SURABHI GHAI
Hello!
I am an Economics PhD student at Columbia University, studying topics related to urban economics, spatial economics, and international trade. Previously, I worked as a Research Assistant at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. I received my MA in Economics from Columbia University in 2021 and dual BS degrees in Economics and Math from Penn State University in 2017.
Email: surabhi.ghai@columbia.edu
RESEARCH
Working Papers:
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Estimating Armington Elasticities Using Scanner Data (with Colin Hottman): click for PDF
This paper is the first to combine U.S. retail scanner data with barcode-level data on country of origin. We use this novel dataset for 14 narrow product categories from 2001 to 2012 to study Armington elasticities. We develop a novel generalization of Feenstra (1994) for a nested demand system, and our results provide clear evidence that the macro elasticity of substitution (between U.S. and foreign goods) is significantly smaller than the micro elasticity (within U.S. and foreign goods) for essentially all product categories. Finally, we find little evidence of income-induced expenditure switching in the United States.
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Consumption Patterns in US Import Goods
This paper combines U.S. consumer expenditure data with barcode-level country of origin data to document heterogenous spending patterns on domestic goods and imports across income groups, education levels, metropolitan statistical areas, and rural/urban areas. The degree to which households with different characteristics differ in their expenditure shares of domestic products and imports, as well as products from different countries, is then used to estimate households' exposure to tariff and exchange rate shocks.
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Other Works in Progress:
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Congestion Pricing and Transport Substitution: Evidence from New York City
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Firm-Level Upgrading in Pharmaceuticals (with Eric Verhoogen, Gianluca Antonecchia, and Ajay Bhaskarabhatla)