Research

Working Papers

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"

SSRN

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)


Banks in Space with Ezra Oberfield, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, and Nicholas Trachter

Latest Update: March, 2024

SSRN

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 (09/2024) - USC Macro-Finance Conference (2025)

*: co-author presentation

Works in Progress

Interest Rate Risk Management and Life Insurance Supply with Ziang Li