Events
The Global Poverty Research Lab hosts several events each year. Our signature events include:
Development Rookiefest
Rookiefest features promising doctoral students in development economics presenting their job talk paper to an audience of faculty and scholars from the Chicagoland and greater Midwest area. This event is invite only.
IPA Researcher Gathering: Agenda link here
Methods & Measurement Meeting
This is an annual meeting for researchers interested in methodological and measurement work related to Innovation for Poverty Action’s Research Methods Initiative’s Themes. This event is invite only. Visit the 2023 event website here or contact financialinclusion@poverty-action.org for more information.
Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection
Co-hosted by the Global Poverty Research Lab (GPRL) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), this gathering provides a forum to present and discuss early-stage results and recent working papers on financial inclusion and social protection research from the United States and abroad, including new work on household finance, consumer protection, savings and payments, women’s financial inclusion, social safety nets, cash transfers, labor market programs, youth employment, livelihood development, and targeting. Registration is required. Visit the 2023 event website here or contact financialinclusion@poverty-action.org for more information.
Upcoming Events
Past Events
IPA Researcher GatheringDates: October 12-14 2023 Locations: Northwestern campus (see agenda here) This event is invite-only |
The finalized agenda with room locations can be found at this link. Please access the event website here or contact financialinclusion@poverty-action.org for more information.
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| Kellogg Student Africa Business Conference Date: May 01 2024 Time: All day Kellogg Global Hub |
Contact Ebuka Nwaka and Shalom Ikhena for more information. Click this link for contact information |
| Development Lunch Date: June 01 2023 Time: 12:15-1:15pm Kellogg Global Hub Room #L301 |
Speaker: Ryu Matsuura Title: "TBD" Abstract: TBD
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| Development Lunch Date: May 25 2023 Time: 12:15-1:15pm Kellogg Global Hub Room #L301 |
Speaker: Nicolo Tomaselli Title: "Licensed to Deal: A Lab in the Field Experiment with Auctioned Business Opportunities" Abstract: When markets are missing, consumers are denied market access and potential profits are lost. Through a lab-in-the-field experiment, we create a licensing system in which private agents bid for permission to participate in new markets, which take the form of agricultural input fairs. We use auctions to measure the willingness to pay (WTP) of agricultural input dealers to purchase the licenses. Our experiment varies the bidding mechanism, the license information held by bidders, and the pricing rule. The results suggest that open and closed mechanisms work differently in this context and that bidders' prior knowledge of the potential market is correlated with WTP. Finally, consistent with the literature, we provide evidence that hypothetical bids inflate WTP many times more than actual bids.
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| Rookiefest Featuring: Jacob Moscona, Eleanor Wiseman, Awa Ambra Seck, Arielle Bernhardt, Sagar Saxena, BooKang Seol, Garima Sharma Date: April 28th, 2023 In-person This event is invite only |
The Global Poverty Research Lab annually hosts Development Rookiefest, which features an invited group of doctoral students in development economics presenting their job talk paper to scholars from the Chicagoland and greater Midwest area. To see information about this year's Rookiefest, click here. |
| Development Lunch Date: February 23 2023 Time: 12:15-1:15pm Kellogg Global Hub Room #L301 |
Speaker: Laura Montenbruk Title: "TBD" Abstract: TBD |
| Development Lunch Date: February 23 2023 Time: 12:15-1:15pm Kellogg Global Hub Room #L301 |
Speaker: Kaman Lyu Title: "Child Labour, Human Capital and Beliefs" (joint with Devis Decet) Abstract: Child labour is pervasive and rising in African countries. Our paper tests a novel hypothesis to explain child labour on family farms. Parents are allocating work instead of school because they view child labour as another dimension of human capital formation. Contrary to popular views, parents are not under-valuing education. They believe that working on farms is an investment in agricultural skills which can have higher returns than schooling investments if the child will be a farmer in the future. We design and implement a survey for 5,000 households in Ghana to elicit parental beliefs on the returns to child labour. Exploiting vignettes, we find that parents believe that a child who works on family farms alongside school will be 1.6 times more productive as a farmer than if they attained two more years of schooling with no farming experience.
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| Development Lunch Date: February 23 2023 Time: 12:15-1:15pm Kellogg Global Hub Room #L301 |
Speaker: Jimmy Lee Title:"Information Frictions and Youth-Elder Interactions in Agricultural Households: Evidence from a School-based Agricultural Extension Program in Liberia"
Abstract: The impact of school-based development programs might be hindered if elders in students’ households lack information about activities in schools, especially when students need permission from their elders in changing the use of resources within households. This paper studies intergenerational interactions in response to a school-based agricultural extension program in Liberia. I hypothesize that household responses to the program are hindered by two issues. First, elders have incomplete information about the program. Second, students’ attempts to change the use of resources are hindered by their uncertainty of elders’ approval. In a two-year field experiment, I test my hypotheses by cross-randomizing two treatments to households: (i) providing program promotional videos to students’ elders; and (ii) revealing elders’ positive expectations about students’ learning progress in agricultural skills to students. This presentation reports my midline findings. |
| Development Lunch Date: February 16 2023 Time: 12:15-1:15pm Kellogg Global Hub Room #L301 |
Speaker: Devis Decet Title: "Water Wars: Evidence from Africa" (with Andrea Marcucci) Abstract: We study the impact of competition for the control of water resources on local violence across Africa. We use high-resolution data on rivers’ network to measure the heterogeneity in the control of water resources across areas. Leveraging changes in rivers' flows and rainfalls as shocks to the value of water resources in a region, we show that lower water availability in neighboring areas induces a larger increase of conflicts in areas characterized by higher control of water resources. We argue that this difference arises because an increase in the value of water, induced by a decrease in rivers' flows or low rainfall, makes it more profitable to fight over the control of water resources. |
| Development Lunch Date: December 01 2022 Time: 12:30-1:30pm Kellogg Global Hub Room #L301 |
Speaker: Jimmy Lee Title: "Evaluating a System of Agricultural Extension around Schools in Liberia" Abstract: Developing countries often face intertwined challenges in agricultural extension, rural education, and youth empowerment. I conduct a two-year randomized evaluation of a school-based agricultural education program in Liberia that leverages existing resources to tackle the challenges – schools, teachers, and students for agricultural extension; school gardens and student agricultural projects for promoting experiential learning in science; and extra-curricular activities for promoting vocational and life skills. This talk will focus on results from the midline survey on the randomized evaluation, together with results from complementary sub-treatments that amplify the effects of the program. |
| Development Lunch Date: November 17 2022 Time: 12:30-1:30pm In-person Kellogg Global Hub Room #5301 |
Speaker: Ritwika Sen Title: Learning at Work: What Does Supervision Do? Abstract: This project examines the process of worker learning on-the-job. We conduct a field experiment in a data collection firm to test whether frontline and digital supervision practices impact worker performance by aggregating and transmitting knowledge within the firm. In the experiment, we vary the intensity of supervision across workers and production tasks to identify the causal effects on productivity dynamics. We study how these management practices interact with other commonly studied sources of workplace learning, i.e., learning-by-doing and learning from peers. The field experiment is currently ongoing, so the objective of the talk is to discuss the research design, preliminary findings, and ideas for further analysis. |
| Development Lunch Date: November 10 2022 Time: 12:30-1:30pm In-person Kellogg Global Hub Room #L130 |
Speaker: Sebastian Poblete Title: "School Value-Added and the Math Gender Gap in Chile" Abstract: This paper studies the role of schools in explaining the math gender gap in Chile. Using a rich administrative panel of students’ test scores measured in the 4th, 8th, and 10th grades, we fit high-dimensional student and school fixed-effects models for each gender to understand the sources of the math gender gap. We find that while school fixed-effects (value-added, hereafter) does not play a significant role in determining the gap in public and voucher schools, it contributes to reducing it by 40% (0.07 standard deviations, SD) in private schools. In studying the mechanisms behind these results, we rule out the sorting channel: girls are not overrepresented in high-performing private schools. Instead, the result is due to a gender-specific effect: girls obtain more value-added than boys in private schools. Finally, we fit linear models to explain gender differences in school value-added, finding that the share of female teachers and teachers’ expectations regarding students’ future outcomes help to decrease the gap in private schools by 0.04 and 0.01 SDs, respectively. |
| Development Lunch Date: November 03 2022 Time: 12:30-1:30pm In-person Kellogg Global Hub Room #5301 |
