Haoran Wang

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at The Ohio State University. My research interests are in labor economics, public policy, and health economics.

My research studies how labor market policies and social insurance programs affect workers’ labor supply, wages, and economic well-being, with a particular focus on mid- to late-career workers.

Research Fields

Labor Economics, Public Policy, Health Economics

Job Market Paper

The Effects of Pay Transparency on Mid- to Late-Career Workers

This paper studies how cross-firm pay transparency affects the labor market outcomes of mid- to late-career workers. Using Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act and a difference-in-differences design, I find that pay transparency increases weekly earnings and hourly wages among workers aged 45–64, with larger wage gains among women. The policy also increases employment and working hours in the short run and temporarily narrows the gender wage gap. These effects vary across occupations with different wage dispersion and age-wage profiles, while effects among younger workers are limited. Evidence on workers’ beliefs shows that pay transparency raises expected wages from outside opportunities and reservation wages, while increasing perceived job-offer probabilities in the short run. Together, the findings suggest that reducing wage information frictions is particularly valuable for mid- to late-career workers, who may face greater search frictions and rely on outdated information about labor market opportunities.