Research by: Region
Article: “Corruption, Norms and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets”
This clever study by Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel explored how “culture” affected whether or not diplomats from other countries obeyed parking rules in Manhattan.
Read MoreExecutive Summary: “Poverty and Witch Killing”
This executive summary provides a synopsis of an article in which Edward Miguel analyzed the relationship between witch killings and extreme weather among the poor in Tanzania.
Read MoreArticle: “Poverty and Witch Killing”
In this study, Edward Miguel analyzes the relationship between witch killings and extreme weather that particularly affects the livelihoods of the poor in Tanzania. What he finds suggests that witch killings might be related to the desperation people feel when things go wrong.
Read MoreExecutive Summary: “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India”
This executive summary on JPAL describes an article exploring the effect of a change in gender quotas for village leadership in India.
Read MoreExecutive Summary: “Measuring the Impact of Microfinance in Hyderabad, India”
This executive summary from JPAL provides a synopsis of the microcredit intervention that finds mediocre effects of microcredit, perhaps because loosening credit constraints doesn’t help much if not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.
Read MoreFull Article: “Powerful Women: Does Exposure Reduce Bias?”
In this study, a group of female researchers explores what happens to norms around women when women take on leadership positions in their communities.
Read MoreFull Article: “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India”
In this study, Esther Duflo and Raghabendra Chattopadhyay compare how women spend and how men spend when they’re in positions of leadership in India.
Read MoreFull Article: “Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya”
In this experiment, Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, and Jonathan Robinson investigate why it is that farmers in Kenya don’t use as much fertilizer as they could. They find that small inconveniences might be making a large difference.
Read MoreRequired Reading: “The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation”
This article from Banerjee, Duflo, Glennerster and Kinnan adds to the evidence of the sometimes underwhelming effects of microcredit as a way to get people out of poverty. It has been assigned as required reading in the Program Evaluation course, one of the spring CDE electives.
Read MoreFull Article: “Missing in Action: Teacher and Health Worker Absence in Developing Countries”
This article investigates absenteeism among teachers and healthcare workers in many developing countries, and finds it to be a considerable problem.
Read More