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 2022
More Roads or Public Transit? Insights from Measuring City-Center Accessibility, Lucas Conwell, Fabian Eckert, and Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
Rural-Urban Migration and The Re-organization of Agriculture, Raahil Madhok, Frederik Noack, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, and Olivier Deschenes
Restrictions on Migration Create Gender Inequality: The Story of China's Left-Behind Children, Xuwen Gao, Wenquan Liang, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, and Ran Song
Democratization, Elite Capture and Economic Development, Andrew D. Foster and Mark R. Rosenzweig
Agricultural Productivity and Deforestation: Evidence from Brazil, Dmitri Szerman, Juliano Assunção, Molly Lipscomb, and Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
Encouragement and distortionary effects of conditional cash transfers, Gharad Bryan, Shyamal Chowdhury, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Melanie Morten, and Joeri Smits
Papers from 2021
The US-China Trade War and Global Reallocations, Pablo Fajgelbaum, Pinelopi Goldberg, Patrick Kennedy, Amit Khandelwal, and Daria Taglioni
Social and Financial Incentives for Overcoming a Collective Action Problem, M. Mehrab Bakhtiar, Raymond Guiteras, James Levinsohn, and Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
The Economics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poor Countries, Edward Miguel and Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
The Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh, Jason Abaluck, Laura H. Kwong, Ashley Styczynski, Ashraful Haque, Md. Alamgir Kabir, Ellen Bates-Jeffries, Emily Crawford, Jade Benjamin-Chung, Salim Benhachmi, Shabib Raihan, Shadman Rahman, Neeti Zaman, Peter J. Winch, Md. Maqsud Hossain, Hasan Mahmud Reza, Stephen P. Luby, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Abdulla All Jaber, Shawkee Gulshan Momen, Faika Laz Bani, Aura Rahman, and Tahrima Saiha Huq
Economic Development, the Nutrition Trap and Metabolic Disease, Nancy Luke, Kaivan Munshi, Anu Mary Oommen, and Swapnil Singh
Returns to International Migration: Evidence from a Bangladesh-Malaysia Visa Lottery, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Iffath A. Sharif, and Maheshwor Shrestha
Slippery Fish: Enforcing Regulation when Agents Learn and Adapt, Andres Gonzalez Lira and Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
The Productivity Consequences of Pollution-Induced Migration in China, Gaurav Khanna, Wenquan Liang, A. Mushfiq Mobarak, and Ran Song
Papers from 2020
Cash Transfers as a Response to COVID-19: A Randomized Experiment in Kenya, Wyatt Brooks, Kevin Donovan, Terence Johnson, and Jackline Oluoch-Aridi
Migration and Informal Insurance, Costas Meghir, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Corina Mommaerts, and Melanie Morten
La “Doña” è Mobile: the Role of Women in Social Mobility in a Pre-modern Economy, José-Antonio Espín-Sánchez, Salvador Gil-Guirado, and Chris Vickers
Creating a New Legal Form: The GmbH, Timothy W. Guinnane
Is Fish Brain Food or Brain Poison? Sea Surface Temperature, Methyl-mercury and Child Cognitive Development, Mark R. Rosenzweig and Rafael J. Santos
Labor Market Dynamics and Development, Kevin Donovan, Will Jianyu Lu, and Todd Schoellman
Papers from 2019
Bismarck to No Effect: Fertility Decline and the Introduction of Social Insurance in Prussia, Timothy W. Guinnane and Jochen Streb
On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women’s Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer Moore
Housing Prices, Inter-generational Co-residence, and "Excess" Savings by the Young: Evidence using Chinese Data, Mark R. Rosenzweig and Junsen Zhang
The Effects of Schooling on Costless Health Maintenance: Overweight Adolescents and Children in Rural China, Mark R. Rosenzweig and Junsen Zhang
Assessing the Benefits of Long‐Run Weather Forecasting for the Rural Poor: Farmer Investments and Worker Migration in a Dynamic Equilibrium Model, Mark R. Rosenzweig and Christopher Udry
Papers from 2018
Capital Structure and the Choice of Enterprise Form: theory and history, Timothy Guinnane and Jakob Schneebacher
Can Network Theory-based Targeting Increase Technology Adoption?, Lori Beaman, Ariel BenYishay, Jeremy Magruder, and Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
Papers from 2017
Are There Too Many Farms in the World? Labor-Market Transaction Costs, Machine Capacities and Optimal Farm Size, Andrew D. Foster and Mark Rosenzweig
Inter-Sectoral Terms of Trade and Investible Surplus, Mohsen Fardmanesh
Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India, Orazio Attanasio, Costas Meghir, and Emily Nix
Partnership as Experimentation: Business Organization and Survival in Egypt, 1910–1949, Cihan Artunç and Timothy Guinnane
Papers from 2016
Networks in Conflict: Theory and Evidence from the Great War of Africa, Michael D. König, Dominic Rohner, Mathias Thoenig, and Fabrizio Zilibotti
Banking the Unbanked? Evidence from three countries, Pascaline Dupas, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Robinson, and Diego Ubfal
External Validity in a Stochastic World, Mark Rosenzweig and Christopher Udry
Insurgency and Small Wars: Estimation of Unobserved Coalition Structures, Francesco Trebbi and Eric Weese
Papers from 2015
Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India, Orazio Attanasio, Costas Meghir, and Emily Nix
