A number of recent papers study the impact of institutions, trade and geography known as “deep determinants” of economic development using cross-section data. This paper instead employs a panel data approach to examine the impact of these three determinants on per capita income. Our approach...

This paper investigates the consequences of religion for economic development. In particular, we examine whether religious attitudes, beliefs, participation and preference contribute to differences in per capita income across countries. Using a large scale international survey on values and...

Before 1941, U.S. regulatory bodies were unrestricted. By 1946, several states and the federal government had imposed restrictions. It further took 40 years for every state to enact an Administrative Procedures Act (APA), a law that dictates how regulatory agencies promulgate regulations....

We evaluate the causal effects of a program that constructed high quality “girl-friendly” primary schools in Burkina Faso, using a regression discontinuity design 2.5 years after the program started. We find that the program increased enrollment of all children between the ages of 5 and 12...

Empirical studies of intra-household allocation has revealed that, in many instances, gender is an important determinant in the allocation of resources within the household. Yet, within the theoretical literature, why gender matters within the household remains an open question. In this paper,...

This paper uses a prospective randomized tria l to assess the impact of two school feeding schemes on health outcomes for pre-school age children from low-income households in northern rural Burkina Faso. The two school feed ing programs under consideration are, on the one hand, school meals...

We use a prospective randomized trial to assess the impact of two school feeding schemes on educational and health outcomes of children from low income household in northern rural Burkina Faso. The two school feeding programs under consideration are, on the one hand, school meals where students...

Building on anthropological evidence, we develop a model of intra-household decision making on fertility and child survival within the framework of the collective household model. We carry out a test of the implications of this framework with data from Demographic and Health Surveys in rural...

study the effects of uncertainty in future income stream on household schooling decisions. The intuition is that households that face a more volatile income stream have more incentives to build up a buffer stock to insure against unforeseen adverse shocks, and non-enrollment can be part of such...