John Barrios - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by John Barrios

Social Science Research Network, 2021

Social Science Research Network, 2022

Social Science Research Network, 2020

Social Science Research Network, 2020

The introduction of the gig economy creates opportunities for would-be entrepreneurs to supplemen... more The introduction of the gig economy creates opportunities for would-be entrepreneurs to supplement their income in downside states of the world, and provides insurance in the form of an income fallback in the event of failure. We present a conceptual framework supporting the notion that the gig economy may serve as an income supplement and as insurance against entrepreneurial-related income volatility, and utilize the arrival of the on-demand, platform-enabled gig economy in the form of the staggered rollout of ridehailing in U.S. cities to examine the effect of the arrival of the gig economy on entrepreneurial entry. The introduction of gig opportunities is associated with an increase of ~5% in the number of new business registrations in the local area, and a correspondingly-sized increase in small business lending to newly registered businesses. Internet searches for entrepreneurship-related keywords increase ~7%, lending further credence to the predictions of our conceptual framework. Both the income supplement and insurance channels are empirically supported: the increase in entry is larger in regions with lower average income and higher credit constraints, as well as in locations with higher ex ante economic uncertainty regarding future wage levels and wage growth.

We examine the relation between financial measurement practices and firm-level productivity. Usin... more We examine the relation between financial measurement practices and firm-level productivity. Using two proprietary data sets, including a comprehensive panel of firm tax returns, we find that financial measurement quality explains 10-20% of the intra-industry dispersion of total factor productivity (TFP), a magnitude similar to that of other structured management practices identified in prior studies. We provide evidence of two mechanisms for this result. First, cross-sectional and panel analyses are consistent with high-quality measurement as a management practice causing higher productivity. Second, using plausibly exogenous differences in misreporting incentives, we show that external auditors attenuate reporting biases in administrative data. Thus we show that a portion of measured productivity heterogeneity is the direct result of reporting differences across firms. While short of identifying causal treatment effects, the economic magnitude of our results suggests that firms' accounting practices are an important area for explaining the vast heterogeneity in reported productivity.

Journal of Operations Management, Sep 12, 2022

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of t... more The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Social Science Research Network, 2020

When hiring new workers, employers often screen large numbers of written applications before sele... more When hiring new workers, employers often screen large numbers of written applications before selecting a subset for more costly, in-person interviews. A large literature suggests that information frictions lead to screening on imperfect quality signals-e.g., educational pedigree and network-based referrals-and that these practices can perpetuate labor-market inequities. In theory, a reduction in the cost of in-person screening could lead to improvements in both efficiency and equity by reducing the use of blunt signals that disadvantage certain groups. We test this hypothesis by studying the introduction of a labor-market intermediary, the Accounting Rookie Camp (ARC), that greatly facilitated in-person screening in the labor market for PhD accountants. Using a novel data set with information on new PhDs, recruiters and market outcomes over 11 years, we estimate difference-indifference models that leverage variation in the timing of ARC adoption. We find that degree program rank and adviser connectedness are strong predictors of initial job placements, but that their impacts are significantly reduced by participation in ARC. The results suggest that the historical returns to program reputation and adviser networks were driven partly by their signaling values, which were reduced by new the information channels created by ARC. They also indicate that in some respects, ARC adoption helped foster greater diversity in hiring. At the same time, we find no evidence that ARC reduced existing disparities in placements by gender and only weak evidence that it benefited under-represented minorities. Finally, using names to predict nationality and native language, we find that ARC led to worse placements for candidates whose native language is very different from English.

