Research

Job market paper

Follow the Leader: The effect of former peers on employment decisions

Where your coworkers go helps determine where you go next. Using matched employer-employee data, I trace workplace ties as they move across firms and show that coworker departures predict whether a worker quits. Conditional on moving, workers overwhelmingly gravitate toward firms employing former coworkers: when exactly one peer-linked firm appears in a worker’s choice set, it is selected 82.4% of the time, and the attraction is even stronger when that former coworker is high quality. Peer-linked moves are also associated with higher entry wages, stronger worker-firm sorting, and greater subsequent retention. The results show that workplace relationships continue to shape careers long after coworkers leave the same firm.

Presentation slides 

Winner of the 2026 Fernando Branco Award · Portuguese Economic Journal
Official award announcement

Work in progress

Impact of the IRS Jovem on Portuguese youth migration (for Nova SBE's Public Policy Institute)

Demographic changes and impact on structural productivity (for the Asian Development Bank)

Impact of AI on the Portuguese labor market

Spillovers of minimum wage increases on other wages in the same firm

Impact of peers on utility-decision making

Policy reports

Angola Country Climate and Development Report

World Bank · 2022 · Washington, DC, USA

Guinea-Bissau: Building Resilience for Vulnerable Populations

With Philippe Auffret
World Bank Report, No. 167570 · 2021 · Washington, DC, USA

Inflation Dynamics in São Tomé and Príncipe

With Jehann Jack and Yunhui Zhao
Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe – Selected Issues
IMF Country Report, No. 18/322, pp. 18–31 · 2018 · Washington, DC, USA

Enhancing Resilience to Natural Disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa

With Marshall Mills et al.
Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 61–85 · October 2016 · Washington, DC, USA