This paper revisits the contested issue of the impact of agricultural extension on farm productivity. Often studies in this …eld su¤er from a bias either due to self-selection of the best farmers for the extension services or to endogenous placement of the programme. The panel dataset...

While it is clear that natural disasters have serious welfare consequences for affected populations, less is known with respect to how local labour markets in low income countries adjust to such large shocks in particular the general equilibrium effects of the increase in the demand for...

The empirical literature on the economics of happiness has grown rapidly, and much has been learned about the determinants of subjective well-being.  Less attention has been paid to its normative implications.  Taking China as a case study, this paper first summarises empirical results on the...

We play a one-shot public good game in rural India between farmers connected to an exogenous star network.  Contributions by the centre of the star reach more players and have a larger impact on aggregate payoffs than contributions by the spoke players.  Yet, we find that the centre player...

The holding of elections has become universal but only about half of all elections have been free and fair.  Electoral malpractice not only distorts the quality of representation but has implications for political, social and economic outcomes.  Existing datasets either provide broad...

This paper investigates the role of risk-aversion in the allocation of workers between formal and informal jobs in Ghana.  In the model I propose risk-averse workers can opt between the free-entry informal sector and queuing for formal occupations.  Conditional on identifying the riskier...

Using data from a randomized control trail in Sri Lanka, this paper explores whether cash and in-kind grants helped microenterprises approach the productivity level of SMEs.  The paper first estimates production functions and subsequently treatment effects on TFP levels.  Most significantly,...

This paper draws further attention to the importance of taking into account off-budget aid when estimating the degree of foreign aid fungibility.  It does so by re-evaluating the results of a recent, influential paper which concluded that health aid is fully fungible in the long run.  Allowing...

We use data from Ethiopia Rural Household Survey and the Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency to demonstrate a set of techniques for estimating optimal investment allocation in smallholder farming.  The approaches treat farming tasks, constraints, and investments as a portfolio problem,...