The broad objectives of theoretical and empirical research at the Economic Growth Center are to understand the process of economic development and growth as well as the associated changes in economic structure. In particular, an understanding of how policies affect that process is necessary for suggesting policies for promoting development. The research is founded on relevant economic theory (micro and macro) and econometric tools. Empirical studies rely on cross-sectional and intertemporal data on micro decision-making units, such as individuals and households, and aggregates, such as nations, interpreted within suitable economic, demographic, and social frameworks. An increasing share of the research involves the study of the behavior of persons, households, and firms, as revealed in sample surveys, and applies the tools of microeconomic theory and associated statistical tools. EGC Discussion Papers report the results of the research efforts of Center members.
EGC faculty, visiting research faculty associated with the EGC and Ph.D. students on the job market wishing to submit a paper to the series should email a completed submission form with the paper to egc[at]yale.edu.
Note to Graduate Students: For graduate students interested in posting papers, use the Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MPRA) repository. More information about creating an account and submitting papers can be found on the MPRA home page. The Yale University listing of papers posted to MPRA can be found on this page.Papers from 2012
The Impact of Consulting Services on Small and Medium Enterprises: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Mexico, Miriam Bruhn, Dean Karlan, and Antoinette Schoar
Looking Beyond the Incumbent: The Effects of Exposing Corruption on Electoral Outcomes, Alberto Chong, Ana L. De La O., Dean Karlan, and Leonard Wantchekon
You Can Pick Your Friends, But You Need to Watch Them: Loan Screening and Enforcement in a Referrals Field Experiment, Gharad Bryan, Jonathan Zinman, and Dean Karlan
Papers from 2011
Hey Look at Me:The Effect of Giving Circles on Giving, Dean Karlan
Diversity of Communities and Economic Development: An Overview, Gustav Ranis
Learning, Misallocation, and Technology Adoption: Evidence from New Malaria Therapy in Tanzania, Achyuta Adhvaryu
Technology and Human Development, Gustav Ranis
Technology Change: Sources and Impediments, Gustav Ranis, Mallory Irons, and Yanjing Huang
The New Model of Foreign Aid Drawn from the Experiences of Japan and the United States, Gustav Ranis, Stephen Kosack, and Ken Togo
Endowments and Investments within the Household: Evidence from Iodine Supplementation in Tanzania, Achyuta Adhvaryu and Anant Nyshadham
The Evolution of Grain Policy beyond Europe: Ottoman Grain Administration in the Late Eighteenth Century, Seven Agir
Political Mergers as Coalition Formation, Eric Weese
Healthcare Choices, Information and Health Outcomes, Achyuta Adhvaryu and Anant Nyshadham
Labor Complementarities and Health in the Agricultural Household, Achyuta Adhvaryu and Anant Nyshadham
Labor Supply, Schooling and the Returns to Healthcare in Tanzania, Achyuta Adhvaryu and Anant Nyshadham
Papers from 2010
Natural Disasters in a Two-Sector Model of Endogenous Growth, Ryo Horii and Masako Ikefuji
Social Class and the Fertility Transition: A Critical Comment on the Statistical Results Reported in Simon Szreter’s Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain, 1860-1940, Geoffrey Barnes and Timothy W. Guinnane
Is There Surplus Labor in Rural India?, Andrew D. Foster and Mark R. Rosenzweig
The Historical Fertility Transition: A Guide for Economists, Timothy W. Guinnane
Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy, Mark M. Pitt, Mark R. Rosenzweig, and Nazmul Hassan
Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving, Dean Karlan, Margaret McConnell, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Jonathan Zinman
Did the Cooperative Start Life as a Joint-Stock Company? Business Law and Cooperatives in Spain, 1869-1931, Timothy W. Guinnane and Susana Martinez-Rodriguez
Trade, Tastes and Nutrition in India, David Atkin
Microeconomic Approaches to Development: Schooling, Learning, and Growth, Mark R. Rosenzweig