Women and Agricultural Productivity: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?, Cheryl Doss
Inefficiency and Self-Determination: Simulation-Based Evidence from Meiji Japan, Eric Weese, Masayoshi Hayashi, and Masashi Nishikawa
Financial Vergangenheitsbewältigung: The 1953 London Debt Agreement, Timothy W. Guinnane
Choice of Enterprise Form: Spain, 1886-1936, Timothy Guinnane and Susana Martinez-Rodriguez
The Effect of Effectiveness: Donor Response to Aid Effectiveness in a Direct Mail Fundraising Experiment, Dean Karlan and Daniel Wood
Decentralizing Education Resources: School Grants in Senegal, Pedro Carneiro, Oswald Koussihouede, Nathalie Lahire, and Costas Meghir
The Impact of Financial Education for Youth in Ghana, Dean Karlan, James Berry, and Menno Pradhan
Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Control Trial in Columbia, Orazio Attanasio, Sarah Cattan, Emla Fitzsimons, and Costas Meghir
The Catch-22 of External Validity in the Context of Constraints to Firm Growth, Greg Fischer and Dean Karlan
Unshrouding Effects on Demand for a Costly Add-on: Evidence from Bank Overdrafts in Turkey, Sule Alan, Mehmet Cemalcilar, Dean Karlan, and Jonathan Zinman
Papers from 2014
Saving for a (not so) Rainy Day: A Randomized Evaluation of Savings Groups in Mali, Lori Beaman, Dean Karlan, and Bram Thuysbaert
To Charge or Not to Charge: Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda, Greg Fischer, Dean Karlan, Margaret McConnell, and Pia Raffler
Financial Education and Access to Savings Accounts:Complements or Substitutes? Evidence from Ugandan Youth Clubs, Dean Karlan, Julian Jamison, and Jonathan Zinman
Self-Selection into Credit Markets: Evidence from Agriculture in Mali, Lori Beaman, Dean Karlan, Bram Thuysbaert, and Christopher Udry
Co-residence, Life-Cycle Savings and Inter-generational Support in Urban China, Mark Rosenzweig and Junsen Zhang
Loose Knots: Strong versus Weak Commitments to Save for Education in Uganda, Dean Karlan and Leigh Linden
Rainfall Forecasts, Weather and Wages over the Agricultural Production Cycle, Mark Rosenzweig and Christopher Udry
Papers from 2013
Risk, Insurance and Wage in General Equilibrium, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak and Mark Rosenzweig
Follow the Money: Methods for Identifying Consumption and Investment Responses to a Liquidity Shock, Dean Karlan, Adam Osman, and Jonathan Zinman
Savings By and For the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda, Dean Karlan, Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan, and Jonathan Zinman
Targeting Ultra-poor Households in Honduras and Peru, Dean Karlan and Bram Thuysbaert
Communicating with Farmers through Social Networks, Ariel Benyishay and A. Mushfiq Mobarak
Continued Existence of Cows Disproves Central Tenets of Capitalism?, Santosh Anagol, Alvin Etang, and Dean Karlan
Forecasting Profitability, Mark Rosenzweig and Chris Udry
Agricultural Decisions after Relaxing Credit and Risk Constraints, Dean Karlan, Isaac Osei-Akoto, Robert Darko Osei, and Christopher Udry
Escaping Famine through Seasonal Migration, Gharad Bryan, Shyamal Chowdhury, and Ahmed Musfiq Mobarak
The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants, David Atkin
Long-Run Price Elasticities of Demand for Credit: Evidence from a Countrywide Field Experiment in Mexico, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman
Mixed Method Evaluation of a Passive mHealth Sexual Information Texting Service in Uganda, Julian Jamison, Dean Karlan, and Pia Raffler
Problems of Sample-selection Bias in the Historical Heights Literature: A Theoretical and Econometric Analysis, Howard Bodenhorn, Timothy Guinnane, and Thomas A. Mroz
Win Some Lose Some? Evidence from a Randomized Microcredit Program Placement Experiment by Compartamos Banco, Manuela Angelucci, Dean Karlan, and Jonathan Zinman
Political Mergers as Coalition Formation: An Analysis of the Heisei Municipal Amalgamations, Eric Weese
A Two-Tiered Demographic System: "Insiders" and "Outsiders" in Three Swabian Communities, 1558-1914, Timothy Guinnane and Sheilagh Ogilvie
Probability of Fertilizer: Experimental Evidence from Female Rice Farmers in Mali, Lori Beaman, Dean Karlan, Bram Thuysbaert, and Christopher Udry
Papers from 2012
Labor Surplus Revisited, Gustav Ranis
Wages and Informality in Developing Countries, Costas Meghir, Renata Narita, and Jean-Marc Robin
Another Look at Foreign Aid, Gustav Ranis
Hoping to Win, Expected to Lose: Theory and Lessons on Micro Enterprise Development, Dean Karlan, Ryan Knight, and Christopher Udry
Incentives That Saved Lives: Government Regulation of Accident Insurance Associations in Germany, 1884-1914., Timothy Guinnane and Jochen Streb
Vertical and Horizontal Decentralization and Ethnic Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa, Gustav Ranis
For Every Law a Loophole: Flexibility in the Menu of Spanish Business Forms, 1886-1936., Timothy Guinnane and Susana Martinez-Rodriguez
A Personal Touch: Text Messaging for Loan Repayment, Dean Karlan, Melanie Morten, and Jonathan Zinman
Economic Growth, Comparative Advantage, and Gender Differences in Schooling Outcomes: Evidence from the Birthweight Differences of Chinese Twins, Mark Rosenzweig and Junsen Zhang
Selling Formal Insurance to the Informally Insured, A. Mushfiq Mobarak and Mark R. Rosenzweig
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