Research
Research(s) in Progress:
City Limits: Exploring the relationship between employment and minimum wages using mobile-device location data (Under Review)
Last decade has seen noteworthy local policy decisions, especially a trend in decentralisation of wage determination. Considering local policy changes are aimed at the local areas where boundaries are porous, there is a need for detailed and accurate geographic and time information. Using the establishment location and mobile-device location data by SafeGraph, this study explores how the labor market responds to local minimum wage ordinances. I use the difference-in-differences approach to estimate the effect of increase in minimum wage on the variation in duration of visits at a location which can be used as a proxy to employment hours. I find a decrease in employment hours when there is a proportionate increase in local minimum wage and an increase in distance travelled from home with an increase in minimum wage. The study further demonstrates that the local labor market, especially in the non-tradeable sector, is more responsive to the changes in local minimum wage than the state binded minimum wage changes.
Crossing Borders and Changing Lives: Evaluating the labor market response when local areas change minimum wage (Draft available on request)
The prior literature finds no negative relationship between minimum wage and employment in the U.S., especially for the nontradable industry. The argument hinges on the use of the contiguous region to study the minimum wage variation by controlling for economic shock which might be correlated with the minimum wage changes. I use mobile-device location data to study cross-area movement for labor market zones when local minimum wage changes. I use the spatial and temporal differences in the minimum wages to find the decrease in visits at the establishment located that experienced an increase in minimum wages controlling for the home destination of the visitors. Moreover, this decrease in visits depends on the distance between the destination and the home location of the visitor. Further, I use home Census Block Group (CBG) characteristics to predict the low-wage visitor at an establishment.
Simply can't wait: Evaluating the effect of voluntary employer minimum wage increase on local labor markets.
Estimating the Cost Savings of Tiered Care Coordination for At-Risk Youth: Evidence from North Carolina (With Jeremy Bray, Zubab Moid & Kat Morand)
Estimating the Cost Savings of High-Fidelity Wraparound: Evidence from North Carolina (With Jeremy Bray, Zubab Moid & Kat Morand)