Presenter: Lakshmi Iyer Title: "Religion and Demography: The Influence of Papal Visits on Fertility " Abstract: We examine the role of religious influences on fertility decisions. Using data from 12 Latin American countries, we document widely-varying effects of the Pope's visits on subsequent fertility decisions, with some areas showing little or no effects and others showing large increases in fertility. We investigate several mechanisms to explain such heterogeneous effects, including the role of per capita income, religiosity and stage of demographic transition. |
| Development Lunch Date: October 27 2022 Time: 12:30-1:30pm In-person Kellogg Global Hub Room #5301 |
Presenter: Cara Ebert Title: "Migration Mentoring and Its Networked Effects in Senegal" Abstract: TBD |
| Development Lunch Date: October 20 2022 Time: 12:30-1:30pm In-person Kellogg Global Hub Room #5301 |
Presenter: Ismael Yacoubou Djima Title: Migration, Occupations Transmission, and Development: Evidence from Castes in Mali Abstract: In this work, I document that, in Mali, social identity based on castes--historical, hierarchical social groups whose role is thought to have subsided- still relates to the current socio-economic outcomes of part of the population. Using individuals' last names, a marker of caste identity, I start by showing that it is possible to proxy for the castes of individuals in 8 rounds of living standards household surveys collected between 2014 and 2019. Then, focusing on internal migration, I provide evidence that individuals from castes of artisans and griots (bards) are less likely to migrate from rural to urban areas than the rest of the population. This lower migration rate appears to be related to the amenities provided by their castes' identities in rural areas. These amenities are linked to the current occupations for the artisan caste that is over-represented in professions of the artisanal type and whose members are more likely to pass on their occupations to their descendants. On the other hand, the griots' amenities come from the traditional role they play in social contexts (ceremonies, conflict resolution, etc.), allowing them to derive a higher share of their consumption from gifts than other groups. |
| IPA Annual Researchers Gathering Date: October 14 2022 In-person By invitation only |
Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection
The Global Poverty Research Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) are hosting the Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection. This gathering provides a forum to present and discuss early results and recent working papers on financial inclusion and social inclusion research from the United States and abroad, including new work on household finance, consumer protection, savings and payments, women’s financial inclusion, social safety nets, cash transfers, labor market programs, youth employment, livelihood development, and targeting. Visit this link for more information Questions about this event should be directed to Poverty-Research@Northwestern.edu. |
| IPA Annual Researchers Gathering Date: October 13 2022 In-person By invitation only |
Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection
The Global Poverty Research Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) are hosting the Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection. This gathering provides a forum to present and discuss early results and recent working papers on financial inclusion and social inclusion research from the United States and abroad, including new work on household finance, consumer protection, savings and payments, women’s financial inclusion, social safety nets, cash transfers, labor market programs, youth employment, livelihood development, and targeting. Visit this link for more information Questions about this event should be directed to Poverty-Research@Northwestern.edu. |
| IPA Annual Researchers Gathering Date: October 12 2022 In-person By invitation only |
Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection
The Global Poverty Research Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) are hosting the Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection. This gathering provides a forum to present and discuss early results and recent working papers on financial inclusion and social inclusion research from the United States and abroad, including new work on household finance, consumer protection, savings and payments, women’s financial inclusion, social safety nets, cash transfers, labor market programs, youth employment, livelihood development, and targeting. Visit this link for more information Questions about this event should be directed to Poverty-Research@Northwestern.edu. |
| Development Lunch Date: October 6 2022 Time: 12:30-1:30pm In-person Kellogg Global Hub Room #5301 |
Presenter: Marie-Louise Decamps Title: Agricultural Productivity and Deforestation Abstract: I examine the effects of increasing agricultural productivity on the reallocation of agricultural activity across space, and on deforestation. I leverage the heterogeneous effects that the introduction of genetically engineered (GE) soybean seeds had on agricultural productivity across areas with different soil and weather characteristics, and satellite data on land use in Brazil from 1996-2010. I consider two sources of exposure to the shock. The direct exposure refers to the local increase in soy productivity. I find that it leads to changes in the local composition of agricultural land use, driven by the reduction in cattle ranching, but not to changes in forest area. Second, I consider the indirect exposure from proximity to areas with larger local increases in soy productivity. I find that cattle ranching activity reallocates to indirectly exposed areas, and leads to a reduction in forest area. This shows that changes in the composition of agricultural activity across space should be considered when examining the total environmental cost of local agricultural productivity shocks. |
| Development Lunch Date: September 29 2022 Time: 12:30-1:30pm In-person Kellogg Global Hub Room #5301 |
Presenter: Sean Higgins Title: The Impact of Price Comparison Tools in Consumer Credit Markets (with Erik Berwart, Sheisha Kulkarni, and Santiago Truffa) Abstract: Consumer credit markets feature large amounts of price dispersion in loan costs, even conditional on loan and borrower characteristics. If consumers are unaware of the extent of this price dispersion, they may shop less and take out loans at higher interest rates than they would otherwise. We conduct a randomized controlled trial in Chile where we provide just-in-time, personalized information about the distribution of interest rates or the benefits of search to people searching for loans on Google. The first treatment arm is a price comparison tool that shows prospective borrowers a conditional distribution of interest rates based on administrative data on originated loans for borrowers and loans with similar observable characteristics. The second treatment is a simplified message that shows prospective borrowers an estimate of the monthly and total amount they could save by shopping at more banks. We find that consumers indeed underestimate price dispersion, and that the price comparison tool causes them to double their estimate of how much dispersion there is in interest rates. Consumers also underestimate the interest rate they will obtain, and the price comparison tool causes them to increase their prior about the interest rate they will obtain by 17 percentage points over a control mean of 23%. The simplified message treatment does not appear to affect priors about dispersion or the rate people expect to obtain. Our trial is still ongoing; after finishing our data collection, we will analyze results on loan characteristics using administrative data from Chile’s financial regulator. We will also conduct a follow-up phone survey that will be used to measure effects on search behavior and better understand how people form and update priors in consumer credit markets. |
| 44th Annual BREAD Conference Date: Friday & Saturday, May 6th and 7th. This is an invite-only event |
Friday, May 6 8:00am Registration desk opens Continental breakfast available 9:00am Junior presentations begin Uchenna Efobi, Covenant University Is Raising the Age of Marriage Entry Good for Child’s Nutrition Intake? Evidence from the Reform of Ethiopia’s Family Law Arkodipta Sarkar, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Political Power-Sharing, Firm Entry, and Economic Growth: Evidence from Multiple Elected Representatives Jacob Moscona, Harvard University Age Set vs. Kin: Culture and Financial Ties in East Africa Jeffrey Michler, University of Arizona Privacy Protection, Measurement Error, and the Integration of Remote Sensing and Socioeconomic Survey Data 10:25 – 10:45am Break 10:45am Junior presentations resume Morgan Hardy, New York University Abu Dhabi Bills for Skills: Incentivizing employers to improve on-the-job training Jess Rudder, University of Chicago Do Small Firms Partially Insure Customers from Price Increases? Evidence from Retail Firms in Tanzania Felipe Valencia Caicedo, University of British Columbia Collateral Damage: The Legacy of the Secret War in Laos Maria Micaela Sviatschi, Princeton University Rebel Governance and Development: The Long Term Effects of Guerrillas in El Salvador 12:15pm Lunch 1:30pm Advanced presentations begin Sam Asher, Johns Hopkins The Long-run Development Impacts of Agricultural Productivity Gains: Evidence from Irrigation Canals in India Ruchi Mahadeshwar, Brown University Overcoming information gaps and the risk-income tradeoff in transactional sex with HIV self-tests: behavioral responses to new diagnostics 3:30pm Break 4:00pm Advanced presentations resume Bryce Steinberg, Brown University Human Capital in the Presence of Child Labor Maria Laura Alzua, Universidad Nacional de La Plata The Wellbeing Effects of an Old Age Pension: Experimental Evidence for Ekiti State in Nigeria 6:30pm Dinner 8:30pm Party! |
| Rookiefest This is an invite-only event |
The Global Poverty Research Lab annually hosts Development Rookiefest, which features an invited group of doctoral students in development economics presenting their job talk paper to scholars from the Chicagoland and greater Midwest area. More information here. |
| Development Lunch Speaker: Ritwika Sen Date: March 9th, 2022 from 12:30-1:45pm at KGH4302. |
Abstract: Check back soon |
