Public policies often have the potential to generate substantial welfare effects beyond their intended objectives. One such public policy intervention that warrants closer examination of its second-order effects is alcohol prohibition. In this paper, I contribute to the debate on welfare implications of alcohol regulation policy by studying the impact of an alcohol ban implemented in the...
Seeking evidence on how the presence of a social media platform affects the performance of platform-based entrepreneurs in a developing country context, we conducted a field experiment and a replication study among Zambian entrepreneurs to whom we provided a Facebook business page. To our surprise (and contra our hypotheses), we discovered that the existence of a social media platform reduces...
Recent studies highlight information constraints as an important barrier to technology adoption, but there is little evidence that allows to distinguish the roles of different information frictions for adoption decisions across different types of technology. We conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial among 1,200 farmers in Haryana, India, to promote adoption of early sown wheat varieties...
Menstruation poses a challenge to girls in low and middle-income countries. However, little is
known about psychosocial constraints facing girls’ menstrual experience and the resulting
impact. In this study, we propose a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) targeting 880 schoolgirls
in Nigeria. Through the RCT intervention, we intend to unpack the economic, knowledge, and
psychosocial...
This study examines the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022) in the Philippines who became widely known due to his populist agenda and especially his support for the extrajudicial killing of drug users and criminals. To evaluate the impact of his presidency on institutional quality, this study uses data from 2006 to 2022 and the synthetic control method. The results suggest that the...
This paper explores and quantifies the inefficiencies induced by delays in tax refund payouts in developing countries. We construct a novel dataset on Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds in Zambia and document extreme delays of more than 700 days on average implying that refund payments take 2300 % longer than they should. Drawing on the universe of firms' tax filings we show that these delays have...
Do voluntary export restrictions promote domestic economic development? While an export ban foregoes export revenue, and may result in a permanent loss of market share, it may also boost local processing industries, thus stimulating local employment and manufacturing growth more generally. We address this question in the context of Indonesia, a major producer of raw materials such as nickel...
For low-income countries looking to enhance revenue mobilisation without harming firm growth, understanding the full burden of taxation, beyond just tax liabilities, is crucial. This paper documents the substantial and often regressive tax compliance costs faced by small and medium-sized firms in Uganda. Using original survey data from nearly 2,000 taxpaying firms across Uganda, matched to...
I argue that governments in weak states can build fiscal capacity by collaborating with non-state, traditional political institutions (TPIs). To study the impact of collaboration, I partnered with the local government in Kono District, Sierra Leone (the KDC), and embedded an experiment within their awareness campaign for a new rural property tax. Property owners in 118 villages were shown...
We study the effect of proximity to sexual assault events reported by media on women’s education in India. By combining novel geocoded data on media coverage of sexual crimes with nationally representative micro-data, we find that one standard deviation increase in the lagged average distance to sexual assaults increases the schooling of women by 0.17 years and the chances of middle school...
Greater openness to trade can create benefits through lower prices, greater product diversity, and higher export earnings. But additional exposure to import competition may reduce income and employment in affected sectors. These negative consequences can increase crime by altering the net benefits of engaging in illicit activities. We analyze the impact of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade...
This paper examines the differential relationship between income diversification and intertemporal activity transitions on household well-being, addressing both intra-household and intertemporal aggregation problems.
Using high-frequency monthly data, I disentangle genuine diversification strategies from mere activity transitions that are often conflated in conventional analyses due to...
We examine how a modest unconditional cash transfer policy affects child labor and schooling during periods of economic crisis by studying Turkey's Family Support Program, launched in 2022. Using a regression discontinuity design based on the program's per capita income eligibility threshold, we analyze the program's short-term effects within six months of implementation. Despite the program's...
This paper examines how virtual platforms can extend the benefits of business networks to micro-entrepreneurs in developing economies. Through a randomized control trial in Liberia involving 1,131 entrepreneurs, we study the impact of structured virtual business discussion groups on business outcomes. Entrepreneurs in the treatment group participated in weekly phone-based discussions focused...
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are key social safety net tools in middleincome countries, designed to alleviate poverty and influence household behaviors in education and healthcare. While their effectiveness in achieving these goals is well-documented, research increasingly examines their broader consequences, including labour market outcomes. However, the way CCTs shape the...
Most impact assessments of agricultural training evaluate one-time interventions over short time frames. However, farmers may show initial enthusiasm for a new technology but disadopt after a trial period. Others may adopt practices gradually over time. This study investigates the causal impact of repeated training on the adoption of organic farming practices among Indonesian smallholder...
We study the economic implications of regional favoritism, a form of distributive politics that redistributes resources geographically within countries. Using enterprise surveys from low- and middle-income countries, we document that firms located close to leaders’ birthplaces grow substantially in sales and employment after leaders assume office.
Firms in favored areas also experience...
Tax administrations in low-income countries face widespread tax evasion and high enforcement costs. They thus need information to detect where tax evasion is most severe, and allocate scarce resources accordingly. This paper shows that leveraging large firms’ trading network to collect information about their suppliers is a cost-efficient way to detect tax evasion and increase future audit...
Health care decisions are sometimes a matter of life and death, but also their financial consequences can be disastrous for many households around the world. While it is easy to imagine how the fear of making an expensive mistake may deter particularly poor households from making otherwise sensible health care choices, there is almost no scientific evidence on the importance and joint role of...
This study evaluates whether signaling theory can be used to promote the adoption of new technologies. We assume that observable adoption choices of new technologies send a signal about entrepreneurial ability and innovativeness—which are unobservable traits. We design and implement a cluster-randomized controlled trial involving 1,120 farmers in 140 Ugandan villages and the incentivized...
Exporting offers high private and public returns, yet in most countries, only a few large, male-managed firms engage in exporting. We incentivize small, female-managed firms to form a consortium, a corporate group, to test whether they can collectively overcome the fixed export costs. We randomize 176 firms into four sectoral consortia or a control group and study the consortium’s effect on...
