Department Seminar
Partisanship and Survey Refusal
Survey refusal in the the Current Population Survey (CPS) has tripled over the last decade. This rise coincides with the emergence of political rhetoric, largely from the political right, questioning the accuracy and integrity of government statistics. We examine how support for the Tea Party...[more]
Social Network Structures and the Politics of Public Goods Provision: Evidence from the Philippines
We study the relationship between social structure and political incentives for public goods provision. We argue that when politicians–rather than communities–are responsible for the provision of public goods, social fractionalization may decrease the risk of elite capture and lead to...[more]
It's Getting Crowded in Here: Experimental Evidence of Demand Constraints in the Gender Profit Gap
This paper considers market-level contributors to the well documented gender profit gap amongst micro-entrepreneurs. In a study of Ghanaian garment makers, we combine a firm census and market research survey and find a gender gap in the market-size-to-firm ratio and disproportionate self-reports of...[more]
Policy Design with Advantageous Selection: Experimental Evidence from Electricity Plan Choice
Voluntary take-up plays a central role in many economic policies. Because only self-selected individuals enroll, the social welfare gain from such policies depends on the size of enrollment and what types of individuals self-select. In this paper, we begin with a theoretical prediction that...[more]
The Response of Cropland Transitions to Economic Incentives: Applications to the Environmental Impacts of the Renewable Fuels Standard and a Supply Curve for Carbon Sequestration
Loan Contract Structure and Adverse Selection: Survey Evidence from Uganda
While adverse selection is an important theoretical explanation for credit rationing it is difficult to quantify empirically. Many studies measure the elasticity of credit demand of existing or previous borrowers as opposed to the population at large; other studies use crosssectional approaches...[more]
Pricing Private Education in Urban India: Demand, Use and Impact
Private education services--including both private schools and after-school tutoring--forms a substantial part of the education sector in the developing world. We conduct a field experiment to study the role of prices in the market for tutoring in Delhi's slums. Using a two-part pricing design, we...[more]
Development Economics Workshop
Gender Equality in the Family Can Reduce the Malaria Burden in Malawi
Where There’s Haze There’s Fire: Political Accountability and Indonesia’s Forest Fires
Heterogeneous firm responses to environmental changes: evidence from meat production in the Brazilian Amazon
Applied Economics Workshop
Efficient learning of site-specific management in precision agriculture
Milked for All They Are Worth: Analyzing Livestock Mortality Costs in a Structural, Dynamic Discrete Choice Model
Are 'Complementary Policies' Substitutes? Evidence from R&D Subsidies in the UK
Learning By Regulating: The Evolution of Wind Energy Zoning Laws
The cognitive cost of toxic chemicals in early childhood
Subnational Favoritism in Development Grant Allocations - Empirical Evidence from a Decentralized Country
We investigate local favoritism in the allocation of subnational public funding. Using a unique panel data set of 410 Indonesian districts for the period 2004-2013, we exploit the discretionary nature of a government grant and Indonesia’s large number of asynchronous local direct elections to...[more]
Risk Attitudes and Returns in Rural Economies: Evidence from Thailand and Vietnam
Risk attitudes play an important role in the transformation process of traditional farm households to business entities in rural areas of emerging market economies. In addition, these household live in risky environments and are exposed to a myriad of adverse events. Recent empirical studies...[more]