| Development Lunch Speaker: Eduardo Campillo Betancourt Date: March 3rd, 2022 from 12:30-1:45pm at KGH4302. |
Abstract: Check back soon |
| Development Lunch Speaker: Sean Higgins Date: February 23, 2022 from 12:30-1:45pm at KGH4302. |
Abstract: Check back soon |
| Development Lunch Speaker: Cristina Clerici Date: February 16, 2022 from 12:30-1:45pm at KGH4302. |
Abstract: Check back soon |
| Development Lunch Speaker: Ryu Matsuura Title: Public Goods Provision to Muslim Villages by BJP Government (joint with Sam Asher and Paul Novosad) Date: February 09, 2022 from 12:30-1:45pm at KGH4302. |
Abstract: We have seen the rapid rise of populism across the globe. However, the impacts of populist parties on the socio-economic status of minority groups have been understudied in developing countries partly due to the lack of microdata. By utilizing the newly available microdata in India, we provide the suggestive evidence of the negative effects of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on public goods provisions to Muslim villages. Our findings suggest that (i) Muslim villages receive fewer public schools in the states ruled by BJP and (ii) Muslim villages do not receive as many public sector jobs as SC villages do in the states ruled by BJP. Moreover, we find that BJP state legislators provide fewer public schools to Muslim villages in the states ruled by BJP and that the negative effects of BJP on Muslim villages become salient after the party won the national election in 2014. |
December 1 202112:35-1:25pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Kensuke Maeba Title: "Caste cleavages, religious tensions, and voting behavior in India" |
November 17 202112:35-1:25pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Eduardo Campillo Betancourt Title: TBA |
November 10 202112:35-1:25pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Sarah Chloe Deschenes Title: TBA |
November 3 202112:35-1:25pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Jimmy Lee Title: TBA |
October 30 2021Online |
Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection
The Global Poverty Research Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) are hosting the Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection. This gathering provides a forum to present and discuss early results and recent working papers on financial inclusion and social inclusion research from the United States and abroad, including new work on household finance, consumer protection, savings and payments, women’s financial inclusion, social safety nets, cash transfers, labor market programs, youth employment, livelihood development, and targeting. |
October 29 2021Online |
Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection
The Global Poverty Research Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) are hosting the Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection. This gathering provides a forum to present and discuss early results and recent working papers on financial inclusion and social inclusion research from the United States and abroad, including new work on household finance, consumer protection, savings and payments, women’s financial inclusion, social safety nets, cash transfers, labor market programs, youth employment, livelihood development, and targeting. |
October 28 2021Location: TBA |
Research Methods and Measurement Meeting
Research on measurement and methods is important to the internal validity of empirical research. In 2015, Yale and IPA organized a meeting to discuss how to encourage methods and measurement research. This year the Global Poverty Research Lab is convening a follow-up meeting of interested researchers at Northwestern University. 1. Facilitate an informal conversation about measurement and methods by sharing work in progress and working papers. |
October 27 202112:35-1:25pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Kristina Manysheva Title: TBA |
October 20 202112:35-1:25pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Andrew Saab Title: TBA |
October 16 2021
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Development Rookiefest 2020 and 2021 The Global Poverty Research Lab hosts an annual Development Rookiefest featuring the year’s most promising doctoral students in development economics presenting their job talk paper to an audience of faculty and scholars from the Chicagoland and greater Midwest area. Development Rookiefest 2020/2021 will take place over two days in the fall. Questions about this event should be directed to Poverty-Research@Northwestern.edu.
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October 15 2021
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Development Rookiefest 2020 and 2021 The Global Poverty Research Lab hosts an annual Development Rookiefest featuring the year’s most promising doctoral students in development economics presenting their job talk paper to an audience of faculty and scholars from the Chicagoland and greater Midwest area. Development Rookiefest 2020/2021 will take place over two days in the fall. Questions about this event should be directed to Poverty-Research@Northwestern.edu.
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October 6 202112:35-1:25pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Matteo Ruzzante Title: TBA |
September 29 202112:30-1:30pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Erika Deserranno Title: Financial Incentives in Multi-layered Organizations: An Experiment in the Public Sector Abstract: A classic problem faced by organizations is to decide how to distribute incentives among their different layers. By means of a field experiment with a large public-health organization in Sierra Leone and a structural model, we show that financial incentives maximize output when they are equally shared between a front line worker and her supervisor. The impact of this intervention on completed health visits is 61% larger than the impact of incentive schemes that target exclusively the worker or the supervisor. Also, the shared incentives uniquely improve overall health-service provision and health outcomes. We use these experimental results to structurally estimate a model of service provision and find that shared incentives are effective because worker and supervisor effort are strong strategic complements. Finally, through the use of counterfactual model experiments, we highlight the importance of effort complementarities across the different layers of an organization for optimal policy design. |
June 6 2021
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2021 China Star Tour The China Star Tour is a 3 day event where 5-6 of the top U.S. Job Market Candidates are invited to share their job market papers to an audience at Chinese universities. The goal is to promote research on the frontier of economics of the highest quality in the region where there is arguably the largest growth in interest in economics. This year the event will be held virtually over the course of 3 evenings (Friday, 6/4 - Sunday, 6/6). Questions about this event should be directed to Grace Musante, Grace.Musante@Kellogg.Northwestern.edu
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June 5 2021
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2021 China Star Tour The China Star Tour is a 3 day event where 5-6 of the top U.S. Job Market Candidates are invited to share their job market papers to an audience at Chinese universities. The goal is to promote research on the frontier of economics of the highest quality in the region where there is arguably the largest growth in interest in economics. This year the event will be held virtually over the course of 3 evenings (Friday, 6/4 - Sunday, 6/6). Questions about this event should be directed to Grace Musante, Grace.Musante@Kellogg.Northwestern.edu
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June 4 2021
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2021 China Star Tour The China Star Tour is a 3 day event where 5-6 of the top U.S. Job Market Candidates are invited to share their job market papers to an audience at Chinese universities. The goal is to promote research on the frontier of economics of the highest quality in the region where there is arguably the largest growth in interest in economics. This year the event will be held virtually over the course of 3 evenings (Friday, 6/4 - Sunday, 6/6). Questions about this event should be directed to Grace Musante, Grace.Musante@Kellogg.Northwestern.edu
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June 2 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Hossein Alidaee Title: Is Context a Mechanism Behind Social Learning? A Proposal for a Lab Experiment Abstract: Information acquisition is central to technology adoption decisions. Two common sources of information about returns include (i) central sources, such as government information campaigns, and (ii) social learning from peers. Central sources often have greater data on returns—yet, we lack empirical evidence that social learning is less persuasive. Understanding social learning's efficacy is particularly important for technologies where returns are highly heterogeneous and information acquisition is a major barrier to adoption. I propose one potential mechanism, which I refer to as context uncertainty. I will test this mechanism via a lab-in-the-field experiment with a sample of smallholder farmers. If valid, this mechanism provides a framework to improve informational interventions from central sources. |
May 26 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Kensuke Maeba Title: Net influences from polling officers Abstract: This project characterizes the influences of election officers on election outcomes in India. In order to quantify them, we first construct and estimate a voting model in which each voter chooses one candidate based on his preferences and influences from election officers. We then decompose the estimated influences into observable and unobservable traits of election officers. In this presentation, we first talk about our research context and the voting model. Then we show quantitative results using the data from Neggers (2018, AER) to demonstrate a simplified version of our empirical approach. Finally, we conclude the talk with a brief discussion about the next steps of the project. |
May 21 2021
