Research

We assess the replicability of Orr (2022)’s method for estimating within-plant productivity across product lines, which combines demand estimation with cost minimization. The original study uses input price shocks in other output markets as instrumental variables, with exclusion restrictions based on downstream purchase shares. Reconstructing the original dataset of Indian machinery producers from 2000–2007, we reproduce the main productivity patterns and demonstrate their robustness to variations in the exclusion threshold. The main results remain robust in extended samples (2010–2019, 2000–2019) when calibrating demand parameters to Orr (2022)’s 2000-2007 estimates, as estimation on these extended periods yields inadmissible demand systems.

Contract workers constitute half of employment in India's automotive industry but earn substantially less than permanent workers. Using Annual Survey of Industries data (2002-2019), I develop a decomposition estimator integrating labor demand and supply to explain this wage premium. The model features nested CES production with distinct worker types, discrete choice supply functions with worker-specific wage sensitivity, and differentiated market conduct—Nash-Bertrand competition for contract workers versus plant-level union bargaining for permanent workers. I find the wage premium stems entirely from permanent workers' higher productivity rather than differential monopsony power or unionization advantages.

Conference Presentations (* scheduled):

• 2026: IIOC - Rising Star Session (Boston, MA)*

• 2025: Graduate Exhibition (University Park, PA), SEA (Tampa, FL)

This paper investigates how productivity dispersion relates to input misallocation in European manufacturing. The model features staggered productivity shocks that create wedges between anticipated and realized productivity for any production input. Using European firm-level data from 2001–2017, I show that, under the maintained model, shocks realized after inputs are committed are the largest contributor to marginal revenue product dispersion for every input, accounting for 75% of the variance for materials, 37% for labor, and 18% for capital. These results are consistent with input misallocation in European manufacturing reflecting post-commitment productivity shocks more than persistent heterogeneity across firms.

Conference Presentations (* scheduled):

• 2024: CAED (University Park, PA), EEA-ESEM (Rotterdam, NL), EARIE - Rising Star Session (Amsterdam, NL)

• 2023: 12th CompNet Annual Conference (Bruxelles, BE)

• 2022: MICROPROD - Final event (Bruxelles, BE)

This study examines whether exporting enhances efficiency and favors specific inputs. We develop a production function model within a dynamic exporting and investment framework, capturing factor-biased technical changes. Using Kalman filtering to address measurement error and propensity score matching to control for self-selection into exporting, we analyze Colombia’s manufacturing sectors from 1981 to 1991. New exporters achieve a 4% annual increase in labor-augmenting and unskilled labor relative productivity, with no change in Hicks-neutral productivity. Unskilled labor-augmenting productivity grows by 8% annually, aligning with machinery asset expansion, while TFP rises by 3% per year.

Conference Presentations (* scheduled):

• 2026: ASSA - Poster Session (Philadelphia)

• 2024: SEA (Washington, DC)

• 2023: V International Scientific Conference of Economics and Management Researchers (Baku, AZ)