It is often assumed that transfers received from government, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), friends, and relatives help rural households to pool risk. In this article I investigate two functions of transfers in Ethiopia: risk pooling and income redistribution. Unlike most of the literature,...

This article provides a methodological bridge leading from the well-developed theory of credit rationing to the less developed territory of empirically identifying credit constraints. We begin by developing a simple model showing that credit constraints may take three forms: quantity rationing,...

In the labor economics literature, it has been argued that differences in labor force attachment across gender are important to explain the extent of the gender wage gap. However, measures of women's work experience are particularly prone to errors given discontinuity in labor market...

Differential labor market returns to male and female education are one potential explanation for large gender gaps in education in Pakistan. We empirically test this explanation by estimating private returns to education separately for male and female wage earners. This article contributes to...

Using detailed geographical and household survey data from Nepal, this article investigates the relationship between isolation and subjective welfare. We examine how distance to markets and proximity to large urban centers are associated with responses to questions about income and consumption...

A rationale for public investment in rural roads is that households can better exploit agricultural and nonagricultural opportunities to employ labor and capital more efficiently. Significant knowledge gaps persist, however, as to how opportunities provided by roads actually filter back into...

In this article, I investigate how educational outcomes of orphans are affected by the education of the family members in their new family. The study uses household survey data from Rwanda that contain a large proportion of children living in households without their biological parents. The data...