Working Papers

Creditor Rights, Household Consumption, and Entrepreneurial Activity

Job Market Paper

This paper establishes that creditor rights affect entrepreneurial activity through a novel channel of consumer access to credit. Causal inference is based on the staggered adoption of state laws restricting third-party debt collection, with refined identification obtained by comparing similar counties along state borders. Using detailed household-level data, I show that consumers in states with weakened creditor rights exhibit reduced spending relative to nearby peers. Consistent with reduced consumer demand, further analyses based on confidential establishment-level data from the U.S. Census document that businesses in law-shocked states experience lost revenue, especially for non-tradable goods and discretionary purchases, as well as reduced employment and payroll.

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

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, Scheduled)

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?