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Economic History Rookiefest 2020 and 2021 The Global Poverty Research Lab is hosting Economic History Rookiefest. The year’s most promising doctoral students in Economic History will present their job talk paper to an audience of faculty and scholars from the Chicagoland and greater Midwest area. Economic History Rookiefest will take place on Friday, 5/21. Questions about this event should be directed to Grace Musante, Grace.Musante@Kellogg.Northwestern.edu
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May 19 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Matteo Magnaricotte Title: College Entry and Inequality of Access to Education in Peru (with José Luis Flor Toro) Abstract: Equal access to higher education represents an important policy goal as the sector expands: in LATAM countries, access to HE has been estimated to be 4 times more unequal than to secondary education. Little evidence exists for the distributional effects on access of the creation of public and private universities. Leveraging the fast growth the Peruvian HE sector had since the 1960s, we study the effects of opening a new university on the attainment of individuals living in its proximity, finding that private university entry increases access more than public entry, with the increase following public entry enjoyed only by Spanish native speakers, thereby increasing access inequality. To disentangle the effects of admission policies from preferences, we model and estimate the demand for higher education. We find that less advantaged students enjoy the highest utility increase from proximity when admitted, but their lower probability of admission drastically reduces the expected gains from public college entry. |
May 19 202111:00-12:00pm |
GPRL Coffee Chat The Global Poverty Research Lab is proud to bring you a Coffee Chat with Prof. Robert Osei, the Associate Professor in the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), and also the Vice Dean for the School of Graduate Studies, at the University of Ghana. He will describe how he got his start in development economics, and also present his recent work, “The Dynamics and Interactions of Income Inequality and the Inequality of Opportunity in Ghana.” The last 30 minutes are reserved for questions from the audience about any subject, as well as resources for how students can get involved in research. Mission: The mission of GPRL Coffee Chats is to connect students to faculty (and other professionals) in an informal setting so they can learn more about a career in international development. Speaker: Robert Osei, Director, Ghana Node of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research, University of Ghana Speaker Bio: Robert is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), and also the Vice Dean for the School of Graduate Studies, at the University of Ghana. Robert’s main areas of research include evaluative poverty and rural research, macro and micro implications of fiscal policies, aid effectiveness and other economic development policy concerns. Robert is currently the Head of the Ghana node of the African Centre of Excellence in Inequality Research (ACEIR Ghana node) and serves on a number of public and private boards. To RSVP, please email Caitlin Rowe rowe@northwestern.edu |
May 12 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Siddhant Agarwal Title: Breaking Caste Barriers: Reservations and Endogamy Abstract: Endogamy remains the strongest pillar supporting the caste system in India. In this paper, I propose to estimate the effect that affirmative action favouring backward castes, in the form of reserved quotas in government jobs and universities, might have on caste endogamy. I hope to use online marriage portal data to estimate any potential decreases in the demand for endogamous partners, and commonly-used survey data to estimate effects on actual marriage outcomes. |
May 6 20217:30-9:00pm |
China Econ Lab Master Lecture Speaker: Emi Nakamura, UC-Berkeley Chancellor's Professor, John Bates Clark Medalist Title: Research on Empirical Macroeconomics Questions about this event should be directed to Grace Musante, Grace.Musante@Kellogg.Northwestern.edu |
May 5 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Eduardo Campillo Betancourt Title: Economic Mobility and Religious Conversions Abstract: Historically, India’s caste system has imposed restrictions, often violently enforced, on the occupations that people can have depending on their social status. These boundaries can hinder economic mobility, particularly for lower-caste people, and create frictions as workers attempt to reallocate across occupations. As the value of occupations outside those ascribed by their social standing grows, the incentive for people to abandon their caste status increases as well. In my analysis, I show that when low-to-middle-status occupations become more profitable, the number of low-caste converts away from Hinduism grows. Contrastingly, I find no such effect when middle-to-high-status occupations become increasingly attractive. This pattern of results supports a framework in which low-caste people are induced to convert away from Hinduism in order to take advantage of higher-paying occupations that are accessible to them in terms of social status and/or human capital. |
May 1 2021
8:00-1:30pm
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2021 Midwest International Economic Development Conference Keynote Speaker: Eliana La Ferrara, Fondazione Romeo ed Enrica Invernizzi Chair in Development Economics at Università Bocconi
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April 30 2021
All Day
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2021 Midwest International Economic Development Conference Keynote Speaker: Eliana La Ferrara, Fondazione Romeo ed Enrica Invernizzi Chair in Development Economics at Università Bocconi
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April 28 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Utsav Manjeer Title: The Effect of Export Activity on Domestic Prices: Evidence from India's Rice Sector Abstract: How does export activity affect prices in domestic consumer markets? To explore this question, I exploit a natural experiment provided by India’s rice export restrictions during 2007-2011. I first document that the binding restrictions had a considerable negative impact on producers. However, there is little evidence to suggest that the lower prices transmitted to consumers. To estimate the causal impact of export activity on domestic consumer prices, I use a difference-in-differences framework. I show that, following the imposition of export restrictions, Indian districts with higher exposure to export trade experienced a greater increase in prices paid by consumers in local markets. To measure the intensity of exposure to trade, I use a novel strategy exploiting spatial variation in districts’ proximities to export trade routes along India’s road network. The estimated price effects are substantial – prices increased by an additional 5 to 6.5 percent in districts exposed to export activity. Further, the impact of export activity on prices is most pronounced for higher-quality products. I illustrate that the presence of increasing returns in internal trade - strong complementarities between exports and intra-national trade are the main forces driving my results. By exploiting synergies with export activity, intra-national trade encounters lower domestic trade costs, which are then translated to lower prices faced by consumers in domestic markets. My findings suggest that promoting export activity could be a means to reduce intra-national trade barriers for large developing economies. |
April 20 2021
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Political Economy Student Rookie Workshop 2021 The first annual Political Economy Student Rookie Workshop will take place on Monday, April 19th, and Tuesday, April 20th. A select group of doctoral students in the political economy field will present their job talk paper to an audience of faculty and scholars from the Chicagoland and greater Midwest area via zoom. Political Economy Student Rookie Workshop 2021 will take place over the course of two days. For more information please contact Grace Musante, Grace.Musante@Kellogg.Northwestern.edu This event is invite-only.
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April 19 2021
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Political Economy Student Rookie Workshop 2021 The first annual Political Economy Student Rookie Workshop will take place on Monday, April 19th, and Tuesday, April 20th. A select group of doctoral students in the political economy field will present their job talk paper to an audience of faculty and scholars from the Chicagoland and greater Midwest area via zoom. Political Economy Student Rookie Workshop 2021 will take place over the course of two days. For more information please contact Grace Musante, Grace.Musante@Kellogg.Northwestern.edu This event is invite-only.
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April 7 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Ricardo Dahis Title: The Impact of 3G Mobile Internet on Educational Outcomes in Brazil Abstract: Does the availability of mobile broadband internet affect children's test scores? We compare Portuguese and math scores before and after the staggered entry of 3G into Brazil's 5,570 municipalities using an event study design. Despite the evidence that 3G is widely adopted and used by Brazilians, we find that there is no effect of mobile internet on Portuguese or math scores, and can reject effect sizes of 0.02 standard deviations for 5th grade students, and 0.01 standard deviations for 9th grade students. Taken together, our results indicate that simply offering high-speed mobile internet is not sufficient to improve educational outcomes. |
March 31 2021
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The China Econ Lab Submission Process Workshop The China Econ Lab is hosting a fireside chat about the U.S. publication process with the editors from the Journal of European Economic Association (Paola Giuliano), the Review of Economics and Statistics (Rema Hanna and Daniel Xu), and the Journal of Public Economics (Juan Carlos Serrato). There will be a round table discussion followed by a short Q&A. Questions about this event should be directed to Grace Musante, Grace.Musante@Kellogg.Northwestern.edu This event is by invite only.
