Working Papers

When Debt Relief Hits Main Street: Evidence from Consumer Credit Channel

Using administrative U.S. Census data, this paper investigates how weakened creditor rights, designed to offer consumer debt relief, create unintended economic spillovers by restricting consumer credit access. Leveraging staggered adoptions of third-party debt collection restrictions and granular household data, I show that consumers in states with weakened creditor rights reduce credit card spending relative to nearby peers. Consistent with reduced consumer demand, further analyses based on confidential establishment-level data document that businesses in affected states experience lost revenue, especially for nontradable goods and discretionary purchases, as well as reduced employment and payroll. The findings highlight that, beyond the firm borrowing channel, creditor rights shape local business activity through a novel demand-side channel of consumer credit access.  

Presented: AFA (2026, Scheduled), NFA (2025, Scheduled), SFA (2025, Scheduled), Goizueta Doctoral Research Conference (2024), Emory University (2024), 20th Annual WashU Finance Conference (Ph.D. Session with Award 2024), Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (2024)

Corporate Behavior When Running the Firm for Stakeholders: Evidence from Hospitals

With Christoph Herpfer and Gonzalo Maturana

Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Financial Economics

We study how stakeholder orientation impacts firm management and performance. We exploit state-level law changes governing the conversion of hospitals from nonprofit to for-profit and find that for-profit orientation reduces hospital spending on emergency rooms and Medicaid patients, while increasing focus on revenue and affecting investment decisions. Consistent with spillovers, nonprofit hospitals located near converting hospitals experience increased emergency room visits and expenditures. We investigate governance channels that align corporate behavior with stakeholders and find that converted for-profit hospitals adjust their boards by replacing MDs with MBAs, and that the tax code is a major source of governance for nonprofits.

Presented: FRA Early Ideas session (2021), University of Connecticut Finance Conference (2023), MSUFCU Conference (2023), NFA (2023), WFA (2024), AFA (2025), SFS Cavalcade (2025)

Work in Progress 

The Real Effect of Medical Debt Protection: Evidence from Municipal Bonds (Updated draft coming soon)

Main findings: Greater medical debt protection increases the yields of municipal bonds issued by hospitals.

Internal Capital Allocation within Nonprofits Firms: Winner Picking or Subsidization?