Research

La Palma, Spain


Working Papers

Corruption and Talent Allocation Submitted

[Latest Version] (May 2025); [WRAP WP] (Oct 2024)

Abstract Leveraging an anti-corruption audit program in Brazil, I investigate whether corruption shifts the allocation of talent. I link administrative data on program rollout with education and employer-employee registers. Following audits, high-ability students change their college major to be less aligned with public sector careers, and they become less likely to enter public sector careers later on. Investigating mechanisms, I argue that these results are driven by the perception of lower returns to public sector careers owing to reduced rents and the risk of reputation loss. My findings highlight an understudied consequence of corruption, namely, the distortionary impacts on talent sorting.

Selected Work in Progress

  • The Global Health Toll of the Global Gag Rule (with Sonia Bhalotra and Damian Clarke)

  • Immigration and Assimilation of the Chinese Diaspora in Indonesia

Resting Papers

  • Economic Dependence and Political Dispute Across the Taiwan Strait (with Chiman Cheung and Tzu-Ting Yang)
    Abstract Does economic integration foster political affinity, or can it trigger a backlash? We approach this question by investigating an unconventional type of “China shock” in the context of the Taiwanese export surge to mainland China. Applying a shift-share design with newly delineated commuting zones (CZs) in Taiwan, our preliminary findings suggest that an across-CZ interquartile change in China export exposure leads to a 1.2% increase in pro-independence vote shares during 2000-2016. Individual data from socioeconomic surveys reveals similar effects on pro-independence attitudes. We do not, however, find evidence of export exposure affecting inclination toward a more exclusive Taiwanese versus Chinese identity. To understand the mechanisms behind the political backlash of trade integration, we plan to disentangle the potential roles of labor market adjustments to trade versus a direct political deterrence effect from overall economic dependence.