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March 31 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Sean Higgins Title: Price Comparison Tools in Consumer Credit Markets Abstract: Consumer credit markets feature large amounts of price dispersion, and the same consumer can be offered substantially different interest rates by different banks. Nevertheless, consumers do not search much across banks: in Chile, only 3% of consumers searched at another bank after receiving a loan offer. One reason consumers may not search is that they have inaccurate expectations about price dispersion or the benefits of search. Using administrative data on the universe of consumer loans from Chile's financial regulator, we built an interactive loan price comparison tool. The tool provides just-in-time, personalized information by showing a consumer the distribution of interest rates that similar consumers received for similar loans in the past six months. We will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) among Chilean consumers who are searching for a loan to measure the impact of the loan price comparison tool on priors about prices and price dispersion, planned and actual search behavior, and eventual loan terms. |
March 17 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Ameet Morjaria Title: Acquisitions, Management and Efficiency: Evidence from Rwanda's Coffee Industry (joint work with Rocco Macchiavello) Abstract: Markets in low-income countries often display long tails of inefficient firms and significant misallocation. This paper studies Rwandan coffee mills, an industry initially characterized by widespread inefficiencies that has recently seen a process of consolidation in which exporters have acquired control of a significant number of mills giving rise to multi-plant groups. We combine administrative data with original surveys of both mills and acquirers to understand the consequences of this consolidation. Difference-in-difference results suggest that, controlling for mill and year fixed effects, a mill acquired by a foreign group, but not by a domestic group, improves both productivity and product quality. The difference in performance is not accompanied by changes in mill technology or differential access to capital. Upon acquisition, both foreign and domestic group change mills' managers. Foreign groups, however, recruit younger, more educated and higher ability managers, pay these managers a higher salary (even conditional on manager and mill characteristics) and grant them more autonomy. These “better” managers explain about half of the better performance associated with foreign ownership. The difference in performance reflects superior implementation, rather than management knowledge: following an acquisition, managers in domestic and foreign groups try to implement the same management changes but managers in domestic groups report significantly higher resistance from both workers and farmers and fail to implement the changes. The results have implications for our understanding of organizational change and for fostering market development in emerging markets. |
March 10 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Joris Mueller Title: China's Outward Foreign Aid and Domestic Strategic Motives Abstract: This paper tests whether China uses outward foreign aid to pursue domestic policy goals. First, I show that aid projects are allocated to firms that internalize the government's goal of stabilizing domestic employment in prefectures experiencing labor unrest. I then show that local unrest in China also influences which countries receive foreign aid and when. Finally, I exploit this variation to construct an instrumental variable for foreign aid and find positive short-term effects on recipient country GDP and consumption.
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March 4 20215:00-6:00pm |
GPRL Coffee Chat Speaker: Seema Jayachandran Title: “Missing women”: Causes and consequences of gender ratios in developing countries Co-sponsored by: The Circle of Women The Economics Department To RSVP please email Shloka Shetty shlokashetty2021@u.northwestern.edu |
March 3 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Matteo Magnaricotte Title: Local Specialization and Growth: The Italian Land Reform (joint work with Riccardo Bianchi-Vimercati and Giampaolo Lecce) Abstract: This paper analyzes a large-scale redistribution policy and its short- and long-term effects on industrial structure and economic development. We focus on a major land reform implemented by the Italian government in the 1950s. We assemble a novel dataset on the expropriations at the municipal level and on pre- and post-reform socio-economic characteristics. A difference in difference model provides evidence that areas with higher incidence of expropriations reported more employed workers in the agricultural sector (and less in the manufacturing one) in the aftermath of the reform. This result persists over the decades. Finally, we analyze the long-term impact of the reform and, using a matching estimator, we provide evidence of a negative effects on economic growth in the long run: municipalities exposed to the land redistribution are associated with significantly lower income growth in the period 1970-2000. |
February 24 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Jacopo Ponticelli Title: The Effects of Climate Change on Labor and Capital Reallocation: Evidence from Brazil, (joint work with Paula Bustos and Christoph Albert) Abstract: We study the effect of climate change on the reallocation of labor and capital across regions and sectors. First, we estimate the effect of extreme weather events occurred in Brazil in the last two decades on the local economy of the affected areas. Second, we assess the magnitude and direction of labor and capital flows that they generate. Finally, we study their impact on destination regions. |
February 19 202112pm CST |
Feed Your Mind with Chris Udry *Space is limited to 20 students* |
February 17 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Miguel Talamás Marcos Title: David vs Goliath: Mexican Corner Stores Facing Convenience Chains Abstract: This paper studies how one of the most prevalent forms of microenterprises, the corner store, responds to increasing competition of large convenience chains. To address the endogenous entry problem, this paper leverages time and market fixed effects with an instrumental variable based on a cost shifter for convenience chains - regional economies of scale - and suitability for convenience chains measured by street width. Convenience chains lead to a reduction in the number of corner stores. This effect is not driven by an increase in exits of corner stores, but by deterring their entry. The managerial advantages of the corner stores being owner-operated allows them to remain productive and keep their core customers. |
February 10 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Kieu-Trang Nguyen Title: Astrology and Matrimony: The Real Effects of Religious Beliefs about Marriage in Vietnam Abstract: This paper investigates the real consequences of a system of unscientific, illogical religious beliefs in Vietnam. They prescribe that the matching of husband and wife can be auspicious or inauspicious depending on the pair of their birth years. First, we estimate a structural model of assortative marriage matching market, and show that such beliefs in marriage fortune matter to people’s marriage matching, as much as 15% of how much the age and education profile matters. Second, based on this model, we derive a control function for selection into marriage to estimate the effect of auspicious matches on household outcomes, free of the selection bias. We find that auspicious matches increase household expenditure and income by about 3%, and reduces school dropouts without changing the number and composition of children. The likely mechanism operates on relatives’ transfers in case of a negative shock: auspicious couples receive much more transfer when, say, the family suffers from a health shock. Third, we discuss how such testable, unscientific beliefs can persist when their refutation depends on actions 2-3 steps off the equilibrium path. |
February 3 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Alexey Makarin Title: Production Networks and War (with Vasily Korovkin) Abstract: How do severe shocks, such as war, alter the economy? We study how a country's production network is affected by a devastating but localized conflict. We use novel transaction-level data on Ukrainian railway shipments, complemented by administrative data on firms, to document the effect of war on firms and interfirm trade. First, we document substantial propagation effects-trade declines even between firms outside the conflict areas if one of them had traded with the conflict areas before the war. Our estimates suggest that the magnitude of the second-degree effect of conflict is one-third of the first-degree effect. Second, we study firm-level consequences of a change in production network structure. Firms that, for exogenous reasons, become more central in the production network after the start of the conflict receive a lasting boost to their revenues and a temporary one to their profits. A temporary increase in markups suggests a rise in market power as one of the mechanisms. Finally, in a production networks model, we separate the effects of exogenous firm removal and subsequent endogenous network adjustment on firm revenue distribution. At the median of the distribution, network adjustment compensates for 72% of network destruction. |
January 29 202111-12pm CST |
GPRL Coffee Chat with Madeleen Husselman (Country Director, IPA Ghana) The Global Poverty Research Lab is proud to bring you a Coffee Chat with Madeleen Husselman, the Country Director of the Ghana office at Innovations for Poverty Action. She will describe how she got her start in development economics, and also present her recent work, “Reducing Learning Gaps: The Case of Targeted Instruction in Ghana.” The last 30 minutes are reserved for questions from the audience about any subject, as well as resources for how students can get involved in research.