Journal of Financial Economics, Apr 1, 2022

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of t... more The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Social Science Research Network, 2020

We examine the relationship between public firm disclosure and aggregate new business formation. ... more We examine the relationship between public firm disclosure and aggregate new business formation. Consistent with the notion that public company disclosures provide information spillovers that reduce the extent of uncertainty about new investment opportunities, we find that increased public firm presence is positively associated with new business formation in an industry. Furthermore, using plausibly exogenous information shocks generated by new IPOs in a geographic area, we find that post-IPO, new business registration in the public company's geographic area rise by 4 to 10%, consistent with soft information channels serving to reinforce hard information in public disclosures. New IPOs are associated with significant increases in Edgar downloading activity in the IPOs' geographic area, consistent with the notion that public firm disclosures are providing important investment opportunity information that facilitates new business formation.

Social Science Research Network, 2020

Zingales for helpful conversations, comments and suggestions. Jin Deng provided excellent researc... more Zingales for helpful conversations, comments and suggestions. Jin Deng provided excellent research assistance. All errors are our own. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Stigler Center and the Becker Friedman Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

I use professional accountants\u27 career histories from LinkedIn and the staggered state-level a... more I use professional accountants\u27 career histories from LinkedIn and the staggered state-level adoption of the 150-hour Rule (the Rule) as a natural experiment to test the Rule\u27s impact on career outcomes. My analysis is premised on the economic theories of human capital, barriers to entry and screening. I find that the Rule is associated with increases in CPA exam pass rates and a reduction in candidate supply. My analysis of LinkedIn data shows that individuals subject to the Rule are more likely to be employed at a Big 4 public accounting firm and to specialize in tax. These individuals spend a larger part of their career in public accounting, have the same likelihood of promotion, but exit public accounting at faster rates than their non-Rule counterparts. Results suggest that the Rule has not been purely a screening mechanism nor has the screening/human capital effect dominated the other effects

Journal of Accounting Research, Jan 31, 2022

ABSTRACTWe examine how similarity in institutional, legal, and social characteristics between a f... more ABSTRACTWe examine how similarity in institutional, legal, and social characteristics between a firm's and its directors’ home countries, that is, country‐pair homophily, affects foreign director appointments. We estimate a gravity model that includes economic and geographic proximity and find that country‐pair homophily is a significant determinant of foreign director appointments to corporate boards. We also find that country‐pair homophily limits the appointments of foreign directors from high‐quality governance countries to firms located in low‐quality governance countries, which may reduce the role of board internationalization in promoting the global convergence of governance practices. We analyze changes in foreign director appointments around the international adoption of IFRS and Norway's gender‐quota rule and find a higher appointment likelihood for directors originating from countries that are institutionally and culturally similar to that of the firm. Our findings point to the critical role that country‐pair homophily plays in matching director to boards with implications for the diffusion of governance practices globally.

Social Science Research Network, 2018

We examine the effect of the introduction of ridesharing services in U.S. cities on fatal traffic... more We examine the effect of the introduction of ridesharing services in U.S. cities on fatal traffic accidents. The arrival of ridesharing is associated with an increase of 2-3% in the number of motor vehicle fatalities and fatal accidents. This increase is not only for vehicle occupants, but also for pedestrians. We propose a simple conceptual model to explain the effects of ridesharing's introduction on accident rates. Consistent with the notion that ridesharing increases congestion and road utilization, we find that the introduction of ridesharing is associated with an increase in arterial vehicle miles traveled, excess gas consumption, and annual hours of delay in traffic. On the extensive margin, ridesharing arrival is also associated with an increase in new car registrations. These effects are higher in cities with higher ex-ante use of public transportation and carpools, consistent with a substitution effect, and in larger cities and cities with high ex-ante vehicle ownership. The increase in accidents appears to persist (and even increase) over time.

