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Working Papers

  1. Using Life Satisfaction Data to Measure Parents' Child Gender Preferences
    with A. Barbeta-Margarit and S. Oh
    October 2025
  2. Moving to Opportunity, Together
    with L. Nassal, M. Notowidigdo, M. Paul, H. Sarsons, and E. Sundberg
    October 2025
  3. Women's Power in the Household
    with A. Voena
    June 2025
  4. What Works to Enhance Women's Agency: Cross-Cutting Lessons from Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Studies
    with W. Chang, L. Diaz-Martin, A. Gopalan, E. Guarnieri, and C. Walsh
    July 2020
  5. Attending Kindergarten Improves Cognitive but Not Socio-Emotional Development in India
    with J. Dean
    February 2020

Published and Forthcoming Papers

  1. The Negligible Effect of Free Contraception on Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Burkina Faso
    with P. Dupas, A. Lleras-Muney, and P. Rossi
    American Economic Review, August 2025, vol 115(8), pp. 2659-2688
    [Online appendix]
  2. Informing Mothers about the Benefits of Conversing with Infants: Experimental Evidence from Ghana
    with P. Dupas, C. Fazelan, and M. Walsh
    American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2025, vol 17(2) , pp. 388-417
    [Online appendix]
  3. Money (Not) to Burn: Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Crop Residue Burning
    with K. Jack, N. Kala, and R. Pande
    American Economic Review: Insights, March 2025, vol 7(1), pp. 39-55
    [Unjournal evaluation]
  4. Redesigning Payments for Ecosystem Services to Increase Cost-Effectiveness
    with S. Izquierdo-Tort and S. Saavedra Pineda
    Nature Communications, 2024, vol 15:9252
    [HTML version]   [Economics paper format, with appendix]
  5. Ten Facts about Son Preference in India
    India Policy Forum 2023, vol 20, Sage Publishing India, 2024
    [Typset version]
  6. Environmental Externalities and Free-Riding in the Household
    with K. Jack, F. Malagutti, and S. Rao
    Journal of Development Economics, 2024, vol 174
    [Online appendix]
  7. A Mother's Voice: Impacts of Spousal Communication Training on Child Health Investments
    with M. Bjorkman Nyqvist and C. Zipfel
    Journal of Development Economics, 2024, vol 168
    [Online appendix]
  8. Detecting Mother-Father Differences in Spending on Children: A New Approach Using Willingness-to-Pay Elicitation
    with R. Dizon-Ross
    American Economic Review: Insights, December 2023, vol 5(4), pp. 445-459
    [Online appendix]   [Short summary]
  9. The Mortality Effects of Winter Heating Prices
    with J. Chirakijja and P. Ong
    Economic Journal, January 2024, vol 134(657), pp. 402-417
    [Online appendix]   [Slides]
  10. Think Globally, Act Globally: Opportunities to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
    with R. Glennerster
    Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2023, vol 37(3), pp. 112-136.
    [Foreign Affairs version]
  11. The Inherent Trade-Off Between the Environmental and Anti-Poverty Goals of Payments for Ecosystem Services
    Environmental Research Letters, February 2023, 18(2), 025003.
  12. Greater than the Sum of the Parts? Evidence on Mechanisms Operating in Women's Groups
    with L. Diaz-Martin, A. Gopalan, and E. Guarnieri
    World Bank Research Observer, February 2023, vol 38(1), pp. 1-35.
  13. Using Machine Learning and Qualitative Interviews to Design a Five-Question Survey Module for Women's Agency
    with M. Biradavolu and J. Cooper
    World Development, January 2023, vol 161, 106076.
    [Best-performing survey questions to measure women's agency]
  14. How Economic Development Influences the Environment
    Annual Review of Economics, 2022, vol 14, pp. 229-252
  15. Improving Willingness-to-Pay Elicitation by Including a Benchmark Good
    with R. Dizon-Ross
    American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, May 2022, vol 112, pp. 551-555
  16. Reshaping Adolescents' Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India
    with D. Dhar and T. Jain
    American Economic Review, March 2022, vol 112(3), pp. 899-927
    [Online appendix]   [Pre-analysis plan]   [J-PAL policy brief]   [2-minute video]
  17. Microentrepreneurship in Developing Countries
    Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, November 2021
  18. Social Norms as a Barrier to Women's Employment in Developing Countries
    IMF Economic Review, September 2021, vol 69(3), pp. 576-595
