Wholesale collusion?

[Research Highlight]

December 10, 2020

Reforms to African agriculture markets didn’t help farmers or consumers as intended. The reason seems to be with how intermediary traders set prices.

The promise of conditional cash transfers

[Research Highlight]

December 22, 2020

Rema Hanna discusses how giving families money affects child development in the long run.

2020 in Research Highlights

[Research Highlight]

December 17, 2020

Economists tackled racial discrimination, border walls, collusion, and more.

Mobile money and migration

[Research Highlight]

January 13, 2021

An experiment in Bangladesh showed that its new urban workers can use mobile banking to help support their families in the countryside.

Rising regulations, ebbing emissions

[Research Highlight]

November 30, 2018

What’s behind the decline in US manufacturing pollution?

The Power of Social Pensions: Evidence from China's New Rural Pension Scheme

By Wei Huang and Chuanchuan Zhang

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, April 2021

This paper utilizes the county-by-county rollout of China's New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) and finds that, among age-eligible people, the pension scheme leads to higher household income and food expenditure, less farmwork, better health, and lower mortal...

Connecting buyers and sellers in the countryside

[Research Highlight]

April 02, 2021

E-commerce development in rural China may not be as promising as many expected.

Creating Africa’s own Green Revolution

[Research Highlight]

April 21, 2021

Dean Yang discusses how temporary farming subsidies in Mozambique are giving a massive boost to food production and economic well-being.

Communication Infrastructure and Stabilizing Food Prices: Evidence from the Telegraph Network in China

By Pei Gao and Yu-Hsiang Lei

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2021

This paper exploits a unique historical setting―the expansion of the telegraph network in nineteenth-century China when railroads were limited―to examine whether the reduction of information frictions stabilizes grain prices. Employing a difference-in...

The Effect of SNAP on the Composition of Purchased Foods: Evidence and Implications

By Justine Hastings, Ryan Kessler, and Jesse M. Shapiro

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2021

We use detailed data from a large retail panel to study the effect of participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on the composition and nutrient content of foods purchased for at-home consumption. We find that the effect of SNAP...

Delaying pay

[Research Highlight]

July 16, 2021

An experiment in Malawi reveals how a deferred wage scheme can overcome barriers to saving.

Consolidation and productivity

[Research Highlight]

September 16, 2021

Should the United States be worried about its growing monopolies?

Measuring consumption inequality

[Research Highlight]

October 21, 2021

Warehouse stores reduce the frequency of shopping trips.

CBDCs, sustainable food, and post-Covid capitalism

[News]

November 04, 2021

Reading recommendations from Timothy Taylor, managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Bye, local

[Research Highlight]

November 10, 2021

Better intercity transportation spurred the decline of sole proprietorships in American cities at the turn of the 20th century.

The Economics of Speed: The Electrification of the Streetcar System and the Decline of Mom-and-Pop Stores in Boston, 1885–1905

By Wei You

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2021

Small firms dominated the American economy in the nineteenth century, and they still dominate in many developing economies today. This paper tests whether geographic market segmentation due to underdeveloped intracity transportation technology precludes t...

Long-Term Effects of the Targeting the Ultra Poor Program

By Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Garima Sharma

American Economic Review: Insights, December 2021

This paper studies the long-run effects of a "big-push" program providing a large asset transfer to the poorest Indian households. In a randomized controlled trial that follows these households over ten years, we find positive effects on consumption (0.6 ...

Stopping the churn

[Research Highlight]

December 02, 2021

Many eligible participants lose SNAP benefits due to the difficulties of recertifying.

Issuance and Incidence: SNAP Benefit Cycles and Grocery Prices

By Jacob Goldin, Tatiana Homonoff, and Katherine Meckel

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, February 2022

Many safety net programs issue benefits as monthly lump-sum payments. We investigate how the timing of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit issuance affects food purchases and the incidence of the transfer. Using scanner data from a la...

Reexamining the Contribution of Public Health Efforts to the Decline in Urban Mortality

By D. Mark Anderson, Kerwin Kofi Charles, and Daniel I. Rees

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, April 2022

Using data on 25 major American cities for the period 1900⁠–⁠1940, we explore the effects of municipal-level public health efforts that were viewed as critical in the fight against foodborne and waterborne diseases. In addition to studying intervent...