their careers. I show that policies reducing employment protections boost younger workers’ job-finding rates but lower human capital, GDP, and employment. The impacts of these policies differ significantly by age.
Working Papers
The Shift from Traditional Pensions to 401(k)s: Retirement Risks and the Timing of Retirement with Xiaohui Sun and Yang Xuan
U.S. retirement coverage has shifted from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) plans. We build a life-cycle model in which DB and DC plans differ in exposure to longevity and return risk. Holding benefit present values fixed, these risks generate distinct saving and retirement incentives and match observed differences across plan types. The DB-to-DC shift explains 92% of the decline in retirement by age 65 since the 1990s. A decomposition attributes delayed retirement mainly to return risk, while welfare losses reflect longevity risk and differences in plan design/generosity. Actuarially fair annuitization raises welfare and accelerates retirement, especially where DC plans dominate.
Labor Force Participation, College Enrollment, and the Business Cycle, with Zhifeng Cai
Incentives to pursue education significantly influence young individuals' labor force participation decisions in the United States. We capture the participation incentives of different age groups in a search model where overlapping generations make college education decisions and experience on-the-job human capital growth. While broadly applied job search subsidies may lower welfare, as they discourage college enrollment and negatively impact human capital in the long run, a subsidy targeting the old can raise overall welfare.
Other/Older Work
Making the Most of General Purpose Technologies, with Cici McNamara
We develop a framework to study how competition among providers of general purpose technologies affects firm and household technology adoption and subsequent macroeconomic outcomes. We apply the model using a novel data set on broadband availability, speed, and prices.
An Averaging Index of State Business Climate Rankings. 2016. Inside INdiana Business with Dick Heupel
We propose a mean ranking system combining states' business climate rankings from multiple sources and show that our ranking tends to be more predictive of state output and employment.