Demand for arable farmland is growing globally. The need for land-based products, such as food, feed, biofuels, and timber, as well as conservation efforts to preserve biodiversity and create carbon sinks, is driving intense competition over finite land resources. A key challenge facing humanity...

The study of political dynasties emerged from the seminal work by Dal Bo et al. (2009). Since then, the literature has focused on showing how incumbency advantage gave rise to political dynasties due to access to resources, name recognition and social networks. Political dynasties were shown to...

The United States economy has undergone profound changes over the past half century. The earlier manufacturing-based economy — paired with abundant cheap housing, the presence of strong unions, and affordable education — provided a pathway for Americans to secure a comfortable life. Poorer...

This dissertation lies at the intersection of environmental economics and development economics. It includes three essays that empirically examine the effects of climate change and extreme weather events on agriculture in both developed and developing countries.The first essay explores how the...

1. I develop a two-city model to explain a new stylized fact: high-income cities specialize in income-elastic sectors. The model has heterogeneous income elasticities and mobile agents, and either heterogeneous fundamental productivities or heterogeneous amenities generate the specialization...

In the first chapter, I provide a theory that links automation to the top income inequality. I construct a model in which managing labor is harder than managing capital. Hence, an improvement in automation enables entrepreneurs to scale up their production. This leads highly productive...