Conditional cash transfers are programs under which poor families get a stipend provided they keep their children in school and take them for health checks. Although there is significant evidence showing that they have positive impacts on school participation, little is known about the long-term...

This paper estimates the effect of enrollment in a large scale anti-poverty program in Colombia, Familias en Acción, on intent to vote, turnout and electoral choice. For identification the analysis uses discontinuities in program eligibility and variation in program enrollment across voting...

This paper argues that climate change poses two distinct, if related, sets of challenges for poor rural households: challenges related to the increasing frequency and severity of weather shocks and challenges related to long-term shifts in temperature, rainfall patterns, water availability, and...

Mozambique is among the African countries most exposed to weather-related hazards. Using detailed gridded precipitation data for individuals' birth-year and birth-district, this study investigates the effects of extreme rainfall anomalies around the time of birth on long-run well-being. The...

This paper investigates the causal consequences of Tropical Storm Agatha (2010)-the strongest tropical storm ever to strike Guatemala since rainfall records have been kept-on household welfare. The analysis reveals substantial negative effects, particularly among urban households. Per capita...

Between 1993 and 1994, extremist militia groups carried out the extermination of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the genocides of Burundi and Rwanda. Nearly one million people were killed and thousands were forcibly uprooted from their homes. Over the course of a few months, Kagera - a...

Exogenous variation in fertility from parental preferences for sex-mix among their children is used to identify the causal effect of family size on several measures associated with either the allocation of resources towards children within the household or the outcomes of these investments....

Inflation is typically measured using aggregate price indices that are based on bundles of goods and services sold or consumed by the "median" agent. In the case of households, in particular, budget shares vary substantially across income and demographic groups. Assessing how inflation behaves...

Exogenous variation in fertility from parental preferences for sex-mix among their children is used to identify the causal effect of family size on several measures associated with either the allocation of resources towards children within the household or the outcomes of these investments....