Research

The Impact of Remote Work on Women’s Labor Market Share (Job Market Paper)

Abstract: This paper examines whether remote work can improve women’s representation in the U.S. labor market. Using data from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) and job postings, I estimate the causal effects of changes in remote work share on the female share among new hires and in the workforce. To identify these effects, I employ two strategies: a difference-in-differences (DID) framework augmented with double machine learning (DML), and an instrumental variable (IV) approach. The results show that transitioning jobs from fully on-site to arrangements that include remote working days would raise the female share of new hires by about 10 percentage points and the overall female workforce share by about 6 percentage points. These gains are persistent over time and particularly pronounced in male-dominated industries. The findings highlight remote work as a promising mechanism for advancing gender equity in the labor market and mobilizing greater female labor force participation.

The Effects of Automation on Population Mobility (Working Paper)

Abstract: This paper studies the effects of automation on the geographic mobility of the working-age population in the U.S. between 1987 to 2020. I exploit cross-commuting zone variation in the exposure to automation and address the endogeneity with a Bartik-style measure. The findings of this study highlight distinct effects of different types of automation on migration. On the whole, automation exposure correlates with a decrease in population growth. While this effect is not significant when using the automation-driven labor share decline as a comprehensive measure encompassing all automation technologies, more significant impacts are observed when examining specific automation types. A one standard deviation increase in exposure to software automation significantly reduces population growth by 0.709 percentage points. Similarly, a one standard deviation increase in machinery automation exposure leads to a significant 0.684 percentage point decrease in population growth.

Research in Progress:

Richard Funderburg, Tong Ye, and Chen Xie, “Trip Distribution Post-Pandemic and Disparate Impacts of Work from Home on Demands for Transit Services in Chicago: Evaluating Mobility Network Patterns from Cellphone Tracing Data.”

Richard Funderburg, Kerry Fang, David Merriman, Josh Drucker,and Tong Ye, “Employment Center Evolution and Illinois’s Economic Vibrancy.”

Marcus Casey and Tong Ye, “Gender Gaps in Housing Tenure Choice across Cities.”