Global Wage Inequality and the International Flow of Migrants, Mark R. Rosenzweig
Microeconomics of Technology Adoption, Andrew D. Foster and Mark R. Rosenzweig
Papers from 2009
Structural Change in Transition Economies: Does Foreign Aid Matter?, Mohsen Fardmanesh and Li Tan
Does Land Abundance Explain African Institutions?, James Fenske
Commitment Contracts, Gharad Bryan, Dean Karlan, and Scott Nelson
The Gender and Generational Consequences of the Demographic Transition and Population Policy: As Assessment of the Micro and Macro Linkages, T. Paul Schultz
Diversity of Communities and Economic Development: An Overview, Gustav Ranis
Moral Hazard in a Mutual Health-Insurance System: German Knappschaften, 1867-1914, Timothy W. Guinnane and Jochen Streb
Economics, Area Studies and Human Development, Gustav Ranis
Expanding Microenterprise Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate the Impacts in Manila, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman
Population and Health Policies, T. Paul Schultz
Cairo Evaluation Clinic: Thoughts on Randomized Trials for Evaluations of Development, Dean Karlan
That’s Where the Money Was: Foreign Bias and English Investment Abroad, 1866-1907, Benjamin Chabot and Christopher Kurz
Bringing ‘Honest Capital’ to Poor Borrowers: The Passage of the Uniform Small Loan Law, 1907-1930, Bruce G. Carruthers, Timothy W. Guinnane, and Yoonseok Lee
Group versus Individual Liability: Long Term Evidence from Philippine Microcredit Lending Groups, Xavier Giné and Dean Karlan
Adaptive Experimental Design Using the Propensity Score, Jinyong Hahn, Keisuke Hirano, and Dean Karlan
What’s Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment, Marianne Bertrand, Dean Karlan, Sundhil Mullainathan, and Eldar Shafir
Papers from 2008
Borders, Market Size and Urban Growth, The Case of Saxon Towns and the Zollverein in the 19th Century, Florian Ploeckl
Finding Missing Markets (and a disturbing epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya, Nava Ashraf, Xavier Giné, and Dean Karlan
Altruism, Favoritism, and Guilt in the Allocation of Family Resources: Sophie’s Choice in Mao’s Mass Send Down Movement, Hongbin Li, Mark Rosenzweig, and Junsen Zhang
The Efficacy of Parochial Politics: Caste, Commitment, and Competence in Indian Local Governments, Kaivan Munshi and Mark Rosenzweig
The Production of Child Health in Kenya: A Structural Model of Birth Weight, Germano Mwabu
Institutions and Demographic Responses to Shocks: Wuerttemberg, 1634-1870, Timothy W. Guinnane and Sheilagh Oglivie
Can a Preferential Trade Agreement Benefit Neighbor Countries without Compensating Them?, Masahiro Endoh, Koichi Hamada, and Koji Shimomura
Optimal Resource Extraction Contracts Under Threat of Expropriation, Eduardo Engel and Ronald Fischer
Papers from 2007
Ownership and Control in the Entrepreneurial Firm: An International History of Private Limited Companies, Timothy Guinnane, Ron Harris, Naomi R. Lamoreaux, and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal
Country Patterns of Behavior on Broader Dimensions of Human Development, Gustav Ranis, Frances Stewart, and Emma Samman
Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate Impacts, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman
The Basic Public Finance of Public-Private Partnerships, Eduardo Engel, Ronald Fischer, and Alexander Galetovic
Fertility in Developing Countries, T. Paul Schultz
Health Economics for Low-Income Countries, Germano Mwabu
Population Policies, Fertility, Women’s Human Capital, and Child Quality, T. Paul Schultz
Family Planning as an Investment in Development: Evaluation of a Program’s Consequences in Matlab, Bangladesh, Shareen Joshi and T. Paul Schultz
Price Stickiness in Ss Models: New Interpretations of Old Results, Ricardo J. Caballero and Eduardo M.R.A. Engel
Migration, Trade, Capital and Development: Substitutes, Complements and Policies, Gustav Ranis
Papers from 2006
Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines, Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, and Wesley Yin
Interpersonal, Intertemporal and Spatial Variation in Risk Perceptions: Evidence from East Africa, Cheryl Doss, John McPeak, and Christopher Barrett
