The challenges of sustainable urban development increases daily and the usual planning approaches to ameliorate these challenges are ineffective. This study assesses the applicability of "smart infrastructure" to achieve sustainable urban development in Lagos metropolis. The study theoretical...

Machine generated contents note: -- Contents -- Acronyms -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Morocco's Urban Revolution -- Part I. Neoliberalism as Projects -- 1. Considering the Global Situation -- 2. An Urban History of Neoliberal Projects in Morocco -- Part II. (State-)Crafting...

Contract flexibility can be expedient for economic exchange in environments with high ambiguity and risk, but may also encourage opportunistic behavior. We run a modified investment game, including the choice between two different contract designs and asymmetric information about the realized...

A fundamental question in economics is whether happiness increases pari passu with improvements in material conditions or whether humans grow accustomed to better conditions over time. We rely on a large-scale experiment to examine what kind of impact the provision of housing to extremely poor...

This dissertation consists of three experimental studies that aim at contributing to a better understanding of behavior within contractual relationships—in particular, if information asymmetries, incentive issues and a lack of formal institutions make exchange more difficult and risky....

There are few reliable estimates of the effects of violence on economic outcomes. This study exploits the manifold increase in homicides in 2008-2011 in Mexico resulting from its war on organized drug traffickers to estimate the effect of drug- related homicides on housing prices. Using an...

Reliable estimates of the effects of violence on economic outcomes are scarce. We exploit the manyfold increase in homicides in 2008-2011 in Mexico resulting from its war on organized drug traffickers to estimate the effect of drug-related homicides on house prices. We use an unusually rich...

The informal settlements in Butuan City, Philippines pose the intractable problem of housing and providing services for the urban poor. They exact tremendous costs to government infrastructure projects and the city as a whole. In this study, these costs are accounted for, particularly the costs...

Today more than half of the 7 billion inhabitants of the planet live in urban areas, with this share expected to keep rising. Whereas in developed countries urbanisation has been a long and slow process, in developing countries this process is now characterised by a really fast pace and a high...

Background: BRAC, a large Bangladeshi NGO, recently has been using female volunteer community health workers (CHWs) in Dhaka urban slums to provide maternal and child health services. Due to erratic performance-based income and higher opportunity cost the urban CHWs lose motivation which...