We examine the impact of transaction failures on the working of a biometric-enabled payment system introduced in India to facilitate banking by the poor. On average, nearly one-third of transactions fail. However, the proportion of failures decline steeply with user experience. The usage of the...

We ask whether access to the internet increases participation in a workfare program in Indian villages, especially during a crisis. We exploit the exodus of migrant workers from cities to rural areas during the pandemic and phase-wise rollout of the internet for identification. Comparing...

We ask whether machine learning algorithms improve the efficiency of screening of the loan officers, and thereby help expand access to formal credit. We obtain loan application level data from an Indian bank. To overcome the selective labels problem, we exploit the incentive driven within...

We compare an in-kind subsidy, a workfare program, and an unconditional cash transfer in India based on the sensitivity of the insurance provided by each program against local economic shocks. We find that transfers under the in-kind subsidy contract when the beneficiaries are faced with local...