Marcelo Sacchi de Carvalho

file_download Download CV
Education

PhD Economics UBC, expected August 2023
MSc Economics Universidade de São Paulo 2016
BA Economics Universidade de São Paulo 2012


About

I’m a PhD candidate in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia. I expect to graduate in the summer of 2023. My research interests are in Labour Economics and Applied Microeconomics.

My job market paper uses unique, doubly exogenous variation to disentangle two models of non-competitive labor markets: wage posting and wage bargaining. In other research, I explore the effect of high-quality bosses on other workers, the spread of job information over referral networks, and how multi-product firms progress over the product space.

I will be available for interviews at the 2022 CEEE, the 2022 EEA meeting, and the 2023 ASSA/AEA meeting.


Research

Job Market Paper

We use novel quasi-experimental variation to first test whether firm-specific demand shocks impact wages, then to disentangle predictions coming from wage bargaining and firm upward labor supply (wage posting). We use a unique institutional feature of public procurement auctions in Brazil: the moment in which the auction ends is random. Under this setting, for close auctions in which firms are constantly outbidding each other by incremental amounts, winner and runner-up are as good as randomly assigned. Using this first variation, we find that winning a government contract increases wages. In addition, contract value is higher for auctions that (randomly) end earlier. We use the two sources of exogenous variation combined to disentangle the effect on wages that comes from changes in firm size (wage posting) and the part that comes from changes in contract value holding size constant (bargaining). We find direct evidence of bargaining.
[go to paper]

Working Paper

How does a boss' ability affect their workers' wages? If a high-ability boss induces higher productivity, this effect should be positive. On the other hand, if a good boss is someone who decreases their subordinates' wages, this effect would be negative. I propose an estimator inspired by the peer effects literature, and estimate the effect of bosses' types on other workers' wages in three types of local labour markets. In small town and rural labour markets and in labour markets defined by knowledge-intensive skills, the estimated effect is negative and statistically significant. In the market for low-skilled service sector workers, instead, the effect is small and not statistically significant.
[go to paper]

Work In Progress

We use quasi-random allocation of government contracts as exogenous variation on job creation. We then evaluate whether workers who have connections in firms that are hiring are more likely to (i) change jobs, and (ii) receive higher wages without moving. This is a direct test of exposure to information on job creation.

How can one estimate product complementarity using a large administrative data set? In this research I use data from government contracts that result from procurement auctions to estimate the complementarity between different products from the producer's point of view. A network can be drawn where nodes are products and edges are relative frequencies of products being sold by the same firm. Then, edge weights - how common we observe two products being sold by the same firm - can be thought of as the complementarity between two products. Additionally, by exploring the order in which auctions happen, I can explore the progression of firms over the product space: if it is common for one product to be sold before the other, we can think of the first as a possible steppingstone towards the latter.


Awards

Awards & Fellowships:

  • 2020-2022: President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award
  • 2016-2022: International Tuition Award
  • 2016-2019: Faculty of Arts Graduate Award
  • 2016-2018: Graduate Support Initiative (GSI) Fellowship
  • 2014-2016: CNPq Scholarship

Grants

  • 2019: Centre for Innovative Data in Economics Research (CIDER). Project: “A large procurement auctions data set as a source of identification”

Teaching

  • UBC, Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate Courses:
    • Labour Economics (2020, 2021)
    • Introduction to Empirical Methods (2017, 2019)
    • Introduction to Strategic Thinking (2021)
    • Making Sense of Economic Data (2021)
    • Applied Economics – Stata Support (2019)
    • Wealth and Poverty of Nations (2019)
    • Principles of Microeconomics (2018, 2019)
    • Economic History of Modern Europe (2016, 2017, 2018)
  • Universidade de São Paulo, Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate Courses:
    • Microeconomics (2015)
    • Mathematics for Economists (2015)

Marcelo Sacchi de Carvalho

file_download Download CV
Education

PhD Economics UBC, expected August 2023
MSc Economics Universidade de São Paulo 2016
BA Economics Universidade de São Paulo 2012


About

I’m a PhD candidate in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia. I expect to graduate in the summer of 2023. My research interests are in Labour Economics and Applied Microeconomics.

My job market paper uses unique, doubly exogenous variation to disentangle two models of non-competitive labor markets: wage posting and wage bargaining. In other research, I explore the effect of high-quality bosses on other workers, the spread of job information over referral networks, and how multi-product firms progress over the product space.

I will be available for interviews at the 2022 CEEE, the 2022 EEA meeting, and the 2023 ASSA/AEA meeting.


Research

Job Market Paper

We use novel quasi-experimental variation to first test whether firm-specific demand shocks impact wages, then to disentangle predictions coming from wage bargaining and firm upward labor supply (wage posting). We use a unique institutional feature of public procurement auctions in Brazil: the moment in which the auction ends is random. Under this setting, for close auctions in which firms are constantly outbidding each other by incremental amounts, winner and runner-up are as good as randomly assigned. Using this first variation, we find that winning a government contract increases wages. In addition, contract value is higher for auctions that (randomly) end earlier. We use the two sources of exogenous variation combined to disentangle the effect on wages that comes from changes in firm size (wage posting) and the part that comes from changes in contract value holding size constant (bargaining). We find direct evidence of bargaining.
[go to paper]

Working Paper

How does a boss' ability affect their workers' wages? If a high-ability boss induces higher productivity, this effect should be positive. On the other hand, if a good boss is someone who decreases their subordinates' wages, this effect would be negative. I propose an estimator inspired by the peer effects literature, and estimate the effect of bosses' types on other workers' wages in three types of local labour markets. In small town and rural labour markets and in labour markets defined by knowledge-intensive skills, the estimated effect is negative and statistically significant. In the market for low-skilled service sector workers, instead, the effect is small and not statistically significant.
[go to paper]

Work In Progress

We use quasi-random allocation of government contracts as exogenous variation on job creation. We then evaluate whether workers who have connections in firms that are hiring are more likely to (i) change jobs, and (ii) receive higher wages without moving. This is a direct test of exposure to information on job creation.

