I study the relationship between firms and their workers, and how technology is changing it. Firms under pressure adapt, and much of that adaptation now runs through technology. Jobs get automated. Tasks get handed to AI. People get laid off, and the work that remains often gets worse.

My research asks two questions about this. When can workers and their communities push back and slow a firm down? And when firms go ahead anyway, what happens to the people who stay? On the second question, my work on automation finds that firms which depend less on human labor invest less in the quality of the job: leadership, work-life balance, and autonomy all decline. I am extending this to generative AI and algorithmic management.

In my job market paper, I argue that local media acts as an information intermediary for workers and communities, making layoffs and closures more visible and more costly. Firms in stronger local media environments lay off fewer workers and close fewer establishments under competitive pressure. They also re-skill their workforces and adopt AI more slowly, suggesting that transparency protects labor at a strategic cost to the firm.

My job market paper is available here.