Research

Here you will find my current and past research projects.

Publications

Do Fiscal Transfers Affect Local Democracy? Lessons from Chilean Municipalities (with Carla Alberti and Diego Díaz) Latin American Politics and Society, Volume 65 , Issue 4 , November 2023.

• Abstract
  Extant literature concurs that fiscal transfers affect local democracy when they grant subnational governments nontax revenue. Yet there is nonetheless a mismatch between this concept and existing measures, which consider the whole transfers local governments receive, including both tax and nontax revenue. This article studies the Fondo Común Municipal (FCM), the most important intergovernmental grant in Chile, and provides a novel measure of nontax revenue. It uses this measure alongside the whole FCM transfer to test the rentier hypothesis. On the one hand, it shows that both measures increase the incumbent party vote share, although the effect of our measure is smaller. On the other hand, it finds that the FCM transfer has an impact on the probability of reelection and the competitiveness of elections, but this effect disappears when using our measure. Overall, the findings suggest that rents from transfers do not lead to strong electoral dominance in unitary states.

Medium-run Local Economic Effects of a Major Earthquake (with Paula Aguirre, Kenzo Asahí, Diego Díaz and Rodrigo Valdés) Journal of Economic Geography, Volume 23, Issue 2, March 2023.

• Abstract
  Existing research is inconclusive regarding the longer-term economic effects of earthquakes. We examine the medium-run impacts of the 2010 earthquake in Chile, the sixth largest ever recorded, using value-added tax collection as a proxy for economic activity at the municipal level and a measure of local ground-shaking intensity. We find that the affected municipalities suffered a relevant and persistent drop in their economic activity of about ten percent, eight to nine years after the event. We discuss the plausibility of the assumption of conditional parallel trends and show that the overall results are robust to using alternative estimation methods.
• Replication Files

Working Papers

Made with AI: Consumer Engagement with Social Media Containing AI Disclosures (with Steve Carney and Stephanie Tully). (R&R Journal of Consumer Research)

• Abstract
  Social media shapes how people connect, communicate and consume information. As generative artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an increasingly common tool for content creation, many platforms have introduced disclosure requirements to inform consumers when content has been created or significantly edited by AI. Yet, little is known about how such AI-generated content (AIGC) disclosures influence consumer engagement—a key metric for creators, platforms, and brands—in part due to the unique setting of social media relative to other examinations of responses to AI. This research examines whether and why AIGC disclosures affect engagement on social media. Analysis of engagement behavior on TikTok following the introduction of AIGC disclosures and six preregistered experiments find that disclosures reduce consumer engagement. This reduction does not stem from content-related explanations such as lower perceived quality or concerns about manipulation. Instead, we identify a novel process: AIGC disclosures reduce parasocial connection—one-sided emotional bonds between consumers and creators—by signaling reduced effort from the creator. As such, disclosures that signal greater effort can mitigate reductions in engagement. We discuss the implications of these findings for platform policy, content creator strategy, and the future design of AI disclosure practices.

Politics in Aisle 3: Whether and How Brand Sociopolitical Involvement Shapes Customer Store Visits (with Tal Shoshani and Lan Luo). (Submitted)

• Abstract
  We examine how brands’ sociopolitical involvement affects customer store visits. We assemble a unique, large-scale dataset that combines granular weekly foot traffic for approximately 150,000 U.S. stores operated by 47 major brands from 2018–2022 with detailed local demographic and presidential election data to characterize store neighborhoods and visitors. We then use Google News to identify instances of sociopolitical involvement associated with these brands, spanning issues such as firearm regulation, race, and sexual orientation, and arising from either corporate actions or employee behavior. To estimate the impact of each event, we apply a Synthetic Difference-in-Differences model combined with Coarsened Exact Matching, comparing foot traffic at affected versus unaffected brands' stores. On average, sociopolitical involvement leads to a 0.8% decline in store visits, with substantial heterogeneity across events. Corporate-initiated actions tend to generate more variable and less negative responses than employee-triggered incidents. Moreover, brands’ subsequent responses—such as public apologies or employee training initiatives—appear to attenuate negative consumer reactions. Three case studies further show that these effects vary systematically with store neighborhood characteristics, including political preferences and racial composition. To our knowledge, this study is among the first large-scale empirical research to examine the effects of brands’ sociopolitical involvement on consumer store visits.

Research in Progress

Sharing the Road: The Effect of Micromobility Infrastructure on Retail Store Visits (with Lan Luo).

• Abstract
  This study investigates the impact of bikeway expansions on retail foot traffic in Los Angeles and Seattle from 2021 to 2023. Using detailed foot traffic data and bikeway expansion information, we use a fixed-effects model to estimate changes in store visitation due to changes in bikeway proximity. Our results indicate that bikeways increase monthly foot traffic by 3.1% to 4.1% for nearby businesses. These findings highlight the importance of tailoring urban planning to the diverse needs of retail sectors and underscore the economic potential of micromobility investments in revitalizing urban retail environments.

Inactive Papers

Heterogeneous effects of Lengthening the School Day on Students’ Academic Achievement: a Longitudinal Study of Full Day School Reform in Chile (with Dante Contreras and Ignacio Lepe). This paper is based on my Master’s Thesis.

• Abstract
  This paper studies the effects of a large and gradual increase in the Chilean school day over students' academic achievement. We exploit a gradual and exogenous variation produced by the reform with an innovative measure of exposure to longer school day treatment. Using longitudinal data at an individual level and a fixed-effects strategy, we find that in the long run, this reform had no relevant effect on students’ standardized test scores nor higher education enrollment. However, this paper found heterogeneous response to additional instructional time by gender, type of school, and socioeconomic status. These results are robust to the inclusion of several covariates and insensible to the cohort selection.