Using two surveys from Bangladesh, this paper provides evidence on the effects of microfinance competition on village moneylender interest rates and households’ dependence on informal credit. The views among practitioners diverge sharply: proponents claim that MFI competition reduces both the...

Using bilateral migration flow data from the 2010 population census of Nepal, this paper provides evidence on the importance of public infrastructure and services in determining migration flows. The empirical specification, based on a generalized nested logit model, corrects for the non-random...

This paper examines migrations'  choice of destination conditional on migration.  To this end, we design an empirical strategy which remedies both migration selection and unobserved heterogeneity problems.  The study uses data from two rounds of Nepal Living Standard Surveys and a Population...

Using census data from Nepal, we examine how the marginal effects of male and female education on various household welfare indicators vary with education levels.  Parental education is associated with better household outcomes, but marginal effects vary with education level.  Higher child...

This paper examines how economic activity and market participation are distributed across space. Applying a non-parametric von Thünen model to Nepalese data, we uncover a strong spatial division of labor. Non-farm employment is heavily concentrated in and around cities while agricultural wage...

Using census data from Nepal we examine how the partial derivatives of predicted household welfare vary with parental education. We focus on fertility, child survival, schooling, and child labor. Female education is not as strongly associated with beneficial outcomes as is often assumed. Male...

Summary This paper presents empirical evidence on the relative importance of farm and urban linkages for rural non-farm employment in Bangladesh. The results suggest that people are more likely to be employed in well-paid wage employment and self-employment in the non-farm sector if they are...

This article analyzes the effect of facilities and infrastructure available at the marketplace on a farmer's decision to sell at the market. The econometric estimation shows that the likelihood of sales at the market increases significantly with an improvement in market facilities and a decrease...

The recent literature has shown that subjective welfare depends on relative income. Much of the existing evidence comes from developed economies. What remains unclear is whether this is a universal human trait or an artifact of a prosperous, market-oriented lifestyle. Using data from Nepal, a...

The authors present an empirical analysis of intergenerational links in nonfarm participation with a focus on gender effects. Using survey data from Nepal, the evidence shows that the mother exerts a strong influence on a daughter's employment choice. Having a mother in a nonfarm sector raises a...