Research

I document that entrepreneurial hours are highly dispersed, and that entrepreneurs who work fewer hours operate smaller and less capitalized businesses. I extend the standard entrepreneur-worker occupational choice model with collateral constraints to include heterogeneous preferences for leisure and complementarity between entrepreneurial hours and hired labor. The model reproduces observed correlation between hours, entrepreneurial size, and assets, and reveals that the welfare impact of credit expansion depends on how entrepreneurs value leisure. Ignoring heterogeneity in leisure preferences overstates average welfare gains by more than 20 percent.

This paper examines whether the lifetimes of consumer durables have declined over time and investigates the underlying drivers. Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) and the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), we document a shortening of appliance lifespans alongside falling relative prices. We develop and calibrate a quantitative model of household replacement decisions to decompose these trends into supply-side (technological depreciation, planned obsolescence) and demand-side (price and income effects) forces. Preliminary results suggest that both faster depreciation and declining relative prices contribute significantly to reduced durability, with technological changes accounting for roughly half of the decline in the share of older appliances.

I study how differences in time allocation and preferences influence women’s entry into entrepreneurship and subsequent business growth. Using data from the Current Population Survey and 2007 Survey of Business Owners, I show that married women with children engage in a higher proportion of non-market activities as compared to their single counterparts. This disparity in time allocation contributes to significant variations in economic outcomes, both across genders and within the female demographic. I develop a quantitative model that examines the effects of gender asymmetry in non-market activities on occupational choice and business performance, highlighting the complex relationship between gender, non-market activities, and entrepreneurial outcomes.