The Economic Impact of AIDS Treatment: Labor Supply in Western Kenya, Harsha Thirumurthy, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Markus Goldstein
Tests of Independence in Separable Econometric Models: Theory and Application, Donald J. Brown, Rahul Deb, and Marten H. Wegkamp
Two Algorithms for Solving the Walrasian Equilibrium Inequalities, Donald J. Brown and Ravi Kannan
Selection and Comparative Advantage in Technology Adoption, Tavneet Suri
Successful Transition towards a Virtuous Cycle of Human Development and Economic Growth: Country Studies, Gustav Ranis and Frances Stewart
A Panel Unit Root and Panel Cointegration Test of the Complementarity Hypothesis in the Mexican Case, 1960-2001, Miguel D. Ramirez
Group versus Individual Liability: A Field Experiment from the Philippines, Xavier Giné and Dean Karlan
Teaching Entrepreneurship: Impact of Business Training on Microfinance Clients and Institutions, Dean Karlan and Martin Valdivia
Household Decision Marking and Savings Impacts: Further Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines, Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, and Wesley Yin
Microfinance Games, Xavier Gine, Pamela Jakiela, Dean Karlan, and Jonathan Morduch
Renegotiation Without Holdup: Anticipating Spending and Infrastructure Concessions, Eduardo Engel, Ronald Fischer, and Alexander Galetovic
Toward the Enhanced Effectiveness of Foreign Aid, Gustav Ranis
Does the Liberalization of Trade Advance Gender Equality in Schooling and Health?, T. Paul Schultz
What Determines Technological Spillovers of Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from China, Galina Hale and Cheryl Long
Do Population Control Policies Induce More Human Capital Investment? Twins, Birthweight, and China’s ‘One Child’ Policy, Mark R. Rosenzweig and Junsen Zhang
The Return to Capital in Ghana, Christopher Udry and Santosh Anagol
On the Conditions that Preclude the Existence of the Lerner Paradox and the Metzler Paradox, Masahiro Endoh and Koichi Hamada
Papers from 2005
Deposit Collectors, Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, and Wesley Yin
Institutions and Development: A View from Below, Rohini Pande and Christopher Udry
Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes, Patrick Bayer, Stephen L. Ross, and Giorgio Topa
The Profits of Power: Land Rights and Agricultural Investment in Ghana, Markus Goldstein and Christopher Udry
Coordinating Development: Can Income-based Incentive Schemes Eliminate Pareto Inferior Equilibria?, Philip Bond and Rohini Pande
Elasticities of Demand for Consumer Credit, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman
Fertility and Income, T. Paul Schultz
Dams, Esther Duflo and Rohini Pande
Profits and Politics: Coordinating Technology Adoption in Agriculture, Rohini Pande
Chinese Manufacturing Performance in Comparative Perspective, 1980-2002, Adam Szirmai, Ruoen Ren, and Manyin Bai
Farm Productivity and Market Structure. Evidence From Cotton Reforms in Zambia, Irene Brambilla and Guido G. Porto
Political Selection and the Quality of Government: Evidence from South India, Timothy Besley, Rohini Pande, and Vijayendra Rao
Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines, Nava Ashraf, Dean S. Karlan, and Wesley Yin
What’s Psychology Worth? A Field Experiment in the Consumer Credit Market, Marianne Bertrand, Dean S. Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Eldar Shafir
Cross-Border Donations and Pareto-Efficient Tariffs, Masahiro Endoh
Human Development: Beyond the HDI, Gustav Ranis, Frances Stewart, and Emma Samman
Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries, Jonathan Conning and Christopher Udry
Social Connections and Group Banking, Dean S. Karlan
Information Asymmetry and the Problem of Transfers in Trade Negotiations and International Agencies, Koichi Hamada and Shyam Sunder
Inter-household Allocations within Extended Family: Evidence from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, Firman Witoelar
Observing Unobservables: Identifying Information Asymmetries with a Consumer Credit Field Experiment, Dean S. Karlan and Jonathan Zinman
Using Experimental Economics to Measure Social Capital and Predict Financial Decisions, Dean S. Karlan