Hi! I am Masahiro (Masa) Nishida, a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research interests are industrial organization, applied microeconomics, and productivity. I am on the 2026-27 job market.

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Research

Job Market Paper

• Product-Harm Crises and Intermediaries in the Used Car Market
  November 2026
  Abstract

  Product-harm crises, such as recalls and scandals, have been studied as negative information shocks about product quality. In used car markets, such a shock reaches households through dealers, which choose not only the retail price of an affected car but also whether to sell it to a household or to another dealer at wholesale, where the price of an unsold car feeds back into retail prices. This paper asks how dealers adjust the prices of affected cars, how household purchases respond, and how these responses would change if interdealer trade were restricted. Focusing on Mitsubishi Motors' 2016 fuel economy scandal in Japan as a demand shock, I use wholesale auction records and online retail listings to compare the affected models that Mitsubishi built for Nissan with unaffected cars before and after the disclosure. Prices of affected cars fell in both markets, at retail by less at Nissan-affiliated dealers than at independent dealers, whereas the probability of a sale to a household rose only briefly. To measure the long-run effect of the scandal and the consequences of restricting interdealer trade, I estimate an overlapping-generations model in which dealers of different types, each a local monopolist at retail, trade with one another at wholesale, sell to households, and resell unsold cars at wholesale. The estimated loss in households' valuation of affected cars is concentrated at independent dealers, so that the retail price decline at Nissan-affiliated dealers comes largely through the lower wholesale price. In counterfactuals that segment the wholesale market by dealer type or require dealers to sell their trade-ins at retail, the gap between the retail price responses of the two dealer types widens: the interdealer market pools the two losses into one wholesale price and lets dealers pass unwanted cars on rather than discount them.

Working Papers

• The Impact of Cartels on Productivity: A Concrete Example from Japan
  (with Satoshi Imahie, Kazuma Takakura, and Yasutora Watanabe)
  March 2026
  Revision requested at Quarterly Journal of Economics
  Abstract

  We study the impact of cartels on productivity using a novel plant-level dataset from the Japanese ready-mixed concrete industry, where cartels are legally permitted. After estimating plant-level productivity, we adopt a difference-in-differences design to show that cartel collapse increases plant-level and market-level productivity, while cartel formation has no effect. Furthermore, a triple-difference analysis reveals that productivity gains are more pronounced for initially less productive plants and those in high-density markets. These results, combined with decomposition analyses showing that market-level improvements are driven by within-plant changes rather than reallocation or exit, suggest that the treatment effect of competition drives productivity gains.
• Cartel Sustainability Under Declining Demand
  (with Ana Sofia Teles)
  August 2025
  Abstract

  How are cartels sustained despite declining demand and firm exit? Standard repeated game theory predicts that cartels cannot be maintained when firms anticipate exit, as exiting firms have incentives to deviate just before exit without facing punishment. We develop a theoretical model showing that money transfers to exiting firms can sustain cartels through conditional transfers in firms' final period. Using novel data from Japan's ready-mixed concrete industry (1993-2004), where cooperatives engage in legally sanctioned cartels, we find evidence that declining future expected demand increases cartel collapse probability, cartels increase prices, and firm exit responds to demand conditions. These results are broadly consistent with our theoretical predictions.
• Potential Growth and Productivity in the Caribbean
  (with Alexander Amundsen, Sophia Chen, Pierre Guérin, and Sinem Kilic Celik)
  August 2025
  Revision requested at Journal of Macroeconomics
  Abstract

  Medium-term growth prospects of Caribbean countries have weakened in recent years. We examine these trends by providing new estimates of potential GDP growth for the region. Our findings reveal a broad-based decline over time, driven by declining contributions from human capital and total factor productivity. Linking these factors to firm-level data, we identify significant scope for aggregate productivity gains through the efficient reallocation of resources between firms and the removal of firm-level structural obstacles. Addressing issues such as the cost and access to finance, workforce education, tax administration, and business licensing and permits are associated with higher aggregate welfare.

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Introduction to Applied Econometrics (Undergraduate), Fall 2024, Fall 2025, Spring 2026, Fall 2026
• Introductory Econometrics (Undergraduate), Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025

Upcoming Presentations

• December 2-4: Econometric Society European Winter Meeting (EWMES 2026), Warsaw, Poland