Speaker Bio: Madeleen Husselman is the Country Director of the IPA Ghana office. Before joining this role in 2017, she oversaw all IPA activities in northern Ghana for 4 years, and was with the IPA Zambia office as a Project Coordinator for 2.5 years. Madeleen holds a combined BSc/MSc degree in Tropical Landuse from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Mission: The mission of GPRL Coffee Chats is to connect students to faculty (and other professionals) in an informal setting so they can learn more about a career in international development. RSVP here for Zoom link |
January 27 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Seema Jayachandran Title: A five-question women's agency index created using machine learning and qualitative interviews (with M. Biradavolu and J. Cooper). Abstract: We develop a new short survey module for measuring women's agency by combining mixed-methods data collection and machine learning. We select the best five survey questions for the module based on how strongly correlated they are with a "gold standard" measure of women's agency. For a sample of 209 women in Haryana, India, we measure agency, first, through a semi-structured in-depth interview and, second, through a large set of close-ended questions. We use qualitative coding methods to score each woman's agency based on the interview, which we treat as her true agency. To identify the subset of close-ended questions most predictive of the "truth", we apply statistical methods similar to standard machine learning except that we specify how many survey questions are selected. The resulting 5-question index is as strongly correlated with the coded qualitative interview as is an index that uses all of the candidate questions. We also considered a second gold standard measure of agency, a real-stakes choice between money for oneself or one's husband. This lab game, however, does not measure agency cleanly in our setting. Thus, our preferred survey measure of agency is the one validated against qualitative interviews. |
January 20 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Erika Deserranno Title: Meritocratic Promotions and Worker Productivity: An Experiment in the Public Sector (joint work with Gianmarco Leon and Philipp Kastrau) Abstract: We study the effect of making the promotion criteria in an organization more performance-based (i.e., more meritocratic), the effect of increasing the prize associated with a promotion (i.e., more pay progression), and the interplay of the two on worker productivity. In collaboration with a large public sector organization in Sierra Leone, we introduce exogenous variation at the team level in the extent to which the promotion decision from a Community Health Worker (lower-tier) position to a Peer Supervisor (upper-tier) position is based on worker performance (rather than on personal connections). We cross-randomize this with variation in the perceived pay progression between these two positions. We find that more meritocracy in the promotion system increases worker productivity, especially for workers who perceive the pay progression to be large and for those who are highly-ranked in terms of performance. Higher pay progression has opposite effects depending on meritocracy. In meritocratic promotion regimes, a steeper pay progression motivates lower-tier workers to “climb the organization’s ladder” and prompts an increase in their effort. In non-meritocratic promotion regimes, a steeper pay progression instead demotivates workers, lowering their productivity. The combination of steep pay progression and low meritocracy that is the norm in many bureaucracies in developing countries and in multiple private sector firms around the world may thus hinder the productivity of lower-tier workers. |
January 13 20211:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Ashley Wong (30 min / Open 30 min) Title: Business Collaborations and Female Entrepreneurship (joint work with Edward Asiedu, Francesca Truffa, and Monica Lambon-Quayefio) Abstract: Can reducing search and contracting frictions increase business collaborations and improve firm performance? In January 2021, we will conduct an RCT in Ghana on a sample of 2000 female entrepreneurs of SMEs. We will investigate the effects of an online matching service combined with access to legal information and advisory services on collaborations, firm innovation and performance. In this presentation, we will present statistics from our baseline survey and discuss next steps for the implementation of the intervention. |
December 2 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Kensuke Maeba Title: Public School Teachers and Political Connection in India Abstract: This project studies the effects of former-school-teacher state legislative assembly members on public elementary education in India. Former-teacher politicians serve as one of the main channels through which public school teachers exercise their political power in order to protect their privileges. We show how this translates into school-level education outcomes, by exploiting close elections won/lost by school teacher candidates. In the presentation, we will talk about the reduced form results and provide suggestive evidence on the underlying mechanisms. |
November 18 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Joris Mueller Title: China's Outward Foreign Aid and Domestic Strategic Motives Abstract: I examine how domestic strategic motives influence the allocation of the large-scale but poorly understood foreign aid and lending China provides to developing countries. Using a unique contract- and firm-level dataset, I show that more foreign aid projects are allocated during periods of local political and economic unrest to firms in China that are designated of national strategic importance and directly owned by the central government. The allocation of World Bank projects to Chinese firms does not follow this pattern. Political connections between contractors and government officials do not account for the observed relationship between unrest and project allocation specific to firms close to the state. I conclude by demonstrating that this domestic strategic motive influencing the allocation of contracts to firms in China may affect which recipient countries get foreign aid and lending, how much, and when.
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November 12 202012-1pm |
GPRL Coffee Chat with Prof. Jacopo Ponticelli The Global Poverty Research Lab is proud to bring you a Coffee Chat with Prof. Jacopo Ponticelli. He will describe how he got his start in development economics, and also present his recent work, “Household Credit as Stimulus? Evidence from Brazil.” The last 30 minutes are reserved for questions from the audience about any subject, as well as resources for how students can get involved in research.
Speaker Bio: Jacopo Ponticelli is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management. He is an applied economist who primarily studies corporate finance and development economics. His research interests include law and finance, financial development, and economic growth. Mission: The mission of GPRL Coffee Chats is to connect students to faculty (and other professionals) in an informal setting so they can learn more about a career in international development. RSVP here for Zoom link |
November 11 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar First Presenter: Ritwika Sen Title: Covid19 and the Value of Relationships in Informal Economies (with Vittorio Bassi, Tommaso Porzio and Esau Tugume)
Abstract: This project focuses on the value of employment relationships in informal economies, where there are usually no written labor or trade contracts. By studying the resilience of these relationships to the Covid19 lockdown, we seek to understand whether these relationships are valuable, and to clarify the sources of their value. We argue that in periods of normalcy inefficient firm-worker matches may persist in the presence of labor market frictions. However, these relationships will be disrupted if they hold little value and there is a cost to re-match (e.g. workers traveling back to the city) as managers will hire different workers once firms reopen after the lockdown. If instead relationships are valuable, these will restart despite any costs to re-match even in the absence of formal contracts. Our starting point is a representative survey of about 1,000 managers and their employees that we conducted in 2018-19. We are now re-surveying this sample through a phone survey to understand which relationships have been disrupted and why. To further examine the sources of relationship value we introduce a nudging experiment and plan to interpret our findings using an adaptation of the canonical Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides (DMP) model of search and matching. Second Presenter: Hossein Alidaee Title: “Recovering Network Structure from Aggregated Relational Data using Penalized Regression”, joint w. E. Auerbach and M. Leung Abstract: Social network data can be expensive to collect. Breza (2020) propose aggregated relational data (ARD) as a low-cost substitute that can be used to recover the structure of a latent social network when it is generated by a specific parametric random effects model. Our main observation is that many economic network formation models produce networks that are effectively low-rank. As a consequence, network recovery from ARD is generally possible without parametric assumptions using a nuclear-norm penalized regression. We demonstrate how to implement this method and provide finite-sample bounds on the mean squared error of the resulting estimator for the distribution of network links. Computation takes seconds for samples with hundreds of observations. Easy-to-use code in R and Python can be found at https://github.com/mpleung/ARD. |
October 28 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Matteo Magnaricotte Title: College Entry, Educational Spillovers, and Market Structure in Perú (joint with J. Flor-Toro) Abstract: As they complete the compulsory component of their schooling, students have to weigh the benefits from further education against its cost. The availability of college education can decrease the probability of dropout by increasing the ex-ante returns to a high school diploma. Analyzing the fast-growing higher education market of Peru, we provide preliminary evidence regarding the spillovers of colleges on secondary schooling, identifying an increase in high school graduation rates of similar size to the increase in students attending university. We observe that this spillover effect is present for public colleges but not for private ones. We further discuss how the sequentiality of educational choices and spillover effects of public colleges can affect market structure and private entry. |
October 21 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Eduardo Campillo Betancourt Title: Citizenship Policy and the Spread of Communicable Diseases: Evidence from the Dominican Republic (joint with F. Alba-Vivar and J. Flor-Toro) Abstract: We study two controversial policies in the Dominican Republic in 2013 and 2015 that targeted as much as 10% of the country's population based on their foreign ancestry and limited their safe access to services such as health. Beyond the direct negative effects such policies may have on the targeted group, we argue that there may be important indirect effects from such policies through the contagion of communicable diseases. We exploit the timing and differential exposure to these policies across the country, as well as highly disaggregated epidemiological data on diseases to provide evidence of these indirect effects. Our estimates provide evidence of a notable increase in the caseload of Dengue, a highly contagious disease. Contrarily, there are no effects either for communicable diseases that are less contagious, or for non-communicable diseases. We argue that these results are due to a restriction in access to health services. |
October 14 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: José Flor-Toro Title: Getting health professionals to underserved areas in developing countries: wages, career-incentives, and selection (joint with M. Magnaricotte) Abstract: Human resources in health are unequally distributed within many developing countries, a factor which contributes to unequal access to health. Since job positions in poor and remote areas are often unattractive to health professionals, governments rely on different incentives to draw professionals to underserved areas. Are these incentives efficient in attracting health professionals and are they ultimately effective in improving health outcomes? We study Peru’s civil service requirement in remote areas for recently graduated health professionals, and two major reforms on the schedule of wages and career incentives for this particular system. We exploit discontinuities in the incentives schedules introduced by the reforms to document two facts. First, while both incentives seem to be effective in attracting health professionals scoring higher in major-specific tests, physicians respond strongly to career incentives and nurses to pay increases. Second, despite observably 'better' health professionals, health outcomes did not improve and in some cases worsened. We argue that this may result from the pattern of selection created by reforms in a system with limited job positions, different incentives, and different types of health professionals beyond what is measured in test scores. We then discuss a framework to quantify these selection patterns by exploiting administrative data and the system's centralized allocation.
