We provide evidence on the mechanisms linking resource-related income shocks to conflict, focusing specifically on illegal crops. We hypothesize that the degree of group competition over resources and the extent of law enforcement explain whether opportunity cost or contest effects dominate....

We study the impact of a portable "soft" commitment device on the financial behavior of low-income slum dwellers in Maharashtra, India. 1525 individuals were randomly allocated to receiving either a zip purse and a lockbox (treatment arm) or a lockbox only (control arm). Based on self-reported...

This study determines data driven weights for the indicators in the multidimensional poverty index (MPI), based on partial least squares (PLS), using income as the outcome variable. Consequently, the resulting MPI is particularly useful to income related policy and research questions. An...

"The job of a 'measure' or an 'index' is to distill what is particularly relevant for our purpose,and then to focus specifcally on that... That is not an easy task." Sen (1989). And that is precisely our aim. In this paper, a measurement for multidimensional exposure to Stephan Klasen is...

The COVID-19 pandemic shapes the lives of people around the globe - at the same time, people themselves have the power to shape the pandemic. By employing protective health behavior, such as social distancing, hygiene, mask wearing, and appropriate actions when infected, the population can...

This paper studies the causal effect of transport infrastructure on the spatial concentration of economic activity. Leveraging a new global dataset of geo-located Chinese government-financed projects over the period from 2000 to 2014 together with measures of spatial inequality based on...

This study uses a simple theory model to examine how time preferences influence food choices made by individuals, which in turn have implications for their future health. The theory results demonstrate that individuals with higher bias for the present or lower patience will have poorer health...

The lottery of birth draws some children into deprived environments and others into environments where they thrive. In a field experiment in rural India with 10-20 months old children we test two scalable interventions to reduce early disadvantages in health and mental development. We distribute...

Wage inequality has risen in many countries over recent decades. At the same time, production has become increasingly concentrated in "superstar" firms. In this paper, we show that these two phenomena are linked. Theoretically, we show that shocks that increase concentration, such as an increase...

To encourage private actions for damages in antitrust cases some jurisdictions subtract a fraction of the redress from the fine. We analyze the effectiveness of this policy. Such a rebate does not encourage settlement negotiations that would otherwise not occur. If, however, the parties settle...