Why do many households remain exposed to large exogenous sources of non-systematic income risk? Why don’t financial markets develop to pool these risks? This paper uses a series of randomized field experiments to test the importance of price and non-price factors in the adoption of an...

This paper presents the results of two experiments conducted in Mumbai and Vadodara, India, designed to evaluate ways to improve the quality of education in urban slums. A remedial education programme hired young women from the community to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills to children...

Random assignment of gender quotas across Indian village councils to investigate whether having a female chief councillor affects public opinion towards female leaders is analysed . Villagers who have never been required to have a female leader prefer male leaders and perceive hypothetical...

Do the short and medium term adjustment costs associated with trade liberalization influence schooling and child labor decisions? This question is examined in the context of India's 1991 tariff reforms. Overall, in the 1990s, rural India experienced a dramatic increase in schooling and decline...

Although it is commonly believed that trade liberalization results in higher GDP, little is known about its effects on poverty and inequality. This paper uses the sharp trade liberalization in India in 1991, spurred to a large extent by external factors, to measure the causal impact of trade...