Social Science Research Network, Mar 20, 2017

We examine whether similarities in legal, sociological, and cultural characteristics between coun... more We examine whether similarities in legal, sociological, and cultural characteristics between countries (country-pair homophily) affect foreign director appointments. Our results from estimating a gravity model, which includes economic and geographic country characteristics, indicate that country-pair homophily is associated with foreign director appointments to corporate boards. Country-pair homophily plays a more significant role in the foreign director market than in other cross-border exchange, such as trade, migration, and foreign investment, consistent with homophily being more important in bilateral voluntary human exchange. We use the international IFRS adoption and the gender-quota adoption in Norway as regulatory interventions to assess the role of country-pair homophily in new foreign director appointments. We find that both events led firms to appoint directors from countries that were, prior to the regulation, less institutionally, socially and culturally similar, attesting to the importance of homophily in foreign director appointments. Overall, we identify an impediment to the effectiveness of foreign director appointments driving global governance practice convergence.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

This paper presents the staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) method in an accessible languag... more This paper presents the staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) method in an accessible language to a broad accounting research audience from an applied researcher's perspective. Specifically, the paper examines DiD design problems when multiple units are treated and when the treatment is conducted at staggered periods in time. Using the Goodman-Bacon decomposition, I show how heterogeneous treatment effects can bias the estimated treatment effect in a staggered DiD when estimated using a two-way fixed effect regression. Finally, using the staggered adoption of the 150-hour Rule as an example, I briefly review several proposals to adjust for the bias and correctly implement staggered DiD designs that a bourgeoning literature has put forward in econometrics.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

We examine whether similarities in legal, sociological, and cultural characteristics between coun... more We examine whether similarities in legal, sociological, and cultural characteristics between countries (country-pair homophily) affect foreign director appointments. Our results from estimating a gravity model, which includes economic and geographic country characteristics, indicate that country-pair homophily is associated with foreign director appointments to corporate boards. Country-pair homophily plays a more significant role in the foreign director market than in other cross-border exchange, such as trade, migration, and foreign investment, consistent with homophily being more important in bilateral voluntary human exchange. We use the international IFRS adoption and the gender-quota adoption in Norway as regulatory interventions to assess the role of country-pair homophily in new foreign director appointments. We find that both events led firms to appoint directors from countries that were, prior to the regulation, less institutionally, socially and culturally similar, attesting to the importance of homophily in foreign director appointments. Overall, we identify an impediment to the effectiveness of foreign director appointments driving global governance practice convergence.

Social Science Research Network, 2021

Social Science Research Network, 2022

Social Science Research Network, 2020

Social Science Research Network, 2020

The introduction of the gig economy creates opportunities for would-be entrepreneurs to supplemen... more The introduction of the gig economy creates opportunities for would-be entrepreneurs to supplement their income in downside states of the world, and provides insurance in the form of an income fallback in the event of failure. We present a conceptual framework supporting the notion that the gig economy may serve as an income supplement and as insurance against entrepreneurial-related income volatility, and utilize the arrival of the on-demand, platform-enabled gig economy in the form of the staggered rollout of ridehailing in U.S. cities to examine the effect of the arrival of the gig economy on entrepreneurial entry. The introduction of gig opportunities is associated with an increase of ~5% in the number of new business registrations in the local area, and a correspondingly-sized increase in small business lending to newly registered businesses. Internet searches for entrepreneurship-related keywords increase ~7%, lending further credence to the predictions of our conceptual framework. Both the income supplement and insurance channels are empirically supported: the increase in entry is larger in regions with lower average income and higher credit constraints, as well as in locations with higher ex ante economic uncertainty regarding future wage levels and wage growth.

We examine the relation between financial measurement practices and firm-level productivity. Usin... more We examine the relation between financial measurement practices and firm-level productivity. Using two proprietary data sets, including a comprehensive panel of firm tax returns, we find that financial measurement quality explains 10-20% of the intra-industry dispersion of total factor productivity (TFP), a magnitude similar to that of other structured management practices identified in prior studies. We provide evidence of two mechanisms for this result. First, cross-sectional and panel analyses are consistent with high-quality measurement as a management practice causing higher productivity. Second, using plausibly exogenous differences in misreporting incentives, we show that external auditors attenuate reporting biases in administrative data. Thus we show that a portion of measured productivity heterogeneity is the direct result of reporting differences across firms. While short of identifying causal treatment effects, the economic magnitude of our results suggests that firms' accounting practices are an important area for explaining the vast heterogeneity in reported productivity.

