This paper focuses on three interrelated questions on urbanization and the geography of development. First, although we herald cities with their industrial bases as "engines of growth," does industrialization in fact drive urbanization? While such relationships appear in the data, the process is...

This paper illustrates how the capabilities of GIS and satellite imagery can be harnessed to explore and better understand the urban form of several large African cities (Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, and Dakar). To allow for comparability across very diverse cities, this work...

Centralized targeting registries are increasingly used to allocate social assistance benefits in developing countries. There are two key design issues that matter for targeting accuracy: (i) which households to survey for inclusion in the registry and (ii) how to rank surveyed households. The...

Access to primary care during early life can have substantial benefits in developing countries. This study evaluates the long-run impact of the Village Midwife Program in Indonesia. It utilizes the roll-out-variation of the program and link individual background and community characteristics in...

Does democratization promote economic competition? This paper documents that the disruption of political connections associated with Suharto's fall had a modest pro-competitive effect on Indonesian manufacturing industries in which his family had extensive business interests. Firms with...

The seven largest emerging market economies -- China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey -- constituted more than one-quarter of global output and more than half of global output growth during 2010-15. These emerging markets, called EM7, are also closely integrated with other...

Who are the civil servants that serve poor people in the developing world? This paper uses direct surveys of civil servants -- the professional body of administrators who manage government policy -- and their organizations from Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines,...

Using manufacturing plant-level census data, this paper demonstrates that minimum wage increases in Indonesia reduced gender wage gaps among production workers, with heterogeneous impacts by level of education and position of the firm in the wage distribution. Paradoxically, educated women...

How does a large unconditional increase in salary affect the performance of incumbent employees in the public sector? This paper presents experimental evidence on this question in the context of a policy change in Indonesia that led to a permanent doubling of teachers' base salaries. The...

At 50.9 percent, female labor force participation in Indonesia is far below the regional average of 60.8 percent. Is it being hindered by a lack of affordable childcare services in the country? This paper exploits the joint variations in preschool age eligibility and access to preschool across...