A new stylized fact in development economics is the importance of social capital in promoting economic growth. This paper examines the effect of social capital on industrialization in Indonesia. We analyze a rich set of social capital and social interaction measures, including voluntary...

Loss of a parent is one of the most traumatic events a child can face. If loss of a parent reduces investments in children, it can also have long-lasting implications. This study uses parametric and seminonpara-metric matching techniques to estimate how one human capital investment, school...

We test for customer discrimination with data from more than 800 retail stores employing over 70,000 individuals matched to census data on the demographics of each store's community. While our tests detect some increase in sales when the workforce more closely resembles potential customers, the...

In many randomized trials, subjects enter the sample sequentially. Because the covariates for all units are not known in advance, standard methods of stratification do not apply. We describe and assess the method of DA-optimal sequential allocation (Atkinson, 1982) for balancing stratification...

Basic sanitation and hygiene can prevent roughly a million deaths a year. This study examines the rapid prototyping of a pilot school-based handwashing, safe water, and sanitation program in Chennai, India. Our content analysis identified challenges in the classroom (Localization; Curriculum...

Teen out-of-wedlock mothers have lower education and earnings than do peers who have children later. This study uses the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 to examine the extent to which the apparent effects of out-of-wedlock teen childbearing are due to preexisting disadvantages...

We study a randomized evaluation of a merit scholarship program in which Kenyan girls who scored well on academic exams had school fees paid and received a grant. Girls showed substantial exam score gains, and teacher attendance improved in program schools. There were positive externalities for...

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people live without electricity. Despite ambitions of governments and donors to invest in rural electrification, decisions about how to extend electricity access are being made in the absence of rigorous evidence. In this paper, we present high-resolution...

Quantitative estimates of the impacts of climate change on economic outcomes are important for public policy. We show that the vast majority of estimates fail to account for well-established uncertainty in future temperature and rainfall changes, leading to potentially misleading projections. We...