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” Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Urban Economics

Abstract: Does attracting a “Goliath” firm to a county anchor the growth of regional industry clusters? 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-use U.S. Census microdata, I show that winning a “Million Dollar Plant” (MDP) increases startup employment in input–output-linked industries by 49% relative to runner-up counties, while local incumbent firms account for 89% of net supply chain job gains. Post-announcement startups are more numerous but smaller than comparable cohorts in runner-up counties. The two main sources of job creation draw on distinct segments of the local labor market as startups rely disproportionately on immigrant workers whereas local incumbents employ more local workers and neither shows evidence of worker flows from the MDP’s ultimate owner.

“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)