This paper empirically examines the behavioral precautionary saving hypothesis by Koszegi and Rabin (2009) stating that uncertainty about future income triggers saving because of loss aversion. We extend their theoretical analysis to also consider the internal margin, i.e., the strength, of loss...

This paper empirically examines the behavioral precautionary saving hypothesis that uncertainty about future income triggers an increase in saving because of loss aversion. Guided by the theoretical model of Koszegi and Rabin (2009), we first extend their theoretical analysis to also consider...

Women’s empowerment has been identified as a prerequisite for poverty reduction. In addition to driving overall economic growth, women’s empowerment has been found to have beneficial effects on fertility rates, child health and education outcomes, as well as community development. This...

A growing literature in economics seeks to explain why people remain poor. Classical theories explained the persistence of poverty with constraints that are external to an individual such as market imperfections and coordination problems. Recently economists explored the role of aspiration...

The world food and non-food needs are expected to increase from 2005/2007 to 2050 by 60 percent, raising concerns on how this demand will be fulfilled sustainably (Le Mouël and Forslund, 2017). To cope with this increase in demand, the agricultural sector faces an essential decision between...

Affirmative action changes incentives at all stages of the employment process. In this paper, we study the effects of affirmative action statements in job ads on i) the effort expended on the application process and ii) the manifestation of emotions, as measured by the textual analysis of the...

This dissertation presents three independent essays that elicit social preferences in school children by using a combination of experimental measures and survey data. Chapter 2 consider the development of motivations for helping in informal risk-sharing networks from a sample of school children...