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Research

Here you can learn about my published and in-progress research. Feel free to reach out to me with any comments or feedback. I’d love to connect on research.

Published Research

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Health Insurance Benefits as a Labor Market Friction: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

This study examines the propensity of small firms to provide health insurance in response to high state-level unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, given that generous UI benefits reduce labor market frictions that constrain employee mobility. We exploit a unique data set of over 15,000 small private firms in the United States and find that when state UI benefits are high, firms will offer their employees health insurance benefits—especially when those firms rely on human capital that is difficult to replace. We find positive effects of health insurance policy on worker retention, worker productivity, and firm performance. We discuss the implications of our findings to the theory development on the relationship between exogenous labor market frictions and firms’ responses to those frictions.

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Market Frictions and the Competitive Advantage of Internal Labor Markets

We show that frictions in labor and capital markets can be a source of competitive advantage for affiliates of corporate groups over stand-alone firms in environments where benefits from internal markets’ flexibility are high. We argue that the advantage of flexibility in changing labor inputs is related to how difficult it is to change capital inputs. We predict that if substituting labor with capital is difficult, the group advantage of flexibly changing labor would be stronger in countries with high levels of financial development. Consistent with this prediction, we find a stronger competitive advantage for group affiliates in countries with rigid labor markets but flexible capital markets. In these environments, group affiliates are more prevalent and outperform stand-alone firms in terms of growth and profitability.

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An Empirical Examination of the Procyclicality of R&D Investment and Innovation

The Schumpeterian opportunity cost hypothesis predicts that firms concentrate innovative activities in recessions. However, empirical evidence suggests that innovative activities are procyclical. Theory proposes that firms shift R&D investments and innovation from recessions to booms to maximize returns by capturing high-demand periods before imitators compete away rents. 

Working Papers

The Bright Side of Nepotism: Market Frictions and Managing Family Firms in Uncertain Environments (with Andrea Patacconi)

This paper examines the conditions under which family firms deploy family or non-family managers. Revise and Resubmit.

The Role of Information in the Gender Gap in the Market for Top Managers: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment (sole-authored)

This study examines the role of organizational performance information in bridging the gender gap in the mobility and advancement of top managers. Under Review.

Post-M&A Reallocation of Top Managers: The Role of Structural Knowledge (with Tingyu Du)

This paper examines the post-acquisition allocation of target managers. Under Review.

The role of firm openness in the markets for managers (sole-authored)

This paper examines the role of financial disclosure of performance by firms on top manager mobility into and out of firms and identifies tradeoffs associated with firm openness to factor markets.

The January Effect: How the Timing of CEO Movements Affects CEO Acquisitiveness (with Hengchen Dai and Tingyu Du)

This study examines whether the timing of new CEO starting date influences firms’ acquisition strategy. Assuming office in January (vs. other months) triggers a promotion mindset that makes new CEOs seek more opportunities for growth and partake in more acquisitions.

Organizational Barriers to Promotions of Women Managers: Role of Internal Structure (with Seth Carnahan and Tingyu Du)

This paper examines how internal structure can contribute to the promotion and advancement rates of women executives.

Emotions as Information in the Market: Market Reactions to Emotional Expressions by Men and Women Executives (with Christy Koval and Arden Leung)

This study examines the differential market reaction to expressions of emotions by men and women executives during quarterly earnings calls.

Projects In-Progress

Project #1: Information Asymmetry and Segmented Managerial Labor Market (with Iva Rashkova)

This study uses simulations to determine the role of firm performance disclosure on managerial movements in the labor market. If some firms systematically provide information to the labor market, then these firms should have higher rate of transactions with the external labor market. Over time, these labor market transactions should concentrate among firms that provide information, thus resulting in a segmented labor market. Managerial labor market segmentation has important implications for managerial careers and appropriation of economic rents from managerial human capital by firms. 

Project #2: Post-Diverstiture Managerial Careers

This study examines how divestitures shape managerial careers.

Project #3: Private and Public Sector Managerial Markets

Details coming soon.

Project #4: Women Executives in Family Firms.

Details coming soon.

Project #5: Small firms and business cycles: role of human capital management capabilities

Details coming soon.

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