-
"Road Infrastructure and Retail Markets" (under review), JMP.
[Abstract]
Abstract: This paper explores the impact of transportation infrastructure on U.S. retail markets and leverages historical variation in transportation networks. Using detailed scanner data, I examine how interstate highways affect consumer welfare. The analysis shows that interstate highways reduce prices and expenditures on retail goods while improving product quality. They also expand both the supply of unique products in stores and the variety of goods consumers purchase. A one percent increase in highway stocks lowers the CES retail price index by about 0.14 percent. Welfare gains are positive across all income groups but roughly twice as large for higher-income consumers. Accounting for construction and maintenance costs, counterfactual welfare analyses indicate that additional interstate highways enhance consumer welfare.
-
"Regional Price Indexes and Stimulus Payments Allocation" (under review).
[Abstract]
Abstract: In this paper, I develop regional and income group-specific price indexes by estimating demand functions derived from a model of consumer choice with non-homothetic preferences using detailed barcode-level and household survey data. To illustrate the importance of differences in the cost of living across US households on the real impacts of the federal tax and transfer system, this paper examines a counterfactual policy that adjusts the 2020 stimulus payments based on regional and household group-specific price indices. The results reveal significant variation in the real impact of stimulus payments. For example, to have the same real impact, the nominal value of a stimulus payment to a household in California would need to be about two and a half times the amount as a payment to a household with the same income but living in Arkansas.
-
"Uniform Brand Variant Pricing and Cost Pass-Through to Retail Prices", with Danna Thomas. (New draft forthcoming with major updates)
[Abstract]
Abstract: We show that price uniformity is prevalent within stores and across products of the same brand, termed uniform brand variant pricing. We then study how this impacts input cost pass-through by developing a simple theoretical framework that we use to inform empirical pass-through models. Utilizing U.S.–China trade retaliation tariff shocks as the main instrument for input costs, along with time-series variation, we find that (1) cost pass-through for all inputs is identical across all brand variants, and (2) input cost pass-through increases as the share of brand variants containing that input increases.
-
"Mobile Internet Growth and Services Trade" with
William Hauk and
Mohammad Jakaria.
[Abstract]
Abstract: This paper studies how internet connectivity, encompassing both overall internet use and mobile broadband access, influences international trade with a particular focus on services. Using data for over 100 countries from 2004 to 2019, a two-stage structural gravity model shows that a 10 percent increase in internet users in the importing country raises bilateral services trade by about 7 percent, with comparable exporter-side effects. The strongest responses occur in telecommunications, information technology, finance, and intellectual property services, while the effects on goods trade are modest. Mobile broadband coverage has similar but somewhat smaller impacts, with 2G-and-higher (2G+) and 3G-and-higher (3G+) networks showing positive and significant elasticities, particularly in bandwidth-intensive sectors. Overall, the findings demonstrate that expanding internet access, both fixed and mobile, lowers trade costs and enhances participation in global markets.