All articles

Import competition and the quality of domestic goods

Lower tariffs promote quality upgrading of products close to the world quality frontier, but discourage quality upgrading for those far away from it

Trade

Mary Amiti Amit Khandelwal

Published

12.07.17

Sunlight as disinfectant: Disclosure requirements and corruption in India

Disclosure requirements weed out ‘bad’ politicians by encouraging exit from politics and increasing the likelihood of incumbents being re-elected

Institutions & Political Economy

Raymond Fisman

Published

10.07.17

Smartcards for smarter payments

Biometric technology and smart ID cards reduced leakage due to corruption and raised participation rates in the welfare system in Andhra Pradesh, India

Social Protection

Karthik Muralidharan Paul Niehaus Sandip Sukhtankar

Published

07.07.17

Relationship between the Chinese housing and marriage markets

An unfavourable ratio of young men to young women could explain simultaneously skyrocketing housing prices and rising home ownership

Macroeconomics & Growth

Shang-Jin Wei Xiaobo Zhang

Published

05.07.17

Assessing the effectiveness of active labour market programmes in developing countries

Studies suggest that vocational training, employment subsidies, and matching programmes have limited effect in increasing employment or wages

Labour Markets

David McKenzie

Published

03.07.17

Labour markets and poverty in village economies

Programme to provide ultra-poor women in Bangladesh with livestock assets suggests one-off interventions can be effective in fighting extreme poverty

Social Protection

Oriana Bandiera Robin Burgess Imran Rasul

Published

29.06.17

Fragmented civil wars

Multilateral pacification policies can be effective in resolving civil wars, but arms embargoes can fail if targeted militias increase their activity

Institutions & Political Economy

Michael König Dominic Rohner Mathias Thoenig Fabrizio Zilibotti

Published

26.06.17

The power of information in improving school performance

Giving parents information on the performance of schools in Pakistan improved test scores and enrolment, and reduced the cost of private school tuition

Education

Tahir Andrabi Jishnu Das Asim Ijaz Khwaja

Published

26.06.17

Improving democratic accountability in Sierra Leone

A study evaluates the influence watching electoral debates has on voter behaviour and finds that it contributes to political accountability

Institutions & Political Economy

Kelly Bidwell Katherine Casey Rachel Glennerster

Published

26.06.17