Research

Job Market Paper:

 “Import Competition, Technology, and Job Polarization” examines how rising import competition is reshaping job structures in the U.S. The study finds that import competition plays a significant role in job polarization, challenging the common belief that technology is the primary driver. It also shows that labor-saving technologies affect both middle-wage and high-wage jobs, contrary to the idea that they only impact routine, middle-wage jobs. Despite these challenges, high-wage jobs have grown, mainly due to the increasing demand for skilled labor in expanding industries.

 

Working Papers:

Asset Return Rates, Wealth Inequality, and Sustainable Wealth Effects” explores the role of households’ expected return rates on housing and financial assets in shaping wealth effects. Using a model that links lifetime consumption to available resources (income and wealth), the study shows that households’ responses to expected asset return rates explain variations in wealth effects over time. It also highlights how differences in return rates—driven by unequal wealth distributions—contribute to disparities in wealth effects across different demographic groups in the U.S.

 

Monetary Policy, Oil Price, and Inflationary Expectations: Evidence from China” (co-authored with Rokon Bhuiyan. Presented at the 99th Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International, Seattle, June 2024). We use a recursive VAR model to analyze the impact of monetary policy and oil prices on China’s expected inflation rate, derived from Blanchard-Quah decomposition. Our findings show that monetary policy shocks have a significant effect on expected inflation, while oil price shocks have a smaller impact. The central bank’s response to expected inflation is statistically significant, and the impulse response function suggests that the central bank actively responds to oil price shocks, likely to mitigate their negative economic effects.