Research

PUBLICATIONS

“Firms for Funding: The Effect of Million Dollar Plants on School Finances and Student Achievement” (w/ Viviana Rodriguez) Journal of Urban Economics 149 (September).

Abstract: We study the impact of large firm entry on local public education by comparing school districts in counties that win a Million Dollar Plant (MDP) to runner-up counties. Winning an MDP increases school district revenues by approximately 3%, primarily through higher local property tax collections. While total per pupil revenue rises modestly, we find gains in instructional spending and small improvements in test scores. Effects vary by firm type: manufacturing MDPs are associated with greater capital outlays but limited achievement gains, whereas high-tech MDPs see increased instructional spending and improved proficiency. Districts with MDPs in highly educated industries exhibit larger increases in instructional spending and student outcomes, even when overall revenue gains are similar.

WORKING PAPERS

“Does Goliath Help David? Anchor Firms and Startup Clusters”

Abstract: Does attracting a “Goliath” firm to a county anchor the growth of regional industry clusters? Matching a hand-collected dataset of major corporate site selection contests to restricted- and public-use U.S. Census data, I show that winning a “Million Dollar Plant” (MDP) increases employment in input–output-linked industries by 6.7% relative to runner-up counties. This growth is driven by startup formation: employment in the MDP’s supply chain industries becomes 0.71% more concentrated in young firms. Startups founded after the MDP announcement grow 12.3% faster and are 6.8% less likely to fail within five years. Entrepreneurial gains are concentrated among high-wage, industry-experienced local workers.

“Who Benefits from Million Dollar Plants? The Missing Local Beneficiaries”” (w/ Saheel Chodavadia, William Kerr, and Stephen Ross)

Abstract: We study who receives jobs in the industries catalyzed by Million Dollar Plants (MDPs) during 2000-2015. Comparing winning versus runner-up counties, people working the winning county are on average 1.2% more likely to work in the MDP’s four-digit industry compared to the runner-up. This effect takes about nine years post MDP announcement to materialize. Surprisingly, however, there is no employment effect for the initial residents of the winning county compared to runner-up counties; nor do we observe any other difference in economic benefits. These results suggest MDPs generate the promised jobs but source their workforce from outside the winning county.

“Frictions for Firms in the New Geography of Innovation” (w/ Xian Jiang and William Kerr)

Abstract: While the rise in the spatial concentration of U.S. invention in a narrow set of cities is well documented (e.g., Kerr and Robert-Nicoud, 2020), we explore the role of housing price differentials on the concentration of inventor migration across a few cities following the software boom and prominent R&D lab collapses. We document that the rise in concentration was largely fueled by a rise in software and digital technology that forced firms to re-organize their R&D spatial footprint across cities with increasingly disparate housing price trajectories. Our estimates suggest that inventors in cities facing technological displacement are 8.15% more likely to continue patenting if housing prices double. Interestingly, we find ex ante software experience prior to a lab collapse does not insulate a patent inventor from falling out of the set of active U.S. inventors relative to their non-software lab colleagues in the same technology field.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

Multinationals, Greenfield Investment, and the Environment (w/ Xian Jiang, Haruka Takayama, and Mahdi Shams)