In Unconditional Convergence, Rodrik (2011b) documented that manufacturing industries exhibit unconditional convergence in labor productivity. We provide a novel semi-parametric specification for convergence equations and show that the speed of convergence varies systematically with...

The inverse relationship between land productivity and farm size is an old and puzzling empirical regularity. Most explanations for this relationship rely on market imperfections that jointly determine the farm size and the household's shadow price of some productive inputs. We use plot-level...

We exploit a 2004 credit reform in Brazil that simplified the sale of repossessed cars used as collateral for auto loans. We show that the change has led to larger loans with lower spreads and longer maturities. The reform expanded credit to riskier, low-income borrowers for newer, more...