Transhumant Pastoralism, Climate Change, and Conflict in Africa Eoin F. McGuirk and Nathan Nunn Abstract We consider the effects of climate change on seasonally migrant populations that herd livestock — i.e., transhumant pastoralists — in Africa. Traditionally, transhumant pastoralists benefit from a cooperative relationship with sedentary agriculturalists whereby arable land is used for crop farming […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 587, February 2021
Spillovers without Social Interactions in Urban Sanitation Joshua W. Deutschmann, Laura Schechter, Molly Lipscomb, Jessica Zhu Abstract We run a randomized controlled trial coupled with lab-in-the-field social network experiments in urban Dakar. Decision spillovers and health externalities play a large role in determining uptake of sanitation technology, with decision spillovers being largest among households that don’t […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 586, February 2021
Apart but Connected: Online Tutoring and Student Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic Michela Carlana, Eliana La Ferrara Abstract In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the governments of most countries or- dered the closure of schools, potentially exacerbating existing learning gaps. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention implemented in Italian middle schools that provides […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 585, January 2021
Trade and Informality in the Presence of Labor Market Frictions and Regulations Rafael Dix-Carneiro, Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg, Costas Meghir, Gabriel Ulyssea Abstract We build an equilibrium model of a small open economy with labor market frictions and imperfectly enforced regulations. Heterogeneous firms sort into the formal or informal sector. We estimate the model using data […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 584, January 2021
Do Conditional Cash Transfers Improve Economic Outcomes in the Next Generation? Evidence from Mexico Susan W. Parker and Tom S. Vogl Abstract Conditional cash transfer programs have spread to over 60 countries in the past two decades, but little is known about their long-term effects. We estimate the lasting impact of childhood exposure to Mexico’s […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 583, December 2020
Estimating Production Functions in Differentiated-Product Industries with Quantity Information and External Instruments Abstract This paper develops a new method for estimating production-function parameters that can be applied in differentiated-product industries with endogenous quality and variety choice. We take advantage of data on physical quantities of outputs and inputs from the Colombian manufacturing survey, focusing on […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 582, December 2020
Female Genital Cutting and the Slave Trade Lucia Corno, Eliana La Ferrara, Alessandra Voena Abstract We investigate the historical origins of female genital cutting (FGC), a harmful practice widespread across Africa. We test the hypothesis –substantiated by historical sources– that FGC was connected to the Red Sea slave trade route, where women were sold as […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 581, October 2020
Industrial Clusters, Networks and Resilience to the Covid-19 Shock in China Ruochen Dai, Dilip Mookherjee, Yingyue Quan, Xiaobo Zhang Abstract This paper examines resilience of Chinese firms to the Covid-19 shock, and how it varied with a cluster index (measuring spatial agglomeration of firms in related industries) at the county level. Two data sources are […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 580, June 2020
Start What You Finish! Ex ante risk and schooling investments in the presence of dynamic complementarities Andrew D. Foster, Esther Gehrke Abstract We study the relationship between risk and schooling investment in a low income setting, with a particular focus on possible ex ante effects. We first present a model that shows that such effects […]
BREAD Working Paper No. 579, July 2021
Expanding Access to Clean Water for the Rural Poor: Experimental Evidence from Malawi Pascaline Dupas, Basimenye Nhlema, Zachary Wagner, Aaron Wolf and Emily Wroe Abstract Using data from an 18-month randomized trial, we estimate large and sustained impacts on water purification and child health of a program providing monthly coupons for free water treatment solu- […]