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Welcome to my website!

I am a PhD student in the Economics Department at Fordham University. My research interests are in macroeconomics, with a focus on market power, innovation, and inequality.

I will be on the job market during the 2024-25 academic year.

For more information, please see my CV.

E-mail: pxarmada@fordham.edu

Scheduled conferences (Summer 2024):

  • • Queen Mary University of London Economics and Finance Workshop, London, UK (May 2024)
  • • North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society, Nashville, TN, USA (June 2024)
  • • European Economic Association Meeting, Rotterdam, Netherlands (August 2024)
  • • Midwest Macroeconomics Fall Meeting, West Lafayette, IN, USA (September 2024)

Research

Financial Frictions, Market Power, and Innovation

Abstract:

This paper investigates how financial frictions and market power interact in shaping firms' incentives to innovate. I document stylized facts about innovation using a comprehensive firm-level dataset from Portugal, a country with relatively underdeveloped financial markets. Motivated by the empirical evidence, I augment a general equilibrium framework of heterogeneous producers with imperfect competition and innovative technology. Since innovation is costly, a firm's ability to exercise market power determines how quickly it can overcome financial constraints and engage in innovation. Improving financial markets allows firms to expand and innovate, whereas intensifying competition may come at the cost of lower innovation if borrowing constraints are sufficiently severe. These findings underscore the importance of tailoring a country's competition policy to its level of financial development.

Draft

Market Power and Wealth Inequality

Abstract:

Since the 1980s, the US economy has witnessed a sharp increase in market concentration and markups, alongside a rise in wealth concentration. This paper develops a general equilibrium model of entrepreneurial choice with imperfect competition between firms, such that the equilibrium distribution of wealth and markups depends on the competitive structure of the economy. Using the calibrated model as a unified framework, I examine a number of plausible drivers for the rise in wealth inequality in the US over the last forty years. I find that decreased competition between firms can partly account for three important developments in the US economy: higher aggregate markups, a declining share of entrepreneurs, and increased wealth inequality.

Draft
(available upon request)

Teaching

Fordham University
Teaching Fellow
  • Principles of Macroeconomics (Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024)
  • Principles of Microeconomics (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021)
Graduate Assistant
  • Teaching Assistant for Microeconomic Theory II (Spring 2020)
  • Tutor for Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, Statistics 1, Statistical Decision Making and Math for Economists (Fall 2019)
University of Minho
Assistant Lecturer
  • Topics in Financial Economics (Fall 2017) – Master’s Program in Monetary, Banking and Financial Economics