We play a one-shot public good game in rural India between farmers connected to an exogenous star network.  Contributions by the centre of the star reach more players and have a larger impact on aggregate payoffs than contributions by the spoke players.  Yet, we find that the centre player...

The holding of elections has become universal but only about half of all elections have been free and fair.  Electoral malpractice not only distorts the quality of representation but has implications for political, social and economic outcomes.  Existing datasets either provide broad...

This paper investigates the role of risk-aversion in the allocation of workers between formal and informal jobs in Ghana.  In the model I propose risk-averse workers can opt between the free-entry informal sector and queuing for formal occupations.  Conditional on identifying the riskier...

Using data from a randomized control trail in Sri Lanka, this paper explores whether cash and in-kind grants helped microenterprises approach the productivity level of SMEs.  The paper first estimates production functions and subsequently treatment effects on TFP levels.  Most significantly,...

This paper draws further attention to the importance of taking into account off-budget aid when estimating the degree of foreign aid fungibility.  It does so by re-evaluating the results of a recent, influential paper which concluded that health aid is fully fungible in the long run.  Allowing...

We use data from Ethiopia Rural Household Survey and the Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency to demonstrate a set of techniques for estimating optimal investment allocation in smallholder farming.  The approaches treat farming tasks, constraints, and investments as a portfolio problem,...

Consider a finite data set where each observation consists of a bunde of contingent consumption chosen by an agent from a constraint set of such bundles.  We develop a general procedure for testing the consistency of this data set with a broad class of models of choice under risk and under...

Little is known about the extent and forces of urban path dependence in developing countries.  Railroad construction in colonial Kenya provides a natural experiment to study the emergence and persistence of this spatial equilibrium.  Using new data at a fine spatial level over one century...

We run a novel field experiment to link managers of African manufacturing firms.  The experiment features exogenous link formation, exogenous seeding of information and exogenous assignment to treatment and placebo.  We study the impact of the experiment on firm business practices outside of...