Working Papers

The Price of Alliance: The Hmong and the CIA's Secret War in Laos 

What are the social and institutional legacies of proxy wars? In 1962, the Geneva Agreement declared Laos neutral, barring any foreign military presence. To circumvent this amid the perceived threat of advancing communism in Southeast Asia, the CIA covertly armed the Hmong—an ethnic group living in the highland areas that the U.S Intelligence considered militarily strategic—to fight on its behalf. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I find that this alliance came at great cost to the Hmong, as evidenced by sharp falls in education that lasted a generation. Furthermore, after the war’s end in 1975, the victorious communist government unleashed a series of retaliatory policies. Ethnolinguistic maps before and after the war reveal sharp territorial diminutions for the Hmong, while aggregate data indicate an accompanying steep decline in their political power. These losses appear to result from sustained postwar displacement, due both to initial flight as well as state-led resettlement programs, relocating Hmong villages to more legible regions. Lastly, recent survey data suggests that Hmong refugees in the U.S. who were directly exposed to the war are significantly more assertive of both their ethnic and American identities, pointing to a possible mechanism through which state suspicion may persist over time.

Federally-Funded Science as Engines of Regional Innovation and Prosperity with Susan Helper and Daniel Shoag 

Can federal science funding spur local innovation and prosperity? After WWII, the U.S. built 16 national labs, mostly outside existing innovation hubs. Compared to runners-up and synthetic controls, we show lab locations experienced lasting boosts in patenting by nearby, unrelated inventors. Spillovers appear in citation patterns and research area shifts. Newly digitized county-level data from 1937–1971 reveal large, heterogeneous economic gains. Matched census records show benefits accrued to both existing and new residents. These findings suggest science funding can shape innovation ecosystems and support broad-based local development.  

Conference Presentations: NBER Placed-Based Policies and Entrepreneurship, Fall 2024; NBER Summer Institute Innovation, Summer 2025.

Is Geography Always Exogenous? Culture and Migration in Southeast Asia (Revise and Resubmit, Explorations in Economic History) 

Studies often trace the roots of various institutions to traditional livelihood practices, which in turn are shaped by the geography or ecology societies inhabit. This paper provides historical evidence in the opposite direction, that pre-existing agricultural practices may sometimes dictate the geography groups migrate to over time. In doing so, however, they also carry with them a bundle of institutions to these new locations. Thus an alternate way to interpret geography's role in historical institutional development is that rather than it being the root cause of endogenous, independent institutional formation, it might instead have an attractive force for pre-existing institutions developed elsewhere but with similar environmental features.  

Consequences of Forced Urbanization via Village Groupings in Mizoram 

This paper examines the impact of a forced urbanization program in Mizoram, India, in response to a guerrilla uprising. Over 500 villages were relocated into one of 103 existing villages called “Grouping Centers” (GCs), while about 110 remained ungrouped. Using a difference-in-differences approach, this study finds lasting population divergence and a reduction in agricultural employment in GCs, alongside increased labor-force participation, suggesting structural change. Furthermore, the availability of amenities in the GCs at baseline played a role in their capacity to absorb refugees, emphasizing the importance of pull factors in successful agglomeration. 

From Tribe to State: A Case of Nagaland  (draft available upon request)

What happens when a state absorbs a historically stateless, tribal society? This paper uses a spatial regression discontinuity design to study the long-run effects of state exposure in a region in northeast India. In the late 19th century the British Empire in the eastern front of India drew an imperial border that divided a tribal people into administered versus un-administered regions. I find that regions falling within the former British administrative border have 14 percentage points higher rates of literacy and 13 percentage points lower share of their labor force in agriculture. Furthermore these gaps do not appear to be converging even into recent years. Looking at channels of persistence, I find that villages in the formerly administered regions also have better public goods provision as measured by road connectivity and school availability. In uncovering deeper channels, I find evidence of the emergence of pro-social traits: those formerly under the British state identify more strongly with non-kin members, reflecting an expansion of the in-group. This paper thus contributes to our understanding of the changes that occur in a society being exposed to a state at the extensive margin.

Conference Presentations: Northwest Development Workshop, U of Oregon 2023; JSDE Seminar, U of Washington, 2023; PacDev, Stanford, 2024.

Work in Progress

The Economic Consequences of a Peace Settlement: Evidence from Northeast India

In 1997, the Government of India signed a ceasefire agreement with an armed group representing an ethnic minority in the state of Manipur. The clauses provided for a mutual cessation of hostilities, with the government suspending counter-insurgency operations and the rebels agreeing not to target security forces. Using a triple difference strategy—comparing villages belonging to the treated group with other ethnic minority villages, across varying distances to state battalion stations, before and after the agreement—I find that economic activity, proxied by night lights, increase in treated villages that lie closer to the stations. This paper therefore contributes to our understanding of peace settlements and their consequences for economic growth. 

The Monsoons and the Origins of the Autocratic State in Southeast Asia

Chiefs, Customs, and Colonies  

Teaching Experience

Instructor

Principles of Macroeconomics, Econ 2130-SU (syllabus), taught three quarters

Introduction to Macroeconomics, Econ 201-UW (syllabus), taught two quarters

Intermediate Macroeconomics, Econ 301-UW (syllabus), taught one quarter

Teaching Assistant

Causal Inference (Econ 488-UW) TA for Dr. Melissa Tartari

Statistical Concepts and Methods for the Social Sciences (CS&SS 221-UW) TA for Dr. William Brown

Introduction to Macroeconomics (Econ 201-UW) TA for Dr. Dennis O'Dea

Introduction to Microeconomics (Econ 200-UW) TA for Dr. Melissa Knox

Economics of Gender (Econ 447-UW) Grader for Dr. Rachel Heath

Medieval England, 1042-1485 (HSTAM 365-UW) TA for Dr. Charity Urbanski