Recent studies suggest that globalization increases inequality, by increasing skilled wage premiums in developing countries. This effect may be mitigated, however, if human capital responds to global opportunities. I study how the impact of globalization varies across Indian districts with...

This article reviews the research on fortification of food in the context of South Asia, with an emphasis on avenues for future research in economics and policy. We argue that while the efficacy of fortified foods in controlled settings is well established, more research is needed to evaluate...

We use development accounting techniques to assess the contribution of health to differences in income per capita among countries. Rather than rely on regressions in aggregate data, we build up estimates of the effect of health starting from microeconomic data. We examine both a particular...

Many incentive programs rely on local agents with significant discretion to allocate benefits. We estimate the degree of discretion exercised by teachers within a conditional transfer program designed to improve nutrition and encourage student attendance in Mumbai, India. The program allocates...

Household financial decisions are important for both households and the greater economy. Yet, our understanding of the process of financial decision-making is limited. Applying standard and two-sample instrumental variables strategies to census and credit bureau data, we provide the first...

Physically attractive individuals achieve greater success in terms of earnings and status than those who are less attractive. However, much about the mechanism behind this “beauty premium” remains unknown. We use a rich dataset to shed light on its nature at the college level. We find that...

Coordination problems are ubiquitous in social and economic life. Political mass demonstrations, the decision whether to join a speculative currency attack, investment in a risky venture, and capital flight from a particular country are all characterized by coordination problems. Furthermore,...

When Russia transitioned to a democratic institutional system in 1991, some of its regions remained under control of old Communist Party elites, while some fell into the hands of political newcomers (“new elites”). Using a new panel dataset spanning 71 of the Russian regions over the years...