Working Papers
'Some Bonuses are Bigger than Others? Earnings Pressure and the Gender Pay Gap' Job Market Paper
Abstract: This paper examines the gendered effect of financial pressures on employee compensation, focusing on managers’ pressure to meet earnings expectations. Using UK subsidiary-level data from 2017–2021, I find that the gender bonus gap increases by 4.23 percentage points in firms just meeting analyst forecasts, compared to those missing or comfortably beating expectations, even after controlling for job roles. To strengthen causal inference, I exploit an exogenous decline in analyst coverage following the MiFID II reform and confirm my results in a triple-differences design. Drawing on Tilly’s (1998) theory, I submit that managers may disproportionally reduce bonuses for women to achieve earnings targets when institutional constraints are weak. Consistent with this view, the effect is only observed in firms with weaker reputational (poor ESG ratings), organizational (fewer than three female directors), and regulatory (no prior labor violations) constraints.
Presented at 2024 AFA Annual Meeting Poster Session, 2024 AAA Annual Meeting, and the University of Manchester.
Status: Revise and Resubmit, the Accounting Review.
'Diversity, Interrupted? Diversity Hushing and Political Pressure' with Namisha Bhattarai and Tendai Masaya
Abstract: We document diversity hushing, an underexplored form of strategic decoupling in which firms reduce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) communication while maintaining internal DEI practices. We exploit the staggered filing of U.S. state-level anti-DEI lawsuits over 2022–2024 as plausibly exogenous shocks to firms’ local political environment. Firms with a history of DEI disclosure reduce both the likelihood of DEI-related mentions in disclosures by 20 percent and their volume by 16 percent, while their internal DEI efforts, measured through external assessment scores, workforce diversity, and job posting language, appear to be unchanged. We further test market reactions to hushing during heightened nationwide attention to DEI in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action and find that investors respond negatively to hushing. Overall, our findings extend the static interpretation of diversity washing and highlight the role of political sentiment in shaping corporate DEI strategies.
Presented at the 2025 Haskayne and Fox Accounting Conference, 2026 European Accountin Association Congress, 2026 Mediterranean Accounting Conference, and the University of Warwick.
'A Patent of One’s Own: The Real Effects of Pay Transparency Mandates on Women in Innovation' with Lu Tong and Fengzhi Zhu
Abstract: We examine whether mandatory pay-transparency regulation influences women’s participation in innovation. When women are absent from invention teams, research priorities shift away from conditions that disproportionately affect women. Using the UK’s gender pay gap (GPG) disclosure mandate as a quasi-natural experiment, we compare firms exposed to the mandate with otherwise similar firms below the reporting threshold. We find that treated firms increase the share of female inventors by 0.84 percentage points, a 59 percent increase relative to the pre-mandate mean. Greater female inventor presence after the mandate is associated with increases in patent quantity, citation-based quality, grant rates, and knowledge breadth. Most notably, high-female firms produce higher shares of female-oriented inventions, suggesting that disclosure regulation can redirect technological progress toward historically underserved populations. Overall, we provide novel evidence that non-financial disclosure mandates can broaden the inventive frontier.
Presented at the 2026 European Accounting Association Congress, 2026 Annual RCF-ECGI conference (scheduled).
Works in Progress
'Jagged Little Patent' with Muskan Chawla
Awarded the 2026 Canadian SSHRC Insight Development Grant.
'Manic Monday: School Closures and Female Employment' with Joshua Khavis, Thomas Steffen, and Brandon Szerwo.
' Another Suitcase in Another Hall?' with Sebastian Tideman-Frappart
''Expertise in a Cold Climate' with Philip Joos and Raffaele Manini
‘In the Air Tonight: Accounting-driven Increased Pollution and Respiratory Morbidity’ with Asanish Kalyanasundaram
'With a Little Help from Her Friends? Gendered Networks and ESG Governance' with Ainara González de San Román, Maud Pindard-Lejarraga, and Jose Lejarraga.
‘Paint it, Concrete: A New Method of Measuring Specificity’ with Chi Ian Tang