Embedded Files
Job Market Paper
"Skill-Biased Technological Change, Training, and the College Wage Premium: A Quantitative Evaluation"
Runner-Up for the 2024 Canadian Labour Economics Forum Best Young Researcher Award
Abstract: This paper establishes that the rise in employer-provided training due to technological change has dampened the college wage premium. Using unique survey micro-data, I show that high-technology firms provide more training overall, but the gap in training participation between high- and low-skill workers is smaller within these firms. To understand the aggregate implications of these patterns, I build a quantitative model of the labor market with endogenous technology and training investments. In a counterfactual exercise, I find that the increase in the college wage premium would be 63 percent greater if training costs remained constant between 1980 and the early 2000s.
Working Papers
"Ownership Changes and Firm Dynamics" with Bettina Brüggemann and Zachary L. Mahone
Abstract: Ownership changes are common across firms of all sizes, and they have meaningful impacts on subsequent firm performance. Using a panel of Canadian administrative data we document that sales are an important margin in the firm life cycle, larger than exit rates for employer firms. Applying an event-study framework, we find that (a) survival rates initially decline post sale, levelling off after three years and (b) conditional on survival, profits are permanently higher. Embedding firm sales in a model of firm dynamics we show that sales are quantitatively important to understanding entry, growth and exit dynamics. We estimate that 13% of entrants survive exclusively due to the option value of sale. Among small firms, 18% of average log employment growth is accounted for by realized ownership changes. In the stationary distribution, firm sales operate at the tails, allowing smaller firms to survive and magnifying the size of top firms. Finally, we quantify the importance of incorporating ownership changes for understanding the aggregate response to policy changes.
"College Majors, Occupations, and Entrepreneurship"
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between the college majors and entrepreneurship in the United States. Using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I show that STEM graduates are systematically more likely to pursue STEM-related employment but less likely to pursue entrepreneurship than non-STEM graduates. To quantify the importance of major selection for entrepreneurship, I develop a model that links college major selection to post-graduation occupational outcomes and entrepreneurship decisions. The model, calibrated to the NLSY97 micro-data, successfully replicates the observed patterns in major selection, occupational sorting, and entrepreneurship rates. Counterfactual experiments reveal that reducing STEM tuition by 50 percent would nearly double the share of STEM majors, but decrease overall entrepreneurial activity. Conversely, reducing barriers to entrepreneurship increases entrepreneurial activity without any corresponding impact on STEM enrolment. These findings provide valuable insights into how educational trends influence entrepreneurial opportunities and raise novel implications for policies related to education and entrepreneurship support.
Dissertation
"Essays in Quantitative Macroeconomics"
This thesis comprises three papers in quantitative macroeconomics that explore the following questions: (1) How does employer-provided training impact the college wage premium in the context of skill-biased technological change? (2) How does the option to sell a firm influence firm entry, exit, and growth dynamics? (3) How does college major selection impact occupational sorting and entrepreneurship? Chapter 1 combines matched employer-employee survey data from Canada with a quantitative model of the labour market featuring endogenous technology and training decisions to show that the rise in training, driven by technological advancements, attenuated the increase in the college wage premium by 63 percent between 1980 and the early 2000s. Chapter 2, coauthored with Bettina Brüggemann and Zachary Mahone, uses administrative matched employer-employee data from Canada and a quantitative model of firm dynamics to establish that transfers of business ownership significantly impact firm entry, exit, and growth dynamics, with 13 percent of new entrants surviving solely due to the option value of sale. Chapter 3 empirically establishes a negative relationship between STEM majors and entrepreneurship using micro-data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Through a quantitative model that links decisions regarding majors and entrepreneurship, I show that lowering STEM tuition increases STEM enrolment at the cost of reducing overall entrepreneurial activity.
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