Research
Working Papers
From Long to Short: How Interest Rates Shape Life Insurance Markets with Ziang Li
Latest Update: January, 2025
As a percentage of GDP, the life insurance market has shrunk since the financial crisis. We argue that this was largely due to an increase in the interest rate risk exposure of variable annuity issuers. To hedge this risk, exposed insurers substituted away from long duration to short duration policy issuance, leading to a net decline in aggregate issuance and, over time, a decline in aggregate insurance in force. We present a model of product market hedging that captures these empirical patterns.
Selected Conference Presentations:Â
Priced Out: Rent Control, Wages, and Inequality with Isaac Hacamo, Geraldo Cerqueiro, and Pedro Raposo
Latest Update: December, 2024
Rent control can improve labor market outcomes by giving workers access to high quality labor markets. Removing rent control leads to out-migration from the city center and reduced wages for low-skill workers due to high commuting costs. Using a quantitative urban model, we find that transfer policies can improve welfare relative to rent control policies, but if designed poorly, can exacerbate labor market disparities.
Selected Conference Presentations: AREUEA-ASSA Meetings (2025)
National Pricing and the Geography of U.S. Life Insurers
Latest Update: November, 2024.
Previously circulated as "Equal Prices, Unequal Access: The Effects of National Pricing in the U.S. Life Insurance Industry"
Using a structural model of multi-region life insurers, I find that national pricing distorts the allocation of life insurance services across geographic regions, exacerbating spatial inequality for low-income households.
Selected Conference Presentations: NBER Insurance Working Group Meeting (2024) - AFA Annual Meeting (2025) - Northeastern University Finance Conference (05/2025)
Banks in Space with Ezra Oberfield, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, and Nicholas Trachter
Latest Update: March, 2024
Bank branch networks feature spatial sorting driven by span of control concerns, balance sheet mismatch, and geographic distance. We build a model of multi-branch banks that captures these characteristics and verify the predictions of the model using the geographic deregulation of the US banking industry as a laboratory.
Selected Conference Presentations: Barcelona Summer Forum (2024)* - Society for Economic Dynamics Annual Meeting (2024)* - NBER Summer Institute, International Trade & Investment Workshop (2024)* - Minnesota Macro Conference (2024)* - NFA Annual Meeting (2024) - USC Macro-Finance Conference (2025)
*: co-author presentation