In recent years, both microfinance institutions (MFIs) and banks across the world have been converging towards the financing of small enterprises with high financing needs. This paper scrutinizes whether banks and MFIs compete each other as a result of recent transfor- mations in both industries. In doing so, we study whether the loan strategy of a microfinance institution is shaped by the local presence

The empirical relationship between natural resources and conflict in Africa is not very well understood. Using a novel geocoded dataset we are able to construct a quasi-natural experiment to explore the causal effects of oilfield and mineral discoveries on intra-state armed conflict in Africa at the grid-cell level corresponding to a spatial resolution of 0.5 x 0.5 degrees latitude and longitude. We

AbstractPersistent educational gaps due to differences in language exist in numerous countries, and research on policies to reduce these gaps is limited. This study examines the impact of a compuls...

We study the effects of a conditional cash transfer for health care utilization, equivalent to 1% of monthly household consumption, on child survival in Bolivia. Using census data and an instrument for program take-up, we show that the intervention increased the survival rates of birth cohorts exposed to the program by 3.8% to 14.7%. A pathways analysis shows higher rates of early antenatal care and

Livestock holdings in rural areas of the West African semiarid tropics are often substantial, yet the evidence for livestock sales in response to shocks is mixed. This paper revisits farm households’ ability to cope with adverse shocks via livestock sales. Based on data covering Burkina Faso’s 2004 drought, we find that livestock sales increase significantly in response to drought, with households

Measures of control over assets and participation in household decisions are often used as indicators of bargaining power. Yet spouses do not necessarily provide the same responses to questions about these topics. Using household survey data from Bangladesh, we examine differences in spouses’ answers to questions regarding women’s involvement as asset owners and decision makers and develop a model

This paper studies the role of incentives for mothers and health care workers in the use of maternal and child health services. Using variations in date of birth, eligibility, and transfer size for a conditional cash transfer program in India, I find that overall delivery at a health care facility for eligible women increased by 5 percentage points. The incentives also significantly increased the use

The school reenrollment probability conditional on a child’s circumstances (gender, indigenous origin, and family background) is our measure of a child’s school reenrollment opportunity. For children who completed grades 1–6, we use generalized Lorenz and Lorenz dominance to show that Progresa improved aggregate opportunities and reduced inequality of opportunity. Moreover, using the human opportunity

According to economic theory, repeated interactions can play a crucial role in shaping trust. We randomly allocated people to treatments that promote interactions with bankers. Next, these people played incentivized trust games with their own banker and with an anonymous other banker. While the effect on trust in their own banker is limited, the impact on trust in other bankers is important. We also

Does the involvement of foreign third parties in the management of a country in the wake of a civil war have positive or negative economic effects? The approaches used to address this question in the social and political science literature are mostly qualitative and not sufficiently supported by quantitative evidence. This paper uses a quantitative analysis of the postconflict economic performance

We use Benford’s Law to investigate inaccurate financial reports of a representative sample of Ugandan nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). We find that 25% of the sample provided information that did not conform to the Benford distribution, suggesting potential misreporting. NGOs with better ratings from their beneficiaries are more likely to submit credible information. This contradicts the belief

In 2011, Thailand experienced its worst flood ever. Using repeated waves of the Thai Household Socio-Economic Survey, we analyze the flood’s economic impacts. In 2012, households answered a set of questions on the extent of flooding they experienced. We use this self-identified flood exposure and external exposure indicators from satellite images to identify both households that were directly affected

Over the past two decades, sports programs have proliferated as a mode of engaging youth in development projects. Thousands of organizations, millions of participants, and hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in sports-based development programs each year. The underlying belief that sports promote socioemotional skills, improve psychological well-being, and foster traits that boost labor force

A frequently debated question is whether the use of intellectual property (IP) protection benefits the residents of low and middle income countries. We contribute to this debate with an analysis of the use of patents and trademarks by firms in Chile over the decade 1995-2005 as the then middle-income country experienced rapid economic growth. Using a novel dataset containing the merge of detailed firm-level

This paper investigates whether new health facilities affect maternal care use, maternal/child health, and travel patterns to facilities. Community- and mother-level fixed effects models are applied to decade-long panel data from Uganda. The results show that the openings of large facilities increase delivery at formal facilities, while new clinics increase regular antenatal care usage. The first facility

