Research
Working Papers
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Platforms for Growth? Multinationals, Trade, and Technology Diffusion
|SSRN
We study the role of export platforms—sectors that combine export-oriented production with a strong multinational firm presence—in shaping trade and growth. Empirically, we focus on Vietnam and exploit variation across sectors along two dimensions: first, in exposure to a reform that sharply lowered the cost of exporting to the United States; and second, in pre-reform openness to multinationals. We find that the interaction of export market access and multinational presence generated large increases in exports, sales, and employment. These differential effects were driven by both multinationals and domestically-owned firms, and domestic firms in exposed sectors report more links with multinationals, more technology transfer, and more technology modifications. Motivated by these results, we build a quantitative model that embeds multinational production and technology diffusion within a general equilibrium trade framework. We calibrate the model's key parameters by targeting our empirical results and quantify how becoming an export platform has contributed to Vietnam's growth.
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Place-based Policy, Migration Barriers, and Spatial Inequality
|SSRN
What makes place-based incentives for firms succeed at reducing spatial inequality? The answer depends on where workers migrate and thus on how migration costs vary across destinations. I develop a dynamic spatial general equilibrium model with firm dynamics and endogenous public services. Vietnam's enterprise tax and household registration reforms provide variation in place-based incentives and migration costs. I exploit these variations to discipline key elasticities. I find that where migration costs fall matters more than how much they fall. When migration barriers fall toward secondary cities rather than metropolitan areas in Vietnam, the redistributive effect of place-based incentives increases fivefold.
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Does Easing Migration Barriers Increase Labor Unrest?
|SSRN
Most evidence finds that granting formal status to migrants reduces crime and unrest. We find the opposite. Exploiting China's 2014 Hukou reform, which reduced within-country migration barriers, particularly for cities below one million residents, we show that per capita unrest almost doubled and peaked at nearly four times the pre-reform mean. The increase was concentrated in manufacturing, construction, and transportation sectors. Service employment expanded in low-skill sectors, but manufacturing employment remained unchanged. The reform expanded migrants' access to formal residency faster than labor markets could absorb, increasing pressure on employment, contracts, and social insurance.
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Better Jobs for Mothers, More Sons at Birth
Women's labor-market gains are often expected to favor daughters. This paper shows why they can instead intensify male-biased sex selection when son preference remains strong and childcare is primarily maternal. We develop a household model in which maternal wage gains raise the time cost of childbearing, lower fertility, and increase sex selection, even as higher female returns narrow gender gaps in education. We test these predictions in Vietnam using industry-level tariff cuts from the 2001 US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, assigning exposure separately to mothers and fathers. Maternal exposure increases male birth probability and reduces fertility. Paternal exposure raises fertility but does not affect sex selection. These contrasts distinguish the maternal time-cost mechanism from income and paternal-side explanations, suggesting that closing gender gaps in labor markets and education can widen gender gaps at birth when mothers bear most childcare responsibilities.