PUBLICATIONS
with Ricard Gil, Chun-Yu Ho, and Li Xu, Journal of Law and Economics
This paper investigates the impact of vertical integration and market foreclosure in media markets. Using theater-movie-day-level data from China, we show that integrated theaters charge lower prices, enjoy higher attendance, allocate more screenings, and run their own movies longer than movies of other distributors. Despite these differences, there is no evidence consistent with anticompetitive input and customer foreclosure in integrated theaters. On the one hand, integrated and independent theaters screen the same share of integrated and independent movies. On the other hand, revenue differences between continued theater-owned movies and discontinued independent movies are inconsistent with customer-market-foreclosure motives given existing differences in distribution incentives between integrated and nonintegrated structures. Finally, we estimate a random-coefficient discrete-choice model of movie demand and show that integrated theaters deliver a higher level of utility with integrated movies than with independent movies through the direct effects of lower prices and more screenings.
with Haizhen Lin, forthcoming at RAND Journal of Economics
We study how insurer competition affects premiums for fully-insured plans in the employer-sponsored health insurance market. By utilizing quasi-experimental variations induced by mergers among national insurers, we show that enhanced insurer concentration leads to higher premiums, but there exists substantial heterogeneity. In particular, we find that a 10% increase in insurer concentration increases premiums for mid-sized firms by 1.2% but reduces premiums for large firms by 3.5%. We further explore heterogeneity to shed light on the underlying mechanisms. Lastly, we study other market outcomes and draw policy implications.
In Sickness and in Health Insurance: Gender in Household Benefit Plan Choice
Forthcoming at Journal of Health Economics
I document that households in the United States are more likely to choose health plans offered by the husband’s employer than the wife’s. This gap may reflect gender disparities in employment status, plan quality, or an inherent gender effect. Using a novel identification strategy that holds employment status and plan quality fixed, I find that the gender effect increases the probability of selecting the husband’s plan by 6.3 percentage points.
HEALTH PAPERS
with Brenda Gannon, Aarushi Dhingra, and Phyo Myat Aung, International Journal for Equity in Health
Inequity and Inequality in Utilization of Mental Healthcare in Australia: The Role of the Mental Health Workforce
with Brenda Gannon, Aarushi Dhingra, and Phyo Myat Aung