Journal of Operations Management, Sep 12, 2022

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of t... more The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Social Science Research Network, 2020

When hiring new workers, employers often screen large numbers of written applications before sele... more When hiring new workers, employers often screen large numbers of written applications before selecting a subset for more costly, in-person interviews. A large literature suggests that information frictions lead to screening on imperfect quality signals-e.g., educational pedigree and network-based referrals-and that these practices can perpetuate labor-market inequities. In theory, a reduction in the cost of in-person screening could lead to improvements in both efficiency and equity by reducing the use of blunt signals that disadvantage certain groups. We test this hypothesis by studying the introduction of a labor-market intermediary, the Accounting Rookie Camp (ARC), that greatly facilitated in-person screening in the labor market for PhD accountants. Using a novel data set with information on new PhDs, recruiters and market outcomes over 11 years, we estimate difference-indifference models that leverage variation in the timing of ARC adoption. We find that degree program rank and adviser connectedness are strong predictors of initial job placements, but that their impacts are significantly reduced by participation in ARC. The results suggest that the historical returns to program reputation and adviser networks were driven partly by their signaling values, which were reduced by new the information channels created by ARC. They also indicate that in some respects, ARC adoption helped foster greater diversity in hiring. At the same time, we find no evidence that ARC reduced existing disparities in placements by gender and only weak evidence that it benefited under-represented minorities. Finally, using names to predict nationality and native language, we find that ARC led to worse placements for candidates whose native language is very different from English.

Journal of Financial Economics, Apr 1, 2022

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of t... more The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Social Science Research Network, 2020

We examine the relationship between public firm disclosure and aggregate new business formation. ... more We examine the relationship between public firm disclosure and aggregate new business formation. Consistent with the notion that public company disclosures provide information spillovers that reduce the extent of uncertainty about new investment opportunities, we find that increased public firm presence is positively associated with new business formation in an industry. Furthermore, using plausibly exogenous information shocks generated by new IPOs in a geographic area, we find that post-IPO, new business registration in the public company's geographic area rise by 4 to 10%, consistent with soft information channels serving to reinforce hard information in public disclosures. New IPOs are associated with significant increases in Edgar downloading activity in the IPOs' geographic area, consistent with the notion that public firm disclosures are providing important investment opportunity information that facilitates new business formation.

Social Science Research Network, 2020

Zingales for helpful conversations, comments and suggestions. Jin Deng provided excellent researc... more Zingales for helpful conversations, comments and suggestions. Jin Deng provided excellent research assistance. All errors are our own. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Stigler Center and the Becker Friedman Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

I use professional accountants\u27 career histories from LinkedIn and the staggered state-level a... more I use professional accountants\u27 career histories from LinkedIn and the staggered state-level adoption of the 150-hour Rule (the Rule) as a natural experiment to test the Rule\u27s impact on career outcomes. My analysis is premised on the economic theories of human capital, barriers to entry and screening. I find that the Rule is associated with increases in CPA exam pass rates and a reduction in candidate supply. My analysis of LinkedIn data shows that individuals subject to the Rule are more likely to be employed at a Big 4 public accounting firm and to specialize in tax. These individuals spend a larger part of their career in public accounting, have the same likelihood of promotion, but exit public accounting at faster rates than their non-Rule counterparts. Results suggest that the Rule has not been purely a screening mechanism nor has the screening/human capital effect dominated the other effects

Journal of Accounting Research, Jan 31, 2022

ABSTRACTWe examine how similarity in institutional, legal, and social characteristics between a f... more ABSTRACTWe examine how similarity in institutional, legal, and social characteristics between a firm's and its directors’ home countries, that is, country‐pair homophily, affects foreign director appointments. We estimate a gravity model that includes economic and geographic proximity and find that country‐pair homophily is a significant determinant of foreign director appointments to corporate boards. We also find that country‐pair homophily limits the appointments of foreign directors from high‐quality governance countries to firms located in low‐quality governance countries, which may reduce the role of board internationalization in promoting the global convergence of governance practices. We analyze changes in foreign director appointments around the international adoption of IFRS and Norway's gender‐quota rule and find a higher appointment likelihood for directors originating from countries that are institutionally and culturally similar to that of the firm. Our findings point to the critical role that country‐pair homophily plays in matching director to boards with implications for the diffusion of governance practices globally.

