Agenda du séminaire Development Economics Seminar
Development Economics Seminar
Le 15/05/2024 de 16:30:00 à 18:00:00
R2.01
Seasonal migration is a common strategy to mitigate rural seasonal deprivation, but migrants need to remit money back during the lean season to family
members facing food shortages. We observe counterintuitively low remittances
in rural Nepal during periods of seasonal hunger, and migrants return with remittances later during harvest when food is relatively abundant. To indirectly
overcome this apparent constraint in remittance timing, we provide a $90 consumption loan to randomly selected rural households during the pre-harvest
lean season. Loan-recipient households increase pre-harvest investments in fertilizer and time spent working on their own farm, smooth consumption, and
save more of their migration income to bring it back home. Food security, subjective well-being, rice harvest and revenues improve. 98% of beneficiaries repay
the loan with the increased harvest-period remittance. In a two-period model of
household decision-making, we show that remittance frictions – a market failure
– are necessary to qualitatively match our experimental results.
MOBARAK Musfiq (Yale University) Remittance Frictions and Seasonal Poverty
écrit avec ,Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Corey Vernot , Arjun Kharel
Development Economics Seminar
Le 22/05/2024 de 16:30:00 à 18:00:00
R2.01
Can microcredit help unlock a poverty trap for some people by putting
their businesses on a different trajectory? Could the small microcredit treatment effects often
found for the average household mask important heterogeneity? In Hyderabad, India, we find
that “gung ho entrepreneurs” (GEs), households who were already running a business before
microfinance entered, show persistent benefits that increase over time. Six years later, the
treated GEs own businesses that have 35% more assets and generate double the revenues as
those in control neighborhoods. We find almost no effects on non-GE households. A model
of technology choice in which talented entrepreneurs can access either a diminishing-returns
technology, or a more productive technology with a fixed cost, generates dynamics matching
the data. These results show that heterogeneity in entrepreneurial ability is important and
persistent. For talented but low-wealth entrepreneurs, short-term access to credit can indeed
facilitate escape from a poverty trap.
DUFLO Esther (MIT) Can microfinance unlock a poverty trap for some entrepreneurs" (With Abhijit Banerjee, Emily Breza and Cynthia Kinnan)
Development Economics Seminar
Le 29/05/2024 de 16:30:00 à 18:00:00
R2.01
FIORIN Stefano (Bocconi University ) *
La séance est annulée
Development Economics Seminar
Le 05/06/2024 de 16:30:00 à 18:00:00
R2.01
We study the direct and indirect effects of randomized entry into local service industries. We implement a three-step design, randomizing the entry of new retail mobile money vendors — drawn from existing microenterprises retailing other services across independent, distinct low-income localities in Ghana. We report preliminary evidence of (i) mixed business stealing and market expansion in sector A: mobile money, and (ii) market expansion in sector B: microenterprises. Yet, local industry revenues and profits increased overall, suggesting positive externalities on microenterprises and producer surplus. Randomized entry increases both firm conduct and service quality and decreases prices, suggesting positive consumer surplus. These effects are not only important for welfare and policy but are key ingredients for advancing basic and applied knowledge on firm entry in industry equilibrium.
ANNAN Francis (University of California, Berkeley) Equilibrium Effects of Entry in Digital Financial Markets
Development Economics Seminar
Le 12/06/2024 de 16:30:00 à 18:00:00
R2-01
KOEHLER-DERRICK Gabriel (NYU Abu Dhabi) *