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"Road Infrastructure and Retail Markets" JMP (under review).
[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.
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"Regional Price Indexes and Stimulus Payments Allocation", reject and resubmit,
Journal of Economic Geography.
Media: SC EPIC Policy Brief
[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.
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"Uniform Brand Variant Pricing and Cost Pass-Through to Retail Prices", with Danna Thomas (under review).
[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 examine how this behavior affects input cost shifting to retail prices across four product groups, estimating pass-through regressions via instrumental variables. In each case study, we find that input cost pass-through is effectively identical across brand variants, regardless of whether a given variant contains the input.
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"Mobile Internet Growth and Services Trade" with
William Hauk and
Mohammad Jakaria.
[Abstract]
Abstract: This article studies how internet connectivity, through overall internet use and mobile internet access, affects international trade, with a focus on services. Using data for over 100 countries from 2004 to 2019, we estimate a two-stage structural gravity model linking digital infrastructure to bilateral trade flows. A 10 percent rise in internet use in the importing country raises bilateral services trade by approximately 7 percent, with comparable effects on the exporter side. The strongest responses occur in telecommunications, information technology, finance, and intellectual property services, while the effects on goods trade are modest. Mobile broadband coverage produces similar but somewhat smaller impacts: 2G-and-higher and 3G-and-higher networks both yield positive and significant elasticities, particularly in bandwidth-intensive sectors. These results suggest that expanding both fixed and mobile internet access lowers trade costs and broadens participation in global markets.