Survey says?

[Research Highlight]

April 02, 2019

Inaccurate Census data has led researchers to underestimate the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs.

The downsides of making benefits more flexible

[Research Highlight]

April 17, 2019

For the neediest, giving in-kind may be better than giving cash.

Welfare reform and recidivism

[Page]

A new study finds that banning felons from receiving food stamps led to more crime.

Betting on beach tourism

[Research Highlight]

May 31, 2019

How do investments in the service sector affect economic growth in developing countries?

Door-to-door health care

[Research Highlight]

July 08, 2019

Could an "Avon-like" entrepreneurial program reduce child mortality in developing countries?

The unintended effects of incentives

[Research Highlight]

December 04, 2019

An experiment to get kids eating healthy shows how theories can miss key nuances in the real world.

When the well runs dry

[Research Highlight]

January 21, 2020

Small farmers are adapting to water loss by leaving the fields and working elsewhere.

Socializing at Work: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Manufacturing Workers

By Sangyoon Park

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2019

Through a field experiment at a seafood-processing plant, I examine how working alongside friends affects employee productivity and how this effect is heterogeneous with respect to an employee's personality. This paper presents two main findings. First, w...

Snapping Back: Food Stamp Bans and Criminal Recidivism

By Cody Tuttle

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2019

I estimate the effect of access to food stamps on criminal recidivism. In 1996, a federal welfare reform imposed a lifetime ban from food stamps on convicted drug felons. Florida modified this ban, restricting it to drug traffickers who commit their offen...

Representations of Men and Women in Introductory Economics Textbooks

By Betsey Stevenson and Hanna Zlotnik

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

This paper examines the frequency and ways in which men and women appear in principles of economics textbooks. Men account for more than 90 percent of business leaders, policymakers, and economists mentioned in textbooks. In addition, women are a minority...

Incentives and Unintended Consequences: Spillover Effects in Food Choice

By Manuela Angelucci, Silvia Prina, Heather Royer, and Anya Samek

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, November 2019

Little is known about how peers influence the impact of incentives. We study how peers' actions and incentives can lead to peer spillover effects. Using a field experiment on snack choice in the school lunchroom (choice of grapes versus cookies), we rando...

High Trade Costs and Their Consequences: An Estimated Dynamic Model of African Agricultural Storage and Trade

By Obie Porteous

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2019

Using a new intranational dataset of monthly grain prices and production and a new approach to identify cost parameters, I estimate and solve a dynamic model of agricultural storage and trade covering all 42 countries of continental sub-Saharan Africa. I ...

The Differential Incidence and Severity of Food Insecurity by Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Groups over the Great Recession in the United States

By Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Hugo B. Jales, Judith Liu, and Norbert L. Wilson

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

We document the differences in food insecurity incidence and severity by race/ethnicity and immigrant status over the Great Recession. We show that the disadvantaged groups with a higher incidence of food insecurity do not necessarily have a higher severi...

What Is the Impact of Food Stamps on Prices and Products Variety? The Importance of the Supply Response

By Xavier Jaravel

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

Comparing US states that implemented policies generating state-specific variation in the take-up rate for food stamps, I find that food stamp eligible households experienced lower inflation and a faster increase in product variety in states with a larger ...

New Evidence on Information Disclosure through Restaurant Hygiene Grading

By Daniel E. Ho, Zoe C. Ashwood, and Cassandra Handan-Nader

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, November 2019

The case of restaurant hygiene grading occupies a central role in information disclosure scholarship. Comparing Los Angeles, which enacted grading in 1998, with California from 1995–1999, Jin and Leslie (2003) found that grading reduced foodborne illnes...

Diabetes and Diet: Purchasing Behavior Change in Response to Health Information

By Emily Oster

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2018

Individuals with obesity and related conditions are often reluctant to change their diet. Evaluating the details of this reluctance is hampered by limited data. I use household scanner data to estimate food purchase response to a diagnosis of diabetes. I ...

New Evidence on Information Disclosure through Restaurant Hygiene Grading: Reply

By Ginger Zhe Jin and Phillip Leslie

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, November 2019

Ho, Ashwood, and Handan-Nader (forthcoming) replicates table VI of Jin and Leslie (2003) but questions its research design. Robustness checks support our original conclusion—foodborne hospitalizations, as defined in JL, declined in Los Angeles County (L...

How Are SNAP Benefits Spent? Evidence from a Retail Panel

By Justine Hastings and Jesse M. Shapiro

American Economic Review, December 2018

We use a novel retail panel with detailed transaction records to study the effect of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on house-hold spending. We use administrative data to motivate three approaches to causal inference. The marginal pro...

Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease? Unintended Effects of Payment Reform in a Quantity-Based Transfer Program

By Katherine Meckel

American Economic Review, June 2020

Quantity vouchers are used in redistributive programs to shield participants from price variation and alter their consumption patterns. However, because participants are insensitive to prices, vendors of program goods are incentivized to price discriminat...

Competition and Entry in Agricultural Markets: Experimental Evidence from Kenya

By Lauren Falcao Bergquist and Michael Dinerstein

American Economic Review, December 2020

African agricultural markets are characterized by low farmer revenues and high consumer food prices. Many have worried that this wedge is partially driven by imperfect competition among intermediaries. This paper provides experimental evidence from Kenya ...