Support from local citizens is important for the scale-up of renewable energy. We investigate the impact of utility-scale wind and solar parks on employment, GDP and public finances in Brazilian municipalities using a difference-in-differences design with matching. We find a positive employment...

Despite nearly 70 percent of the American public supporting legalization of recreational marijuana, opponents argue that increased marijuana use may diminish motivation, impede cognitive function, and harm health, each of which could adversely affect adults' economic wellbeing. This study is the...

Teenage drinking is a top public health concern, generating social costs of over $28 billion per year, including substantial external costs associated with alcohol-related traffic fatalities. At the same time, the high rate of electronic cigarette ("e-cigarette") use among teenagers has become a...

We study the effects of state hospital regulations intended to increase breastfeeding by requiring certain care standards during the postpartum hospital stay. Policy adoption increased breastfeeding initiation by 3.3-4.1 percentage points (4.2-5.2 percent) and breastfeeding at 3 months...

Nutritional disparities across socioeconomic groups contribute to health inequality in the U.S. This paper studies the role of heterogeneous consumer preferences in food choices and explores pricing policies that can promote healthier eating among disadvantaged consumers. Using detailed...

This paper studies how agricultural production responds to the loss of agricultural labor during the process of urbanization and structural transformation. Using household microdata from India and exogenous variation in migration opportunities induced by urban income shocks, we show that...

While cash transfers consistently show large effects on immediate outcomes like consumption, limited access to markets may mute their impact on productive investment. In an experiment in Malawi, we cross-cut cash transfers with an "input fair," designed to reduce transport costs to access...