Research

Gender-specific patterns in educational attainment create dual sources of talent misallocation. Using Portuguese administrative data (1995-2021), we document that women systematically underenroll in STEM fields (2.2 % vs 4.4 % for men) but overenroll in non-STEM college education (14 % vs 6.8 % for men), while men disproportionately avoid higher education altogether. These patterns, together with the underperformance of female entrepreneurs across all educational levels, generate aggregate costs to the economy. We develop a general equilibrium model where agents make endogenous educational and occupational choices, incorporating both gender-specific education costs and entrepreneurial productivity differentials. Our quantitative experiments reveal the relative importance of each distortion. Equalizing women's education costs to male levels reduces GDP by 0.9 %, as lower college participation offsets gains from increased female STEM enrollment, while just increasing men's participation in non-STEM college fields increases GDP by 2.4 %. The STEM channel does not seem quantitatively relevant, since equalizing women's participation to men only increases GDP by 0.02 %. However, equalizing entrepreneurial productivity parameters across genders increases GDP by 5.3 %, highlighting the relevance of the distortions that make female entrepreneurs underperform relative to men.

This paper studies how financial frictions shape firms' use of skilled labor when skills and intangibles are complementary inputs. Using Portuguese matched employer-employee and firm balance-sheet data, I document three facts. First, intangible capital and skilled labor are complementary within firms. Second, financially constrained firms choose a different input mix: they devote relatively fewer resources to intangible accumulation and R&D labor, and they equip skilled production workers with less intangible capital. Third, during Portugal's expansion in skill supply, wage premia fell more at constrained firms even though they hired skilled workers at similar rates, consistent with weaker within-firm reallocation of skills toward their most complementary uses. To interpret these patterns, I develop a quantitative heterogeneous-firm model with nested CES production, endogenous intangible accumulation and collateral constraints with differential pledgeability. The model highlights a firm-level allocation problem: when skilled labor becomes more abundant, unconstrained firms adjust the whole skill-intangible bundle, while constrained firms expand skilled employment without making the complementary intangible investments needed to use those workers effectively. Financial frictions therefore distort not only firm scale, but also the internal allocation of skilled labor across production and innovation activities, muting the gains from human-capital expansion.