Research

Are temporary workers subject to different wage markdowns than permanent workers? This paper examines productivity, output markups, and wage markdowns in India's automotive sector during 2000--2020. I develop a model integrating CES production, nested logit labor supply, and differentiated labor market conduct: Nash-Bertrand wage setting for temporary workers versus Nash bargaining for unionized permanent workers. Results reveal declining output markups as marginal costs outpace prices through productivity deceleration. Rising labor-augmenting productivity cannot offset declining Hicks-neutral productivity, reducing overall TFP. Labor market power substantially compresses worker compensation: wage markdowns persist at 40% for temporary workers and 10% for permanent workers.

Conference Presentations (* scheduled):

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

This paper investigates how productivity dispersion relates to input misallocation using a model with staggered productivity shocks that create wedges between anticipated and realized productivity for any production input. With inputs allocated optimally ex ante but suboptimally ex post, dispersion in realized productivity contributes to ex post input misallocation. Analyzing European firm data from 2000–2017 reveals significant co-movement between productivity dispersion and capital/labor misallocation across industries. Productivity dispersion explains a substantial share of capital and labor misallocation (40% and 70%), and 10% of materials misallocation, confirming its key role in allocation frictions.

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)

In this study, we evaluate the reproducibility and replicability of Scott Orr's (Journal of Political Economy 2022; 130(11): 2771–2828) innovative approach for identifying within-plant productivity differences across product lines. Orr's methodology allows the estimation of plant-product level productivity, contingent upon a well-behaved pre-estimated demand system, which requires carefully chosen instrumental variables (IVs) for output prices. Using Orr's STATA replication package, we successfully replicate all primary estimates with the ASI Indian plant-level panel data from 2000 to 2007. Additionally, applying Orr's replication codes to a sample from 2011 to 2020 reveals that the suggested IVs do not perform as expected.

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):

• 2024: SEA (Washington, DC)

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