Job Market Paper
A Welfare Analysis of the WIC Subsidy Program [draft]
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides vouchers for specific foods to improve nutrition among at-risk beneficiaries. While effective, questions remain about optimizing the program to enhance social welfare. I estimates the demand for WIC in the infant formula market using a discrete choice model and Nielsen Consumer Panel Data, focusing on two key aspects: the effect of expanding the variety of WIC-eligible products and the impact of increasing participation among eligible households. I find that the current WIC program significantly benefits participants, with eligible households potentially doubling their consumer surplus upon joining. Furthermore, increasing the variety of WIC-eligible products could lead to a 17% rise in consumer surplus for current participants. This research underscores the critical value of WIC and provides an evaluation of various strategies to improve the program, enabling informed decision-making.
Working Papers
The Price Effects of the Alaska Airline and Virgin America Merger [draft]
I examine the price effects of the merger between Alaska Airlines and Virgin America, focusing on non-stop routes where the two airlines were either in direct or potential competition prior to the merger. Using a Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach, I find that the merger led to an increase in prices on affected routes, particularly on routes where the airlines were potential competitors. The price increase is more pronounced in routes where Alaska Airlines had a higher pre-merger market share. A weighted regression, accounting for passenger volumes, highlights that price effects are stronger in high-volume markets, suggesting that these routes primarily drive the overall price increase. The study finds that price effects remain consistent across various model specifications.
Bride Price as a Consumption Smoothing Method: A Study of Indonesia Households [draft]
Bride price is viewed as a source of income, which can lead to early marriage and even child marriage. The consumption smoothing theory predicts that economic shocks will lower the marriage age of daughters. I examine how bride price affects the age at which daughters in societies where it is prevalent marry, with a focus on the impact of economic shocks. To investigate this relationship, I utilized the Indonesian Family Life Survey, a panel dataset that has not been previously used to study the causal link between economic shocks and daughters’ marriages. Using shock information provided in the data as the main source of variation, the study finds evidence that certain types of shocks decrease the marriage age of daughters.