How can one estimate product complementarity using a large administrative data set? In this research I use data from government contracts that result from procurement auctions to estimate the complementarity between different products from the producer's point of view. A network can be drawn where nodes are products and edges are relative frequencies of products being sold by the same firm. Then, edge weights - how common we observe two products being sold by the same firm - can be thought of as the complementarity between two products. Additionally, by exploring the order in which auctions happen, I can explore the progression of firms over the product space: if it is common for one product to be sold before the other, we can think of the first as a possible steppingstone towards the latter.


Awards

Awards & Fellowships:

  • 2020-2022: President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award
  • 2016-2022: International Tuition Award
  • 2016-2019: Faculty of Arts Graduate Award
  • 2016-2018: Graduate Support Initiative (GSI) Fellowship
  • 2014-2016: CNPq Scholarship

Grants

  • 2019: Centre for Innovative Data in Economics Research (CIDER). Project: “A large procurement auctions data set as a source of identification”

Teaching

  • UBC, Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate Courses:
    • Labour Economics (2020, 2021)
    • Introduction to Empirical Methods (2017, 2019)
    • Introduction to Strategic Thinking (2021)
    • Making Sense of Economic Data (2021)
    • Applied Economics – Stata Support (2019)
    • Wealth and Poverty of Nations (2019)
    • Principles of Microeconomics (2018, 2019)
    • Economic History of Modern Europe (2016, 2017, 2018)
  • Universidade de São Paulo, Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate Courses:
    • Microeconomics (2015)
    • Mathematics for Economists (2015)

Marcelo Sacchi de Carvalho

Education

PhD Economics UBC, expected August 2023
MSc Economics Universidade de São Paulo 2016
BA Economics Universidade de São Paulo 2012

file_download Download CV
About keyboard_arrow_down

I’m a PhD candidate in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia. I expect to graduate in the summer of 2023. My research interests are in Labour Economics and Applied Microeconomics.

My job market paper uses unique, doubly exogenous variation to disentangle two models of non-competitive labor markets: wage posting and wage bargaining. In other research, I explore the effect of high-quality bosses on other workers, the spread of job information over referral networks, and how multi-product firms progress over the product space.

I will be available for interviews at the 2022 CEEE, the 2022 EEA meeting, and the 2023 ASSA/AEA meeting.

Research keyboard_arrow_down

Job Market Paper

We use novel quasi-experimental variation to first test whether firm-specific demand shocks impact wages, then to disentangle predictions coming from wage bargaining and firm upward labor supply (wage posting). We use a unique institutional feature of public procurement auctions in Brazil: the moment in which the auction ends is random. Under this setting, for close auctions in which firms are constantly outbidding each other by incremental amounts, winner and runner-up are as good as randomly assigned. Using this first variation, we find that winning a government contract increases wages. In addition, contract value is higher for auctions that (randomly) end earlier. We use the two sources of exogenous variation combined to disentangle the effect on wages that comes from changes in firm size (wage posting) and the part that comes from changes in contract value holding size constant (bargaining). We find direct evidence of bargaining.
[go to paper]

Working Paper

How does a boss' ability affect their workers' wages? If a high-ability boss induces higher productivity, this effect should be positive. On the other hand, if a good boss is someone who decreases their subordinates' wages, this effect would be negative. I propose an estimator inspired by the peer effects literature, and estimate the effect of bosses' types on other workers' wages in three types of local labour markets. In small town and rural labour markets and in labour markets defined by knowledge-intensive skills, the estimated effect is negative and statistically significant. In the market for low-skilled service sector workers, instead, the effect is small and not statistically significant.
[go to paper]

Work In Progress

We use quasi-random allocation of government contracts as exogenous variation on job creation. We then evaluate whether workers who have connections in firms that are hiring are more likely to (i) change jobs, and (ii) receive higher wages without moving. This is a direct test of exposure to information on job creation.

How can one estimate product complementarity using a large administrative data set? In this research I use data from government contracts that result from procurement auctions to estimate the complementarity between different products from the producer's point of view. A network can be drawn where nodes are products and edges are relative frequencies of products being sold by the same firm. Then, edge weights - how common we observe two products being sold by the same firm - can be thought of as the complementarity between two products. Additionally, by exploring the order in which auctions happen, I can explore the progression of firms over the product space: if it is common for one product to be sold before the other, we can think of the first as a possible steppingstone towards the latter.

Awards keyboard_arrow_down

Awards & Fellowships:

  • 2020-2022: President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award
  • 2016-2022: International Tuition Award
  • 2016-2019: Faculty of Arts Graduate Award
  • 2016-2018: Graduate Support Initiative (GSI) Fellowship
  • 2014-2016: CNPq Scholarship

Grants

  • 2019: Centre for Innovative Data in Economics Research (CIDER). Project: “A large procurement auctions data set as a source of identification”
Teaching keyboard_arrow_down
  • UBC, Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate Courses:
    • Labour Economics (2020, 2021)
    • Introduction to Empirical Methods (2017, 2019)
    • Introduction to Strategic Thinking (2021)
    • Making Sense of Economic Data (2021)
    • Applied Economics – Stata Support (2019)
    • Wealth and Poverty of Nations (2019)
    • Principles of Microeconomics (2018, 2019)
    • Economic History of Modern Europe (2016, 2017, 2018)
  • Universidade de São Paulo, Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate Courses:
    • Microeconomics (2015)
    • Mathematics for Economists (2015)