Social Science Research Network, 2018

We examine the effect of the introduction of ridesharing services in U.S. cities on fatal traffic... more We examine the effect of the introduction of ridesharing services in U.S. cities on fatal traffic accidents. The arrival of ridesharing is associated with an increase of 2-3% in the number of motor vehicle fatalities and fatal accidents. This increase is not only for vehicle occupants, but also for pedestrians. We propose a simple conceptual model to explain the effects of ridesharing's introduction on accident rates. Consistent with the notion that ridesharing increases congestion and road utilization, we find that the introduction of ridesharing is associated with an increase in arterial vehicle miles traveled, excess gas consumption, and annual hours of delay in traffic. On the extensive margin, ridesharing arrival is also associated with an increase in new car registrations. These effects are higher in cities with higher ex-ante use of public transportation and carpools, consistent with a substitution effect, and in larger cities and cities with high ex-ante vehicle ownership. The increase in accidents appears to persist (and even increase) over time.

Social Science Research Network, Mar 20, 2017

We examine whether similarities in legal, sociological, and cultural characteristics between coun... more We examine whether similarities in legal, sociological, and cultural characteristics between countries (country-pair homophily) affect foreign director appointments. Our results from estimating a gravity model, which includes economic and geographic country characteristics, indicate that country-pair homophily is associated with foreign director appointments to corporate boards. Country-pair homophily plays a more significant role in the foreign director market than in other cross-border exchange, such as trade, migration, and foreign investment, consistent with homophily being more important in bilateral voluntary human exchange. We use the international IFRS adoption and the gender-quota adoption in Norway as regulatory interventions to assess the role of country-pair homophily in new foreign director appointments. We find that both events led firms to appoint directors from countries that were, prior to the regulation, less institutionally, socially and culturally similar, attesting to the importance of homophily in foreign director appointments. Overall, we identify an impediment to the effectiveness of foreign director appointments driving global governance practice convergence.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

This paper presents the staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) method in an accessible languag... more This paper presents the staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) method in an accessible language to a broad accounting research audience from an applied researcher's perspective. Specifically, the paper examines DiD design problems when multiple units are treated and when the treatment is conducted at staggered periods in time. Using the Goodman-Bacon decomposition, I show how heterogeneous treatment effects can bias the estimated treatment effect in a staggered DiD when estimated using a two-way fixed effect regression. Finally, using the staggered adoption of the 150-hour Rule as an example, I briefly review several proposals to adjust for the bias and correctly implement staggered DiD designs that a bourgeoning literature has put forward in econometrics.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

We examine whether similarities in legal, sociological, and cultural characteristics between coun... more We examine whether similarities in legal, sociological, and cultural characteristics between countries (country-pair homophily) affect foreign director appointments. Our results from estimating a gravity model, which includes economic and geographic country characteristics, indicate that country-pair homophily is associated with foreign director appointments to corporate boards. Country-pair homophily plays a more significant role in the foreign director market than in other cross-border exchange, such as trade, migration, and foreign investment, consistent with homophily being more important in bilateral voluntary human exchange. We use the international IFRS adoption and the gender-quota adoption in Norway as regulatory interventions to assess the role of country-pair homophily in new foreign director appointments. We find that both events led firms to appoint directors from countries that were, prior to the regulation, less institutionally, socially and culturally similar, attesting to the importance of homophily in foreign director appointments. Overall, we identify an impediment to the effectiveness of foreign director appointments driving global governance practice convergence.