The shift away from manual and routine cognitive work, and towards non-routine cognitive work is a key feature of labor markets. There is no evidence, however, if the relative importance of various tasks differs between workers performing seemingly similar jobs in different countries. We develop...

Belt and Road projects in the Eurasian Heartland (Central Asia and the Caucasus, Russia, and Belarus) have predominately focused on the exploitation of the region's natural resources rather than on developing infrastructure, building industrial facilities, or partnering in innovations. However,...

This paper explores how the distribution of credit supply within an industry affects that industry's export intensity (the export-to-sales ratio) and export propensity (the ratio of the number of exporters to the total number of firms). Using a heterogeneous firm trade model, we derive two...

In many developing and emerging economies, rapid income growth and changing demographics is leading to heightened demand for energy-intensive urban transportation. This study provides a comprehensive empirical framework for analyzing how income, age, and education influence individual energy use...

We provide the first household survey-based evidence on the impact of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake on the welfare of rural households. Asset and income losses were substantial, especially in seriously affected areas. Our main finding is that there was an overwhelming government response to the...