This paper discusses how the mechanisms that allocate workers to tasks vary systematically with isolation from markets and hence with distance from urban centers. This in turn affects social norms, household structure, and the perceived benefits of migration. The relevance of the framework is...

This paper discusses how the mechanisms that allocate workers to tasks vary systematically with isolation from markets and hence with distance from urban centers. This in turn affects social norms, household structure, and the perceived benefits of migration. The relevance of the framework is...

Urbanisation in China has long been held back by various restrictions on land and internal migration but has taken off since the 1990s, as these impediments started to be gradually relaxed. People have moved in large numbers to richer cities, where productivity is higher and has increased...

Urbanisation in China has long been held back by various restrictions on land and internal migration but has taken off since the 1990s, as these impediments started to be gradually relaxed. People have moved in large numbers to richer cities, where productivity is higher and has increased...

Using data from an experiment conducted in 70 Colombian communities, we investigate who pools risk with whom when trust is crucial for enforcing risk pooling arrangements. We explore the roles played by risk attitudes and social networks. Both empirically and theoretically, we find that close...

This paper evaluates the short- and longer term impact of Thailand's "Million Baht Village Fund" program, among the largest scale government microfinance iniatives in the world, using pre- and post-program panel data and quasi-experimental cross-village variation in credit per household. We find...

Connecting private dwellings to the water main is expensive and typically cannot be publicly financed. We show that households' willingness to pay for a private connection is high when it can be purchased on credit, not because a connection improves health but because it increases the time...

From 1995 to 2005, the average urban household savings rate in China rose by 7 percentage points, to about one-quarter of disposable income. Savings rates increased across all demographic groups, and the age profile of savings has an unusual pattern in recent years, with younger and older...

This paper analyzes the effects of all weather rural roads on households’ net output prices, education, and health in a poor region of India. Cross-section and before-and-after comparisons yield these findings: (1) net output prices were 5% or more higher; (2) fewer days of schooling were lost...

This paper explores the causes and consequences of regional taste differences. I introduce habit formation into a standard general equilibrium model. Household tastes evolve over time to favor foods consumed as a child. Thus, locally abundant foods are preferred in every region, as they were...