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October 12 20204:30-5:30pm |
GPRL Coffee Chat with Prof. Nancy Qian The Global Poverty Research Lab and the Undergraduate Economics Society (UES) have partnered up to bring you a Coffee Chat with Prof. Nancy Qian. She will describe how she got her start in development economics, and also present her recent work, “The Rise and Fall of Local Elections in China.” The last 30 minutes are reserved for questions from the audience about any subject, as well as resources for how students can get involved in research.
Speaker Bio: Nancy Qian is the James J. O'Connor Professor at Kellogg MEDS and the founding director of China Lab, a part of Northwestern's Global Poverty Research Lab. Her research provides empirical evidence for a set of core questions in development economics from four sub-categories: demography and development, geography and development, institutions and development and culture and development. Mission: The mission of GPRL Coffee Chats is to connect students to faculty (and other professionals) in an informal setting so they can learn more about a career in international development.
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October 7 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Jimmy Lee Title: Conventional Roles, Beliefs, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Agricultural Innovations: Preliminary Evidence, Theory, and a Field Experiment in Liberia Abstract: As the youth population and school enrollment continue to rise in sub-Saharan Africa, school programs that provide practical life skills are increasingly common. Such programs can cost-effectively diffuse new knowledge into households. However, students conventionally assist their elders in many household decisions. A reversal of roles is required for students to teach their elders new practices. Unaware of skills that students have learnt in schools, elders are skeptical that students have valuable knowledge. Students, knowing that elders are skeptical, might be reluctant to engage in discussions of what they have learnt. This paper studies these informational barriers to intergenerational transmission of innovations in the context of a school-based agricultural education program in Liberia. I construct a novel game that highlights inefficiencies in communication when (i) an information friction hindering one player’s update on the state of nature is commonly known to both parties; (ii) costs of communication and/or sanctions for violating prevailing norms necessitate coordination between players; and (iii) players form beliefs with reference to conventional roles. I design a field experiment to separately identify biases in the reduced-form beliefs of students and their elders, to test policy-relevant informational treatments, and to measure their effects on the flow of agricultural innovations and production patterns within households. |
September 30 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Sean Higgins Title: Increasing Financial Inclusion and Attracting Deposits through Prize-Linked Savings Abstract: Despite the benefits of saving in formal financial institutions, take-up and use of savings accounts are low among the poor. In a randomized experiment across 110 bank branches throughout Mexico, we provide a temporary incentive to both open and use a savings account: saving earns raffle tickets for cash prizes. We find that 41% more accounts are opened in treatment branches than control branches during the incentive months, and the temporary two-month incentive has a lasting three-year impact on the number of deposits made at treatment branches. Prize-linked savings can thus benefit both poor households and banks. |
September 23 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Chao Liu Title: Early-Life Health and Lifetime Outcomes: Evidence from the Large-Scale Schistosomiasis Eradication in China (joint work with G.G. Liu) Abstract: Schistosomiasis is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world. This paper studies a large-scale deworming program targeted to schistosomiasis in China, to identify the long-term impacts of early-life health on adult outcomes. Using multiple identification strategies, we find that the disease control campaign led to increased educational attainment and adult economic status. The education effect for women was greater than that for men, but the income effect was reversed. Moreover, people in counties with a low initial education level mainly improved in basic education. The results also suggest that the education effect was larger when the intervention happened in utero and for people from a low socioeconomic background. Furthermore, we document the positive impact on employment for people in their fifties, job prestigiousness, adult health, and cognitive abilities. We also find a positive effect on the education level of the treated cohorts’ children. |
September 16 20201:00-2:00pm |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Nancy Qian Title: The Soviet Great Famine, 1932–33 (joint with A. Markevich and N. Naumenko) Abstract: This paper investigates the causes of the Soviet Great Famine, 1932–33, and documents several new empirical facts. First, excess mortality was much higher in regions with a higher share of ethnic Ukrainians, even outside of the Soviet Republic of Ukraine. Second, this cannot be explained by differences in natural conditions, grain productivity, demographic structure or urbanization. Third, in regions with a higher share of ethnic Ukrainians, Soviet economic policies were implemented more zealously, which resulted in higher food procurement and famine mortality. Fourth, there is suggestive evidence that mortality was exacerbated by the presence of non-ethnic Ukrainian Communist Party bureaucrats. These and other results in the paper provide novel evidence for the presence of ethnic bias in famine-era Soviet policies and the contribution of ethnic bias to famine mortality.
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May 27 20201:00-2:00pmOnline |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Utsav Manjeer Title: Let the (P)rice Flow: The Local Economic Effects of India's Agricultural Export Ban Abstract: Restrictive and uncertain trade regimes are prevalent in developing countries. While trade restrictions are often intended to shield the economy from volatility in global markets, such distortions can have unintended consequences for economic agents across the supply chain in domestic markets. I investigate the local economic effects of India’s wheat and rice export ban during 2007-2011. Using data from almost 2 million transactions, I first show that farmers received lower prices particularly in, but not limited to, areas that the ban is more likely to affect. I then show that there is limited evidence of transmission of the low prices to consumers. Using a novel approach with trade routes, I argue that the export ban worsens domestic market integration. One driving force I find is that farmers restrict supply. I also discuss next steps and other potential mechanisms at play, including the uncertainty surrounding agriculture policy and grain procurement policies of the government.
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May 20 20201:00-2:00pmOnline |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Matteo Magnaricotte Title: College Entry and Local Market Outcomes in Perú (joint with José Flor-Toro) Abstract: We study the effects of entry of universities on local outcomes in the context of Peru. Especially in developing countries, the opening of a university is seen as a harbinger of economic prosperity. However, proper identification of such effects poses notable challenges, and reliable empirical evidence remains scant. Thanks to favorable institutional characteristics of the political and higher education context in Peru, we propose an identification strategy new to the literature addressing the research question, and present preliminary results.