I conduct a randomized audit study in the Ugandan antimalarial drug market to test whether providers adjust prices or prescribing behavior when patients are less reliant on their advice. Standardized patients (SPs) purchase drugs using scripts that vary whether the SP (1) self-diagnoses malaria or asks for a diagnosis and/or (2) knows the first-line treatment or asks for a recommendation. I find that

We implemented a randomized controlled trial among transnational households in the Philippines estimating impacts of a financial education treatment, a financial access treatment, and the combination of the two on financial behaviors. We test whether there are complementarities between both interventions and provide insight into the nature of constraints operating in financial services markets. We

We examine the long-term impact of violence on educational attainment, with evidence from Colombia’s La Violencia, a period of intense political violence in the mid-twentieth century. We find that individuals exposed to violence during and especially before their schooling years experience a significant and economically meaningful decrease in years of schooling. Exploring consequences beyond human

We use a social experiment to test whether the government of Zambia’s cash transfer program affects intertemporal choice. A cash transfer program may also alter expectations about future quality of life and make one happier, two conditions that can affect intertemporal decision-making and the desire to invest in the future. We find that the program affects time discounting and that psychological states

That crime and conflict can negatively affect child health is well documented, but one potentially important mechanism has received little attention: Do increases in local violence reduce the utilization of curative and preventative care? Combining a database of violent events with the 2013 Demographic and Health Survey of the Philippines, I exploit within-location variation in violence over time.

This paper investigates the impact of informal microfinance groups (self-help groups, or SHGs) on children’s education and work in rural India. In 2002, 24 eligible villages were randomly selected for opening SHGs, and 12 others were randomly selected as a control group. Households were surveyed three times over a 5-year period, allowing for the study of medium-term outcomes. We find a robust and strong

We conduct dictator-type games in rural Paraguay; different treatments involve manipulating players’ information and choice sets. From individuals’ choices in the games, we draw inferences regarding impediments to efficient risk sharing in the larger village supergame. Outcomes from the experimental games suggest that players in most villages are reacting to the kinds of incentives that we would predict

Titling programs have focused mostly on providing initial tenure security and have not properly addressed maintaining the formality of future property transactions. Deregularization due to unregistered transactions can threaten the long-run success of titling programs. In this study, we document the incidence of unregistered property transactions in urban slums in Peru. We also exploit a natural experiment

We study the effects of education on the financial outcomes of young people using Kenya’s introduction of free primary education (FPE) in 2003 as an exogenous shock to schooling. Our identification strategy compares changes across cohorts and across regions with differing levels of pre-FPE enrollment. We find that FPE is associated with increases in educational attainment and increased use of formal

We estimate the effects of the minimum wage on women’s intrahousehold bargaining power in Indonesia. Using province-specific minimum wage increases in Indonesia from 20002014 and a sample of married household heads and their spouses from a panel of Indonesian households, we implement a method that exploits differences in minimum wages between geographically proximate districts located near the border

Are well-functioning formal judicial institutions important for economic development, or can informal contracting arrangements provide adequate substitutes? This paper aims to answer this question using variation across industries in their reliance on contracts along with variation across Indian states in the average speed of courts. The identification strategy is motivated by theory from the incomplete

This paper examines the effects of the number of days worked by households under India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) on expenditure patterns, food security, and individual time use. I use plausible exogenous variation in administrative bottlenecks regarding the timing of work provision as an instrument for the number of days worked. The paper finds that a greater number of days

Public expenditures on noncontributory pensions are equivalent to at least 1% of gross domestic product in several countries in Latin America and are expected to increase. We explore the effect of noncontributory pensions on well-being by studying the Pension 65 program in Peru, which uses a poverty eligibility threshold. Households with a beneficiary increased their level of consumption by 40%. The

Income transfers from social programs are often not gender neutral, according to the vast literature on intrahousehold decision-making and allocation, and should affect the distribution of bargaining power within the household. This result, however, was by and large established under the assumption of marriage stability. If this assumption does not hold (because of divorce or separation), then the

I examine how exposure to conflict affected household-level access to cash transfers after the 2010 floods in Pakistan. Using instrumental variables estimation to overcome the endogeneity of conflict exposure and access to aid, I find that conflict reduced households’ access to two large government-run cash transfer programs— namely, the Citizens Damage Compensation Program and the Benazir Income Support

We estimate the causal impact of remittances on child labor and school participation in Colombia using data from its main metropolitan areas. We develop an instrumental variable strategy that leverages the unemployment shocks induced by the 2008 financial crisis in Colombian migrants’ main destination countries. We find that remittances reduce