Research

Using a staggered installation of sanitary pad vending machines across schools in the Indian state of Kerala, we study the impacts of free monthly access to sanitary pads on girls’ educational outcomes. We find that the number of dropouts among female students in the 7th - grade decrease by 24 percentage points and the attendance rate increases by 23 percentage points after the treatment. Our results are mainly driven by girls in backward-caste, rural schools, and public schools, supporting the idea that free distribution of sanitary pads alleviates cost of obtaining sanitary pads.

All-cash transactions and their associated price discounts in the housing market have increased following the Great Financial Crisis. We document that cash discounts vary substantially across property price levels, with the largest discounts occurring in the lowest-priced properties, and explore the influence of credit supply on these discounts. Using the expansion of enforcement actions on mortgage fraud post-GFC as an instrument for local small credit supply, we find that a one-percentage-point decrease in small loan approvals increases cash discounts by 8.4%. The impact is larger in low-cost houses and disadvantaged communities. The results point to the cause for the observed overall decrease in relative prices for low-cost houses, highlighting the importance of small loan availability for wealth-building through homeownership among lower-income households.

Governments allocate substantial resources to regulate the environmental consequences of industrial activity, while little is known about the economic value associated with such oversight. We fill this gap by documenting a 1.1% increase in US housing values following the establishment of a nearby monitoring station. This positive price effect is attributable to improvements in air quality as we demonstrate a 46.7% reduction in toxic emissions and a 2.6% decrease in the number of industrial facilities in the area subject to additional monitoring. Conservative estimates suggest that the value of new monitoring stations exceeds $52 billion.

Toxic pollutants generated by industrial facilities increase by 23 thousand pounds, or 9.8%, in years with more frequent severe weather events. These increased emissions are released on-site, imposing pollution risks to nearby communities. Furthermore, abnormal weather increases mortality from pollution-related diseases by 0.2%. These climate-induced pollution risks are priced in property transactions: values of houses within 1 mile of a facility decrease by 3.6% to 6.1% for a one-standard-deviation increase in the average number of severe weather events in the past years. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that climate-induced pollution risks cost an annual loss of $246 million in property values.

We examine the impact of mobile network connections on schooling decisions and academic performance in primary schools, utilizing the nationwide installations of telecommunication infrastructure across India. Our findings indicate a 1.4% increase in student enrollments following the treatment, with these effects exhibiting growth for subsequent cohorts. Further analyses exploring heterogeneity at the caste level reveal larger treatment effects among lower-caste students in upper primary education (Grades 6-8), urban and private schools, and villages with a higher share of marginal workers, providing suggestive evidence that mobile network connections contribute to enhanced economic outcomes, thereby promoting educational attainment among marginalized children. 

Real estate markets are highly vulnerable to inflows of illicit wealth. The clandestine nature of dark money makes these activities difficult to detect and estimate. We exploit offshore data leaks – the Panama Papers – to study how associated individuals behave in housing transactions occurring in Singapore. We find that buyers linked to offshore secrecy pay a premium of 3.8% in their property purchases. The premium is linked to these individuals’ motive to secretly park funds in a safe haven via properties. We explore two policy shocks and find that property prices paid by these individuals decreased by 5.5% after the cross-border cash movement policy was imposed in 2007 and by 2.7% after the new Estate Agents Regulations were implemented in 2010. We also find positive spillover effects of Panama-linked property purchases driving up property prices for the same projects and neighborhoods by 5.1% and 7.3%, respectively. A back-of-the-envelope analysis shows an aggregate estimate of illicit wealth for Singapore’s housing market of up to S$3.72 billion per year on average.

When Landlords Falter: Exploring the Broader Implications for Corporate Performance, with Yifan Chen and Liang Peng