News: I’m giving the keynote at the EFA 2026.
Yufeng Wu, Kairong Xiao and I study the effects of central bank digital currency on bank lending. CBDC boosts banks funding costs but the effect on lending is muted. Bank lending is more responsive to monetary policy when there is a CBDC. The paper is here.
Sam
Antill, Murat Celik, Xu Tian and I ask how patent litigation affects innovation. We build and estimate a dynamic model where firms innovate and may sue one another for patent infringement. The model shows that litigation can either encourage or discourage innovation, depending on which firms bring lawsuits and why. We use it to study past and proposed reforms and find that defendant-friendly reforms increase innovation, growth, and welfare.
Sam
Antill, Xu Tian and I ask how litigation risk shapes corporate behavior? We build and estimate a dynamic capital structure model where firms can boost short-run profits by taking actions that increase future legal risk. The model shows that highly leveraged firms may take too much risk because bankruptcy lets them shift some of the costs onto creditors and victims. Reforms that give tort victims stronger protection in bankruptcy raise equity values and benefit plaintiffs .
Paul Borochin, Murat Celik, Xu Tian, and I have a new paper on event studies! Without using data on firm characteristics, we estimate heterogeneity in the impact of aggregate events. This picture is an application to the TCJA.
Me having fun!
Me working!