The standard macroeconomic literature suggests that output p.c. and productive technology are positively correlated. Removing technological disparities between countries would hence narrow the substantial variation in output p.c. across countries. But technology is factor-neutral in this standard development accounting framework, which is at odds with important macroeconomic frameworks and...
Witchcraft beliefs are prevalent in many African societies and are generally seen as a source of distrust and an impediment to economic development. However, we have limited knowledge of individual perceptions on the role of occult forces in economic affairs. In this paper, we explore attitudes to income and inequality associated with witchcraft, using a large-scale lab experiment in Nairobi,...
We study the impact of a community-driven development (CDD) program targeting only women on social, political, and economic empowerment. Our intervention combines social mobilization and support packages for poor households. We randomized the treatment across 23 clusters of settlements and sampled 2290 households from 150 settlements. We find indication that the intervention might have...
We examine how conflict and violence affect economic activity through their impact on the credit market, using Colombia’s peace process and agreement with the FARC guerrilla as a natural experiment. Our difference-in-differences analysis reveals a significant reduction in violence in municipalities formerly affected by the FARC, triggering a 12% increase in credit relative to deposits....
This paper examines how internal migration barriers affect marriage and migration decisions, shaping marital sorting and the spatial distribution of human capital. Using a structural matching model, I explore the trade-offs individuals and couples face when choosing spouses, marriage markets, and labor markets. The counterfactual analysis shows that removing migration barriers substantially...
Social norms are crucial drivers of human behavior. However, misperceptions of others' opinions may sustain norms and conforming behavior even if a majority opposes the norm. Privately shifting individuals' beliefs about true societal support may be insufficient to change behavior if others are perceived to continue to hold incorrect beliefs ("lack of mutual knowledge"). We conduct a field...
Child marriage and teen pregnancy remain prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the impact of mobile broadband internet (3G) expansion – a key driver of social media access – on these outcomes. We combine geo-referenced data on 3G coverage with individual-level marriage and fertility data from over 500,000 women-year observations across 20 sub-Saharan African countries between...
This paper demonstrates empirically that sustained and widespread manufacturing decline has not occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa, neither in the case of employment nor real value added. A review of key papers on African industrialization shows that past findings of deindustrialization are a product of small, non-representative country samples, and are relevant only for a small number of...
This study evaluates the long-term impact of a gender-transformative intervention that provided bicycles to adolescent girls in rural Zambia to enhance school attendance and empowerment. Implemented in 2017 across 100 schools, the intervention aimed to reduce travel barriers and improve educational access. Using an experimental design with a final sample of 1,615 adolescent girls (676...
This paper provides novel evidence on the impact of a prominent place-based policy - Special Economic Zones (SEZs) - on the economic well-being of African households. Exploiting time variation in SEZ establishment on a dataset of repeated cross-sections of households in 10 African countries during 1990-2020, we show that households living near SEZs become wealthier relative to the national...
Research on the nexus between development and migration has mainly focused on cross-border flows. How income changes affect migration within developing countries is much less well researched even though addressing this topic might provide essential information about the process of structural transformation needed for economic development. In this paper, we provide new evidence on the link...
War results in sex imbalance, which in turn, has been shown to increase female labour force participation (FLFP). Existing evidence on the nexus between conflict and FLFP predominantly stems from developed nations which may not fully capture the dynamics in developing contexts. This paper examines the impact of the Vietnam War on Vietnamese women's labour market outcomes 14 to 44 years after...
Despite rising educational attainment for young women, traditional gender norms in developing countries limit women’s labor force participation. This study, in urban India, examines how career exploration during secondary school impacts students' expectations about women's labor force participation and views on whether women having higher education or earnings than their husbands causes...
As sports betting is surging worldwide, so are concerns about excessive gambling. To explore the drivers of this phenomenon, we conduct an experiment investigating how regular sports bettors in urban Tanzania value sports bets and form expectations about winning probabilities. We find that subjects assign higher certainty equivalents and winning probabilities to sports bets than to...
Competition directly shapes the distribution of resources and rewards. Willingness 5 to compete, which often reflects dominant cultural norms, can therefore have outsized impacts 6 on individual outcomes. We introduced two distinct models of agency, highlighting either 7 independent or interdependent traits, into a multi-session psychosocial and personal finance 8 training among women in...
We investigate whether discrimination by teachers explains the large gap in educa- tional outcomes between students from marginalized and non-marginalized groups. Using the context of India, we start with a correspondence study to show that teachers assign 0.29 standard deviations lower grade to an exam of equal quality but with a lower caste surname. We then conduct incentivized surveys,...
By 2020, about 25% of El Salvador’s population lived abroad, with 88% residing in the United States. Remittances contribute 25% of El Salvador’s GDP, underscoring the im- portance of migration to the country’s economy. U.S. immigration enforcement policies that increase deportations of unauthorized migrants are therefore likely to significantly impact El Salvador’s labor market. Using a...
Numerous studies have tested Kuznets' hypothesis of a hump-shaped relationship between inequality and industrialization by regressing the Gini coefficient on the level and square of per capita income. Here, we examine Kuznets' original idea that inequality first increases and then declines when workers move from agriculture to manufacturing. We collect sectoral wage and employment data for 17...
Congenital disorders are a principal cause of early mortality, long-term disabilities, impaired cognitive development and constitute a major challenge to families,communities, and health care systems alike. The origins of congenital disorders are not yet well understood with descriptive evidence from the fields of medicine and public health pointing towards the role of climate related factors....
Using the nearest distances to Northern Vietnamese Army base as an instrumental
variable for exposure to Agent Orange, we investigate its long-term effects on education
and labor market outcomes of affected individuals in Vietnam. Our findings reveal
that a one-unit increase in the exposure score at the commune level is associated with
a significant reduction in education attainment, a...
The stated objective of the world’s largest public works program, India’s NREGA, is to provide rural households with a safety net and to reduce their vulnerability to income and expenditure shocks through paid employment on demand. In practice, however, work supply is often rationed, its timing erratic and payments delayed. We investigate the consequences of these implementation frictions for...
