Working Papers
Space and Cyberspace: The Impact of Food Delivery Platforms on Retail Real Estate (job market paper)
As consumers switch to online food ordering, do retail spaces become more or less valuable? Food delivery platforms (FDPs) may increase the quantity of restaurant meals demanded but also shift meal consumption to people’s homes. These two forces have countervailing impacts on restaurants’ demand for retail space. Using a staggered differences in differences empirical strategy, exploiting the geographic rollout of FDPs across the United States, I demonstrate that FDP entry increased the demand for retail space. FDP entry increases the number of retailers by 2.1%, with this demand growth resulting in a 1.0% increase in retail rents and a 0.7% increase in property values. The supply of retail floorspace is highly inelastic. Taken together, these results suggest that the value generated by the FDP-induced demand shock is captured by landlords rather than by the retailers themselves, consistent with the classic Ricardian Theory of Rent.
National Road Upgrading and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Ugandan Households
with Ian Herzog (University of Guelph) and Yue Yu (University of Toronto) | Under review
Sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing, but a significant portion of the urban population still works in agriculture. We argue that this is because smaller cities are isolated from national markets and trade. We test this claim using individual panel data and Uganda’s doubling of paved roads, which improved remote areas’ market access. We find that market access causes workers to quit family farms for specialized paid employment outside of agriculture. Effects concentrate in peripheral areas, households with comparative advantage in off-farm work, and reflect off-farm opportunities rather than a reduced demand for farm output. We also find that market access leads remote households to simplify farming techniques and scale back farming. Findings are consistent with reliable transport enabling trade with major markets, creating opportunities to specialize according to comparative advantage.
Ripple Effects of Deregulating Startup Investment with Entrepreneurial Spillovers
with Zijun Cheng (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) and Ruichi Xiong (Wuhan University)
Regulatory constraints in the financial markets of developing countries often hinder firm entry and growth by distorting investment decisions. Such distortions can be particularly detrimental for startups, as early-stage inefficiencies may have long-lasting effects on their performance. This paper examines the impact of China’s 2006 Company Law reform, which significantly lowered the minimum registered capital requirement for firm incorporation, effectively deregulating startup investments. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the reform led to a larger increase in firm entry in industries previously more constrained by the capital threshold compared to less affected industries. Further analysis reveals a substantial positive impact on firms below the pre-reform threshold, a large negative effect at the threshold, and a modest positive effect above it. These heterogeneous effects point to positive spillovers between small and large firms. The reform also promoted greater co-location of firms across capital thresholds, indicating that agglomeration effects from the influx of smaller firms contributed to the growth of larger firms. Finally, we show that the reform improved startup survival rates, particularly for those whose investments were likely distorted by the pre-reform regulations but were normalized afterward.
Draft coming soon!
Working in Progress
Why Urban Villages Persist Near the City Center? Evidence from Shenzhen Special Economic Zone
The persistence of urban villages in city centers, despite high land values, presents a puzzle for urban economics. This paper argues that high existing building density is the key factor deterring their redevelopment. To test this, I first analyze the institutional background of urban renewal in Shenzhen, China, clarifying the roles of developers, landowners, and the government. I then construct a parcel-level dataset to document the spatial and temporal patterns of these villages and their impact on local property values. Building on this empirical evidence, I develop a redevelopment model that endogenizes the choice of post-redevelopment building density. The model shows that for the most centrally located villages, their current density is already so high that redevelopment offers little additional profit. This finding explains the slow pace of redevelopment and the continued existence of urban villages in prime locations.
Do Human Users Correct AI-Created Stereotypes in Practice?
with Sijie Lin (University of Toronto) and Ruiqi Sun (Hong Kong University)