I teach Economics 333 Special Topics in International Trade and Economics 231 Intermediate Microeconomics in the Fall of 2008. Here is a link to the seminar series in the Department of Economics at Vanderbilt University.
My research is in international trade, firm heterogeneity, and applied econometrics.
Here are my CV,
IDEAS page and a picture.
Current Research
Foreign Direct Investment, Exports and Aggregate Productivity (July 2008)This paper presents and estimates a model of foreign direct investment (FDI) and exports
with heterogeneous firms. The model highlights the interaction between firms’ location and
export decisions and their effect on aggregate productivity and welfare. The model is estimated
using plant-level Indonesian manufacturing data. The results are broadly consistent
with the pattern of productivity, exports and FDI across plants. Counterfactual experiments
suggest that there are substantial productivity gains due to international trade and
FDI. They emphasize that evaluating the substitutability and complementarity of trade and
FDI is crucial to determining the aggregate effects of trade and FDI policy. The supplemental appendix is available here.
Do Importing and Exporting Increase the Demand for Skilled Workers? Plant-level Evidence from Indonesia, with Hiro Kasahara (January 2010). This paper estimates the impact of plant-level import and export decisions on the demand for skilled labor. We allow for import and export effects to vary across plants and for plants to self-select into importing and exporting with some knowledge of their gains from such actions. Using an Indonesian manufacturing data set that contains the detailed plant-level information on workers' education levels, we apply the treatment effect framework developed by Heckman and Vytlacil (1999, 2005, 2007a,b) to identify the average effect of importing and exporting on skill demand across different sub-groups of plants, such as importers, non-importers, exporters, and non-exporters.
The Opportunity Cost of Exporting, with Young-Woo Rho (January 2010) This paper presents and estimates a dynamic model of entry decisions into export markets with heterogeneous firms. We document that firms that choose to enter export markets typically experience much slower domestic revenue growth than similar non-exporting firms. We call this the opportunity cost of exporting and suggest that it can explain much of the observed selection of high productivity firms into export markets. Moreover, since opportunity costs are proportional to firm-level productivity, the model simultaneously explains the presence of relatively small firms in export markets with small export sales. Failing to account for this process, we argue that previous dynamic models overestimate the size of fixed and sunk costs associated with exporting.
Pollution Abatement and Export Dynamics, with Lola Soumonni (January 2010) This paper presents and estimates a dynamic model of investment in pollution abating technology (PAT) and exports with heterogeneous firms. The model highlights the interaction between firms' environmental investment and export decisions and the impact of trade or environmental policy on firms optimal choices. The model is estimated using Indonesian manufacturing data that captures plant-level variation in investment in environmental abatement and export behavior. Preliminary results suggest that across a number of industries firms that environmental investment has little impact of productivity dynamics, but does encourage growth in export demand.
Published Papers
Does the Use of Imported Intermediates Increase Productivity? Plant-Level Evidence , Journal of Development Economics, 2008, with Hiroyuki Kasahara. This is a copy of the working paper. This paper examines whether importing intermediate goods improves plant performance.
While addressing the issue of simultaneous productivity shocks and decisions to import
intermediates, we estimate the impact foreign intermediates have on plants’ productivity
using plant-level Chilean manufacturing panel data. Across different estimators, we find
evidence that becoming an importer of foreign intermediates improves productivity.
