Research

Using a unique panel dataset of consumer financial transactions, we find that women invest more in green stocks than men, especially as economic status rises and in regions with equitable norms. These differences reflect climate preferences rather than risk tolerance or portfolio traits and are mirrored in carbon consumption footprints. Women’s preferences are spatially narrow, prioritizing local over global environmental impacts. Quasi-experiments show that women respond more strongly to increased climate-risk awareness, improving investment performance. Overall, the evidence points to intergenerational altruism as a key mechanism and suggests that climate salience activates these preferences in portfolio choices.

We examine how California's 2018 board gender quota affected the supply of future female leadership talent. Using LinkedIn resume data, we find that women in industries further from quota compliance became significantly more likely to pursue an MBA. The increase was stronger among women at higher career stages, from higher-ranked universities, and in industries where MBAs are more associated with board appointments. The effect reversed following the policy's invalidation in May 2022, while we find no evidence of crowding out among men. Our findings offer empirical support that board gender quotas can encourage women's human capital investment, reinforcing affirmative action policies' long-term potential to reduce gender disparities in corporate leadership.

This paper studies how localized public health interventions can cause lasting shifts in consumption behavior, even without direct exposure to the underlying risk. Using transaction-level data from a major Chinese payment platform, we show that hometown mobility restrictions reduce offline spending by 8% even when consumers reside in cities unaffected by the same shock. The effect is larger for older individuals and those from areas with limited medical resources or greater reliance on in-person work, consistent with perceived health risk transmitted through family ties. After restrictions end, offline spending remains below pre-shock levels, while online purchases rise persistently, indicating a lasting change in consumption preferences.

Using data on customer searches and product listings from North America's largest online platform for supplier sourcing, we study supplier responses to demand in the form of entry into the market for COVID-19 products during the recent pandemic. While many suppliers offer products closely related to COVID-19, only a fraction entered the market. We study the effects of government policy on demand responsiveness, measured by searches on the platform for specific products. Firms in states with more fiscal support or search behavior by government agencies respond more to demand, particularly for firms with prior government contract experience. We find that suppliers responded more to demand in states with more flexible procurement practices generally and whose state procurement authorities reduced supplier requirements during the pandemic. In addition, we find firms are more demand-responsive in states with more business-friendly infrastructure (lower taxes, better government IT). These results suggest a strong role for government buying during a pandemic.