This paper studies how windfalls from agriculture influence demand for electrification in a developing country. Leveraging two decades of administrative data on the universe of electricity grid customers in Rwanda, and plausibly exogenous variations in international coffee prices, we document...

This paper analyzes the effect of commodity price fluctuations on a commodity-exporting economy. Using Chilean and international copper market data, I find that positive copper price changes resulting from copper-specific demand shocks generate a broad GDP expansion, with no visible decline in...

We use plausibly exogenous variation in the redistribution of natural resource tax revenues in Peru to study whether transfers to local governments can stimulate economic activity in low-income areas. We show that resource windfalls to non-extractive municipalities between 2006 and 2018 changed...

Using variation in federal pandemic-era fiscal aid to states driven by the strength of political representation, we find that incremental pandemic-era fiscal aid to states was most likely to end up in the categories of general administrative service spending and employee pension benefit funding....