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May 13 20201:00-2:00pmOnline |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Silvia Vannutelli (Boston University) Title: Monitoring and Local Governance: Evidence from Italy Abstract: Monitoring by external auditors is a ubiquitous practice in complex organizations. Frequently, the audited entity appoints the external auditor. While locally-appointed auditors might have better local knowledge, leaving discretion in the hands of the audited party might impair monitoring quality. In this paper, I exploit a unique setting which allows me to evaluate this trade-off in the context of auditing of municipal budgets of local governments. In 2011, Italy introduced a reform that removed the discretion of the appointment of municipal auditors from mayors and introduced a random-assignment system. The objective of the reform was to strengthen monitoring and ensure fiscal sustainability of municipal budgets. I study the consequences of increased monitoring on public finance outcomes of local governments. My identification exploits the staggered introduction of the reform across municipalities in an event-study setting. I obtain three main findings. First, the reform greatly increased compliance with fiscal rules: treated municipalities increase their surpluses by 20% and their debt repayments by 2%. Second, improvements largely come from municipalities in which the mayor had control of the appointment of the previous auditor and from those local governments that were running deficits before the reform. Third, the improvement in compliance with fiscal rules comes at a cost: treated municipalities significantly cut investment expenditures by over 7% and increase local taxes by 8%.
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May 6 20201:00-2:00pmOnline |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Joris Mueller Title: China’s Development Assistance and the Role of its Firms Abstract: Many countries provide foreign aid to facilitate economic stability and development in poor countries. I posit that donors may also use development assistance to other countries to stabilize demand within their own economies. I study the context of China, which provides much of its official development assistance (ODA) in the form of physical infrastructure, thereby subsidizing and generating business for Chinese contractors and suppliers. Using a novel firm-level dataset, I find that the Chinese government smoothens demand across state-owned firms in strategic sectors by allocating ODA projects to firms that face relatively lower, exogenous demand from other sources. As a placebo check, I show that unsubsidized official loans to the same set of countries and firms do not follow this pattern. I also address potential confounders at the home prefecture-, sector-, and recipient country-level and provide robustness to several other checks. |
April 29 20201:00-2:00pmOnline |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Ricardo Dahis Title: Development via Autonomy and Funds: Evidence from Brazil Abstract: Countries may promote regional development by allowing localities to self-select into emancipation and by providing intergovernmental grants to those who split. In large countries, where multiple districts exist within administrative units, the net benefits of splitting into a new unit may be largest for those that are physically isolated, rural, and poor. This paper tests this idea in the context of Brazil, where a window of opportunity between 1988-96 generated an increase of 24% in the number of municipalities. We first show that districts requesting to split are on average smaller, more rural and poorer than the rest of the country. Second, using as control group the districts that request to split but have their case denied, we show that splitting causes increases in agglomeration and night luminosity for new municipalities, but no effects on remaining districts. At the municipality level, splits cause (1) a spike in local capital investment, (2) steady growth in the bureaucracy size, (3) improvements in education and public services provision. Finally, we also estimate and discuss returns to fiscal investment via an IV exercise.
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April 22 20201:00-2:00pmOnline |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Alison Andrew (Institute for Fiscal Studies, UCL) joint with Abi Adams-Prassl (University of Oxford) Title: Preferences and Beliefs in the Marriage Market for Young Brides Rajasthani women typically leave school early and marry young. We develop a novel discrete choice methodology using hypothetical vignettes to elicit average parental preferences over a daughter's education and age of marriage, and subjective beliefs about the evolution of her marriage market prospects. We find parents have a strong preference for delaying a daughter's marriage until eighteen but no further. Conditional on a marriage match, parents place little intrinsic value on a daughter's education. However, they believe the probability of receiving a good marriage offer increases strongly with a daughter's education but deteriorates quickly with her age on leaving school.
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April 8 20201:00-2:00pmOnline |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Hossein Alidaee Title: Is Context a Mechanism Behind Social Learning? A Proposal for a Lab Experiment
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March 4 20201:00-2:00pmLocation: KGH 1410 |
Development Economics Lunch Seminar Speaker: Miguel Talamas Title: David vs Goliath: Mexican Corner Stores Facing Convenience Chains Abstract: Corner stores are a prevalent type of the more than 200 million microenterprises in developing countries. This paper analyses how corner stores face competition from potentially more efficient entrants: the convenience store chains that have rapidly expanded in the last two decades. The setting is Mexico, where there are more than 500 thousand corner stores and the number of large-chain convenience stores has grown from less than 2,000 in 1999 to more than 15,000 in 2014.
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February 20 20205:00-6:00pmKresge Hall 2343 |
Panel Discussion with GPRL Research Analysts Thursday, February 20, 2020 5:00 - 6:00 PM Kresge Hall 2343 1880 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL The Global Poverty Research Lab Speaker Series and the Undergraduate Economics Society (UES) have partnered up to bring you a panel discussion with three of GPRL’s research analysts. They will talk about their undergraduate experiences, their career trajectories, and how to get involved in development economics. In the last 30 minutes, they will take questions from the audience. Bubble tea will be provided. |
January 16 202012:00 PM - 1:00 PM
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GPRL Speaker Series: Prof. Lori Beaman The Global Poverty Research Lab Speaker Series and the Department of Economics Feed Your Mind Lunch Series have partnered up to bring you a presentation by Professor Lori Beaman (Economics). She will present on her latest research for 30 minutes and then open the floor to a discussion related to economics, research, or any related topic of students' choice. *Please note space is limited to the first 10 students. Speaker Bio: Lori Beaman, Associate Professor of Economics and Global Poverty Research Lab Affiliate. She is a development economist whose research interests are centered on three themes: the role of social networks in the labor market, agricultural technology adoption and women's mobility. About the Series: The GPRL Speaker Series is an opportunity for undergraduate students to learn about GPRL affiliated faculty’s ongoing research, as well as how their academic and professional experiences got them to this point. After 30 minutes presenting, the speaker will open up the floor to a Q&A discussion of what students can do to get involved with research opportunities on campus and prepare for careers in development economics.
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November 21 20194:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Scott Hall (601 University Place) basement level, Room 34, Evanston |
GPRL Speaker Series: Prof. Andrew Dillon Prof. Dillon will talk about how his experiences led him to research in developing countries, as well as discuss his recent project, “Making Markets: Experiments from Rural Mali.” |
November 20 20192:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Evanston |
Book Conference for "Good Economics for Hard Times" by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Book conference for Good Economics for Hard Times, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (Authors of Poor Economics: A Ra... |
October 30 20193:00 PM - 4:30 PM, Evanston |
C-Lab Lecture: What is a Tax Audit in China?
Speaker: Wei Cui, University of British Columbia Wei Cui is a professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University... |
May 16 2019All day, Evanston |
The workshop will start at 10 AM on Tuesday, May 14 and end at 3 PM on Thursday, May 16. There will be two presentations... |
May 15 20191:30 PM - 3:00 PM, Evanston |
C Lab Lecture - Daniel Xu
Please join us for our China Lab Lecture. Daniel Xu (Duke University) will present: "Tax Incentives and Firm Investment ... |
May 15 2019All day, Evanston |
C Lab Workshop
The workshop will start at 10 AM on Tuesday, May 14 and end at 3 PM on Thursday, May 16. There will be two presentations... |
May 14 2019All day, Evanston |
C Lab Workshop
The workshop will start at 10 AM on Tuesday, May 14 and end at 3 PM on Thursday, May 16. There will be two presentations... |
May 11 2019All day, Evanston |
Development Rookiefest
The Global Poverty Research Lab hosts the second annual Development Rookiefest. This is an invite-only event. A select g... |
May 10 2019All day, No Location |
Pre-Analysis Plan Mini-Conference
This event aims to provide a platform where scholars can present and receive feedback on their research design prior to ... |
April 27 2019All day, No Location |
4th Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection
The Global Poverty Research Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) are hosting the 4th Annual Researcher Gathering... |
April 26 2019All day, No Location |
4th Annual Researcher Gathering on Financial Inclusion and Social Protection
The Global Poverty Research Lab and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) are hosting the 4th Annual Researcher Gathering... |
March 8 2019All day, No Location |
Research Methods and Measurement Meeting
Research on measurement and methods is important to the internal validity of empirical research. In 2015, Yale and IPA o... |
January 28 201912:00 PM - 1:00 PM, Evanston |
IPR Colloquium: S. Jayachandran (IPR/Economics) - Son Preference and Fertility in India
"Son Preference and Fertility in India" by Seema Jayachandran, Professor of Economics and IPR Fellow This is part of t... |