Questions of aid allocation have long focused on discerning the altruistic, self-interested or meritocratic motivation of development donors. Less attention has been paid to the interests and agency of recipient state governments and even less to the interests and agency of constituencies within...

The paper, by providing example of an efficient liability assignment rule under which liabilities of interacting parties for accidental losses is not always coupled, demonstrates that decoupling is not entirely inconsistent with efficient assignment of liabilities

This paper focuses on a particular type of strategic manipulation observed in Japanese daycare allocations. Some parents intentionally apply to a highly demanded daycare and are rejected, because a certificate indicating that they were rejected is required to extend the parental leave period....

In this paper we explore the factors that determine the level at which World Bank projects are implemented. In particular, focusing on the importance of informational asymmetry between levels of government, we empirically assess whether this choice is influenced by the relative importance of...

Standard measures of productivity display enormous dispersion across farms in Africa. Crop yields and input intensities appear to vary greatly, seemingly in conflict with a model of efficient allocation across farms. In this paper, we present a theoretical framework for distinguishing between...

This paper examines the impact of highway expansion on aggregate productivity growth andsectoral reallocation between cities in China. To do so, I construct a unique dataset ofbilateral transportation costs between Chinese cities, digitized highway network maps, andfirm-level census. I first...

Over the last two decades, Mexico has experienced macroeconomic stability, an open trade regime, and substantial progress in education. Yet average workers' earnings have stagnated, and earnings of those with higher schooling have fallen, compressing the earnings distribution and lowering the...

This paper evaluates the effects of restricted land use rights on aggregate productivity using micro-level data within a quantitative model. In particular, I exploit the Rice Land Designation Policy in Vietnam, which forces farmers to produce rice on almost 45% of land plots. I use digitized...

Models of migrants' allocation over districts or regions in the country aiming to decrease or at least not to increase the existing polarization of the population are proposed. Arrival of new immigrants representing different cultures and nationalities increases the diversity in the host...

In this paper we employ a lifecycle model that uses utility of consumption and bequest to determine an optimal Deferred Income Annuity (DIA) purchase policy. We lay out a mathematical framework to formalize the optimization process. The method and implementation of the optimization is explained,...