The paper studies the market failures associated with land tenure insecurity and information asymmetry in an urban land use model, and analyzes households' responses to mitigate tenure insecurity. When buyers and sellers of land plots can pair along trusted kinship lines whereby deception (the...

Using panel data for 189 economies from 2005 to 2013, this paper shows that business-friendly regulations are correlated with the poverty headcount at the country level. This association is significant using the World Bank's Doing Business indicators on getting credit and contract enforcement....

Despite the literature on rural land property rights, studies on urban land property rights are rare. This paper studies the impact of an urban land titling program on firm investment. It finds that the program leads to increased investment rate for titling firms, and the positive effect holds...

Sectoral segregation is often used to explain a large part of a well-documented gender earnings gap in business profits. Women tend to sort into different sectors than men, and the sectors dominated by women tend to be less profitable. This paper investigates the horizontal dimension of sectoral...

Mental health, well-being and lasting economic outcomes are intimately connected. However, in geographies marked by fragility, conflict and violence, entrepreneurs of small and medium-size experience chronic stress and poor mental health on a regular basis. This paper describes the incremental...

Is there a mindset gap holding women back in business? Can entrepreneurship training instill a set of attitudes, behaviors, and strategies that are thought to underpin success in business such as motivation, perseverance, and self-confidence? This study conducted two randomized controlled trials...