Competition in Agricultural Markets: An Experimental Approach Lorenzo Casaburi, Tristan Reed Abstract This paper presents an experimental approach to measure competition in agricultural markets, based on the random allocation of subsidies to competing traders. We compare prices of subsidized and unsubsidized crop traders to recover the key mar- ket structure parameter in a standard model […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 507
How Effective Are Active Labor Market Policies in Developing Countries? A Critical Review of Recent Evidence David McKenzie Abstract Jobs are the number one policy concern of policymakers in many countries. The global financial crisis, rising demographic pressures, high unemployment rates, and concerns over automation all make it seem imperative that policymakers employ increasingly more […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 506, March 2017
Reevaluating Agricultural Productivity Gaps with Longitudinal Microdata Joan Hamory Hicks, Marieke Kleemans, Nicholas Y. Li, Edward Miguel Abstract Recent research has pointed to large gaps in labor productivity between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in low-income countries, as well as between workers in rural and urban areas. Most estimates are based on national accounts or […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 506
Growing Markets through Business Training for Female Entrepreneurs: A Market-Level Randomized Experiment in Kenya David McKenzie, Susana Puerto Abstract A common concern with efforts to directly help some small businesses to grow is that their growth comes at the expense of their unassisted competitors. We test this possibility using a two-stage randomized experiment in Kenya which […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 504, January 2017
The Economist as Plumber Esther Duflo Abstract As economists increasingly help governments design new policies and regulations, they take on an added responsibility to engage with the details of policy making and, in doing so, to adopt the mindset of a plumber. Plumbers try to predict as well as possible what may work in the […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 503, February 2017
Vertical Integration and Relational Contracts: Evidence from the Costa Rica Coffee Chain Rocco Macchiavello, Josepa Miquel-Florensa Abstract This paper compares integrated firms, long-term relationships and markets, and how they adapt to shocks in the Costa Rican coffee chain. The industry is characterised by significant uncertainty. Supply failures responses to unanticipated increases in reference prices reveal […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 502, February 2017
Adult Mortality Five Years after a Natural Disaster Jessica Y. Ho, Elizabeth Frankenberg, Cecep Sumantri, Duncan Thomas Abstract Exposure to extreme events has been hypothesized to affect subsequent mortality because of mortality selection and scarring effects of the event itself. We examine survival at and in the five years after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 501, February 2017
Impact of Violent Crime on Risk Aversion: Evidence from the Mexican Drug War Ryan Brown, Verónica Montalva, Duncan Thomas, Andrea Velásquez Abstract Whereas attitudes towards risk are thought to play an important role in many decisions over the life-course, factors that affect those attitudes are not fully understood. Using longitudinal survey data collected in Mexico before […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 500, January 2017
Disrupting Education? Experimental Evidence on Technology-Aided Instruction in India Karthik Muralidharan, Abhijeet Singh, Alejandro J. Ganimian Abstract We present experimental evidence on the impact of a technology-aided after-school instruction program on learning outcomes in middle school grades in urban India, using a lottery that provided students with a voucher to cover program costs. A key […]
BREAD Working Paper N0. 578, June 2020
Political Power, Elite Control, and Long-Run Development: Evidence from Brazil Claudio Ferraz, Frederico Finan, Monica Martinez-Bravo Abstract This paper analyzes how changes in the concentration of political power affect long-run development. We study Brazil’s military dictatorship whose rise to power dramatically altered the distribution of power of local political elites. We document that municipalities that […]