Research

"Opportunity within a Crisis: the demand of Foreign Labors during the Financial Crisis" with Yingmei Cheng

Abstract: The financial crisis provides a substantial shock to the labor market, and our work is the first one to examine the impact of such a disruption on firm-level demand and pay of foreign labors. Exploiting information contained in the work visa filings of public firms from 2005–2012, we link firm characteristics to their demand of foreign labors and the wage offered at the job level. The financial crisis has a negative impact on the demand of foreign labors, but the wage offered to the foreign labors, on average, is not affected by the financial crisis. Furthermore, larger firms with lower leverage, higher market-to-book, and larger R&D-to-assets are more likely to upgrade their work force by demanding highly skilled foreign workers during the financial crisis. Firms that upgrade their demand of foreign workers during the financial crisis are more productive in innovation during the post-crisis period.

"Superstar Uncertainty" with Spencer Barnes and Andrew Schrowang

Abstract: Financial economists have long been interested in asset price uncertainty. This study utilizes the art market to explore this effect by examining how an artists’ death affects the pre-sale price estimate dispersion of their paintings. Leveraging a difference-in-differences setting for living and deceased artists suggests that estimate dispersion decreases by $16,000 or 9% on average following the death of the artist. Subsample analysis indicates that reputation is the likely economic mechanism influencing this decrease. These findings parallel other studies that focus on stock analysts’ forecasting dispersion and find factors other than uncertainty about future cash flows are reflected in price estimates.