Research

Foreign Accents and Employer Beliefs: Experimental Evidence on Hiring Discrimination, with Ozlem Tonguc, Maria Zhu and Nicola Miller (under review)

Abstract: This study investigates whether employers in an online hiring experiment discriminate against workers with accents that indicate English is not their primary language. We implement a randomized design in which participants acting as employers are assigned to one of two conditions: a treatment in which the worker’s accent is revealed (“Accent Revealed”) or a control in which it is masked (“Accent Blind”). Using incentive-compatible methods, we elicit employers’ beliefs about the productivity of randomly assigned workers across two domains—mathematics and verbal reasoning—based on brief demographic information and audio clips. We find that employers rate accented workers as less capable than non-accented workers in both skills, and this gap persists after they receive a signal about the worker’s true productivity. Employers also exhibit lower willingness to pay for accented workers, particularly in verbal reasoning tasks, even when performance signals are provided.

The Skills of Rich and Poor Country Workers, with David Slichter and Daniela Monge (under review)

Abstract: What specific types of skills – e.g., scientific knowledge, math, or social skills – do workers raised in rich countries have that workers from poor countries lack? We investigate using information on occupation choices of immigrants. To an approximation, rich country workers are better at exactly those skills which are well-compensated in the U.S. economy, and in proportion to how well-compensated those skills are. Specifically, this means that rich country workers have the greatest advantages in skills related to the ability to generate new ideas (e.g., creativity and critical thinking), and that rich country workers’ skills align especially closely with the skills used in management occupations. Lastly, we find that workers from rich countries are more varied in their skills (e.g., what one Canadian is good at is different from what another Canadian is). These findings do not appear to be accounted for by the non-randomness of immigration or mismeasurement of skills. Our results are consistent with the view that international differences in skills arise primarily in response to differences in demand for skills.

The Effect of Fertility on Women's Employment: Heterogeneity by Gender Norms (revise & resubmit)

Abstract: This paper examines whether the effect of fertility on women's employment varies with gender norms. I analyze employment responses to childbearing among women in the United States (US), contrasting US-born and immigrant women and, among immigrants, those from less and more gender-egalitarian countries of origin. The variable of interest, having more than two children, is instrumented using the sex composition of the first two children. The findings indicate that women from all countries experience a reduction in employment in response to having more than two children. Although the correlation results show quantitatively similar coefficients across groups, the instrumental variable analysis indicates that this effect is quantitatively larger for women from less gender-egalitarian countries. Consequently, the results suggest that the negative effect of fertility on employment decreases with increased gender egalitarianism.

Lost in the Queue: Government Job Aspirations and Labor Market Outcomes, with Md Shahadath Hossain (under review)

Abstract available upon request

Is “Complexity” Technology or Human Capital?, with David Slichter

Abstract available upon request

Legitimacy-Sensitive Technological Competition, with Jean Baptiste Tondji

Abstract: We investigate how consumer perceptions of the social acceptability of technological implementation and organizational governance practices shape firms’ incentives to adopt advanced technologies. Consumers care about prices, productive efficiency, and whether technological transition is implemented through transparent, accountable, and worker-inclusive organizational arrangements. Firms pursue innovation to escape competition, but socially contested technologies may face legitimacy discounts that reduce innovation rents. Acting as complements under mild conditions, governance and competition jointly determine innovation incentives, market outcomes, and welfare. We illustrate the theory using firm-level data on AI-related disclosure, organizational legitimacy, and financial performance for publicly traded U.S. firms. Consistent with the model’s predictions, firms with stronger legitimacy-preserving organizational arrangements exhibit more favorable economic outcomes during AI-related technological transformation, particularly along labor-relational dimensions. The empirical patterns suggest that stronger governance and organizational legitimacy may substantially increase the economic value of technological innovation.  

• Multigenerational Households and Mothers in the United States

• Government-Job Aspirations, Career Expectations, and Potential Queueing among Bangladeshi Undergraduates, with Md Shahadath Hossain, Nusrat Abedin Jimi and Md Roknuzzaman

• Immigration Enforcement and Multigenerational Households

• The Sound of Authority: Communication Effectiveness and Worker Preferences in Leadership Roles, with Ozlem Tonguc and Maria Zhu

• The Human Capital Cost of Natural Disasters: Evidence from Bunching in Agricultural Damage Costs, with Md Shahadath Hossain and Estiaque Bari

• Eyes on the Virtual Prize: The Impact of Goal Setting on Virtual Learning Engagement, with Carycruz Bueno and Katherine Meyer

• The Impact of a Nonregular Work Schedule on Well-Being, with Xi Mao

Ideas for India: It takes two (terms) to tango: Female leaders and corruption in rural India, with Somdeep Chatterjee and Shiv Hastawala.

UTRGV Center for Border Economic Studies: Occupations, Wages and Artificial Intelligence in the Rio Grande Valley, with Jean-Batiste Tondji and Maroula Khraiche, CBESt Border and Business Briefs (2025), 22 (1), 1-7

UTRGV Center for Border Economic Studies: Private School Vouchers in Texas: Past experience and future consequences, with Jean-Batiste Tondji and Maroula Khraiche, CBESt Border and Business Briefs (2025), 21 (2), 1-6