Renewables have become the cheapest energy sources in most of the world but their generation remains variable and difficult to predict. However, recent technology advances have rendered large-scale electricity storage economically viable, thus mitigating the renewable intermittency issue and enabling combinations of e.g. wind and batteries to replace fossil fuel power plants.…Read More
Prior research has argued and shown that firms with centralized R&D produce broader innovations relative to decentralized firms, but the organizational mechanisms underlying this relationship are underexplored. This gap limits our understanding of whether and how formal R&D structure can be used as a lever to influence research outcomes.…Read More
We study how a new development in entrepreneurship—crowdfunding—interacts with more traditional financing sources, such as venture capital (VC) and bank financing. …Read More
This study focuses on how data analytics talent in firms can have an effect on firms’ return on their technology investment. Especially with the rise of social media, cloud computing, as well as many other technologies that can capture detailed digital trace about various human interactions, we hope to understand how some firms can capture the value of the data and gain competitive advantage while some could not.…Read More
Using data on employer job search, this study demonstrates that employers are seeking algorithmic literacy from workers in a particularly broad class of occupations because familiarity with algorithms in downstream “using” occupations is important for integrating AI and data science into production. …Read More
Empirical analysis of a sample of companies with private equity (PE) ownership in the UK shows that PE firms act as deep-pocket investors for their portfolio companies, rescuing them if they fall in financial distress.…Read More
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are an emerging form of fundraising for Blockchain-based startups. We propose a simple model of matching supply with demand with ICOs by companies involved in production of physical products.…Read More
We develop a general-equilibrium asset-pricing model with dynamic games of price competition. Price war risks arise endogenously from declines in long-run growth as firms’ incentive to undercut prices grows stronger with a worse growth outlook. …Read More
In markets where consumers seek expert advice regarding purchases, firms seek to influence experts, raising concerns about biased advice. We combine a model of supply and demand with a local instrumental variables strategy based on regional spillovers from academic medical center conflict-of-interest policies. …Read More
This paper addresses the recent trend of offering unlimited vacation to employees. While potentially useful for acquiring human capital benefits, unlimited vacation is a risky perk for firms due to the possibility of abuse.…Read More
Commuting is costly for employees, but is it costly for employers in terms of lost productivity? We study the causal effects of commuting distance on inventor productivity. Specifically, we estimate how inventor productivity changes when their employer relocates.…Read More
Firms tend to compete on prices more aggressively when they are in financial distress; the intensified competition in turn reduces firms’ profit margins, pushing them further into distress. Competitors’ aggressive pricing reactions could be attributed to both predatory and self-defensive incentives.…Read More
The idea that source code for computer software be accessible to anyone has gained increasing popularity among software developers, fueling the rapid growth of the open source software (OSS) movement. Platforms for OSS development currently host incredibly valuable projects like the Linux kernel, TensorFlow and various blockchain software projects.…Read More
We examine how wealth windfalls affect self-employment decisions using data on cash payments from claims on Texas shale drilling to people throughout the United States. Individuals who receive large wealth shocks (greater than $50,000) have 51% higher self-employment rates.…Read More
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy and has transformed many business practices. As AI has advanced beyond the conventionally narrow domains, it is starting to exhibit characteristics of “general purpose technologies (GPT)” that are expected to change the nature of more business innovations and reduce their associated financial costs and time.…Read More
High skill labor demand is infrequent but firms cannot adjust perfectly due to several adjustment costs. Professional Business Services (PBS) sector help alleviate this problem by allowing high skill labor to move across firms, reducing idiosyncratic part of labor demand risk.…Read More
We investigate whether the effect of network position on innovation is causal or spurious. Although empirical evidence demonstrates that certain structural positions in alliance networks (e.g. structural holes) affect firm innovation, it is hard to disentangle the factors allowing a firm to put itself in a certain position from the innovation outcomes that stem from being in that position.…Read More
Traditional online platforms (e.g., Amazon Marketplace) use Unilateral Rating System (URS), where customers rate sellers. However, sharing economy platforms (e.g., Uber, Airbnb) have adopted Bilateral Rating System (BRS) that also allows service providers to rate customers, and even selects customers based on their ratings.…Read More
Uber. Upwork. TaskRabbit. The world of work is transforming and my research agenda attempts to identify and explain 1) how work is changing and 2) how these changes affect workers, especially those who are marginalized or vulnerable.…Read More
Are there returns to political contribution? This paper investigates whether political donation influences regulation in the market for one of the largest asset classes in the U.S.—real estate. Using new data on local campaign donors linked to sellers of new construction in Corelogic, a regression discontinuity design tests whether political contribution purchases regulatory outcomes.…Read More
