This paper explores the rates of return to education in Sri Lanka across the sexes and different types of employment during 2009/10. The endogeneity bias suggests that education may be associated with other characteristics such as ability and family background - excluding such attributes could...

We examine the generalizability of internally valid estimates of causal effects in a fixed population over time when that population is subject to aggregate shocks. This temporal external validity is shown to depend upon the distribution of the aggregate shocks and the interaction between these...

This paper investigates whether and how Fair Trade certification improves the wellbeing of small-scale producers by drawing upon a field study carried out by the authors in 2009 in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. A point of departure from earlier studies is to use a mixed methods approach,...

Reducing child malnutrition is a key goal of most developing countries. To combat child malnutrition with the right set of interventions, policymakers need to have a better understanding of its economic, social and policy determinants. While there is a large literature that investigates the...

In a recent randomized experiment we found mean returns to capital of between 5 and 6 percent per month in Sri Lankan microenterprises, much higher than market interest rates. But returns were found to be much higher among men than among women, and indeed were not different from zero for women....

The majority of firms in most developing countries are informal. We conducted a field experiment in Sri Lanka which provided incentives for informal firms to formalize. Offering only information about the registration process and reimbursement for direct registration costs had no impact on...

We conduct a randomized experiment in Sri Lanka to measure the impact of the most commonly used business training course in developing countries, the Start-and-Improve Your Business (SIYB) program. In contrast to existing business training evaluations which are restricted to microfinance...

This paper explores the urban-rural welfare gap in 2002 and 2009/10 for the case of Sri Lanka. This was a period of high growth and falling poverty rates in the country. The paper attempts to explore three issues: (a) what are the determinants of urban and rural household welfare, (b) does the...

This paper attempts to examine the labour force participation decisions and earnings across employment sectors and how it varies by gender in Sri Lanka. The labour market is disaggregated into 5 sectors - public, formal private, informal private, self-employed and agriculture. Using the Labour...

Reducing child malnutrition is a key goal of most developing countries. To combat child malnutrition with the right set of interventions, policymakers need to have a better understanding of its economic, social and policy determinants. While there is a large literature that investigates the...