  19. Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Attitudes: Evidence From India
    with D. Dhar and T. Jain
    Journal of Development Studies, September 2019, vol 55(12), pp. 2572-2592
    [Online appendix]
  20. Changing Family Attitudes to Promote Female Employment
    with J. Dean
    American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, May 2019, vol 109, pp. 138-142
  21. Self-Selection into Payments for Ecosystem Services Programs
    with K. Jack
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 19, 2019, vol 116(12), pp. 5326-5333
  22. Firm Growth and Corruption: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam
    with J. Bie, E. Malesky, and B. Olken
    Economic Journal, February 2019, vol 129, pp. 651-677
  23. The Price Effects of Cash Versus In-Kind Transfers
    with J. Cunha and G. De Giorgi
    Review of Economic Studies, January 2019, vol 86(1), pp. 240-281
    [Corrected version]
  24. The Causes and Consequences of Increased Female Education and Labor Force Participation in Developing Countries
    with R. Heath
    Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy, 2018, eds. S. Averett, L. Argys, and S. Hoffman.
  25. Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference
    with R. Pande
    American Economic Review, September 2017, vol 107(9), pp. 2600-2629.
    [Online appendix]   [Overview in Economic and Political Weekly]   [Op-ed in New York Times]
  26. Cash for Carbon: A Randomized Trial of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation
    with J. De Laat, E. Lambin, C. Stanton, R. Audy, and N. Thomas
    Science, July 2017, vol 357(6348), pp. 267-273.
    [Supplementary material]
  27. Mothers Care More, But Fathers Decide: Educating Parents about Child Health in Uganda
    with M. Bjorkman Nyqvist
    American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2017, vol 107(5), pp. 496-500.
  28. Fertility Decline and Missing Women
    American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2017, vol 9(1), pp. 118-139.
  29. Friendship at Work: Can Peer Support Catalyze Female Entrepreneurship?
    with E. Field, R. Pande, and N. Rigol
    American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2016, vol 8(2), pp. 125-153.
    [AEA Research Highlight]
  30. The Roots of Gender Inequality in Developing Countries
    Annual Review of Economics, 2015, vol 7, pp. 63-88.
  31. Incentives to Teach Badly? After-School Tutoring in Developing Countries
    Journal of Development Economics, May 2014, vol 108, pp. 190-205.
  32. Does Contraceptive Use Always Reduce Breastfeeding?
    Demography, June 2014, vol 51(3), pp. 917-937.
  33. Liquidity Constraints and Deforestation: The Limitations of Payments for Ecosystem Services
    American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2013, vol. 103 (2), pp. 309-313.
  34. Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less Than Boys: Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India
    with I. Kuziemko
    Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 2011, vol. 126 (3), pp. 1485-1538.
    [Online appendix]   [Slides]
  35. Do Traditional Institutions Constrain Female Entrepreneurship? A Field Experiment on Business Training in India
    with E. Field and R. Pande
    American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2010, vol. 100 (2), pp. 125-129.
  36. Modern Medicine and the 20th-Century Decline in Mortality: Evidence on the Impact of Sulfa Drugs
    with A. Lleras-Muney and K. Smith
    American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, April 2010, vol. 2 (2), pp. 118-146.
    [Online appendix]   [Slides]
  37. Air Quality and Early-Life Mortality: Evidence from Indonesia's Wildfires
    Journal of Human Resources, Fall 2009, vol. 44 (4), pp. 916-954.
    [Slides]
  38. Life Expectancy and Human Capital Investments: Evidence from Maternal Mortality Declines
    with A. Lleras-Muney
    Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2009, vol 124 (1), pp. 349-397.
    [Online appendix]   [Slides]
  39. The Jeffords Effect
    Journal of Law and Economics, October 2006, vol. 49 (2), pp. 397-425.
  40. Selling Labor Low: Wage Responses to Productivity Shocks in Developing Countries
    Journal of Political Economy, June 2006, vol. 114 (3), pp. 538-575.
  41. Odious Debt
    with M. Kremer
    American Economic Review, March 2006, vol. 96 (1), pp. 82-92.
    [Working Group]   [Policy report]