Research

La Palma, Spain


Working Papers

(Job Market Paper) Corruption and Talent Allocation – Under review

[Latest Version] (Dec. 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.

Occupation Flexibility and the Gender Wage Gap in the UK (with Liza Benny, Sonia Bhalotra, Manuel Fernández, and Fan Wang)

[Latest Version] (Nov. 2025)

Abstract This paper examines the importance of gender differences in labour supply and demand for job flexibility to the growth of the gender wage gap over the life cycle and over time in the UK. We document that the gender wage gap increases over the life cycle, particularly between ages 25 and 40, to approximately 20% of real hourly male earnings by age 55. The share of women working in flexible occupations has increased over the life cycle, and this increase has been particularly substantial for successive cohorts, whereas men are less likely to work in flexible occupations at older ages. The wage penalty from working in flexible occupations increases both over the life cycle and over time. We estimate a model of labour supply and demand to quantify the importance of changes to preferences and relative demand for flexibility on the gender wage gap. Higher relative demand for male labour at older ages, and in inflexible occupations, explains almost all (96%) of the estimated life cycle increases in the gender wage gap, whereas women’s higher preferences for working in flexible occupations drives the increases in sorting into flexible occupations over time, contributing to about 60% of the estimated increase in the gender wage gap over time.

Selected Work in Progress

  • The Global Health Toll of the Global Gag Rule (with Sonia Bhalotra and Damian Clarke) – Draft available upon request
    Abstract The Global Gag Rule (GGR) is a pro-life policy that prohibits foreign non-governmental organizations receiving U.S. aid from providing or advocating for abortion-related services. First introduced by President Reagan in 1984, the policy has been rescinded by every Democratic administration and reinstated by every Republican. We examine the effects of the GGR on maternal mortality across two presidential transitions: Clinton to Bush (1993–2008) and Obama to Trump (2009–2020). Our empirical strategy employs a triple difference design that leverages cross-country variation in U.S. aid dependence and within-country variation in baseline clinic access to measure exposure. We find that, on average, the reinstatement of the GGR is associated with a 16.7 percent increase in maternal mortality in highly-exposed aid-receiving countries. We also uncover larger effects under the Trump administration, likely due to the policy’s unprecedented expansion in 2017.
  • Dating Preferences (with Sonia Bhalotra, George Beknazar-Yuzbashev, Damian Clarke, and Mateusz Stalinski) – Pre-analysis plan drafted
    Abstract We investigate how individuals trade off personality traits and ideology against attributes such as attractiveness and income when searching for potential partners. We are creating a dating site that includes AI-generated profiles together with actual participants, an approach that will allow us to elicit nuanced preferences in a controlled yet realistic setting.
  • Immigration and Assimilation of the Chinese Diaspora in Indonesia – Analysis in progress
    Abstract This paper examines the role of state policy in fostering immigrant integration in the context of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. Ethnic Chinese faced institutionalized discrimination during the New Order regime (1966–1998), which was revoked following the fall of Suharto. I exploit cross-regional variation in pre-revocation ethnic Chinese population shares as a proxy for out-group exposure. Difference-in-differences estimates suggest that the revocation of discriminatory legislation fostered cultural assimilation, yet created a backlash in political integration. Additional data collection is progress to investigate mechanisms behind the divergence between cultural and political assimilation.

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.