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Do Performance Ranks Increase Productivity? Evidence from a Field Experiment

While performance-based ranking may induce workers to increase effort because of status concerns, such information may also demotivate them or make them wary of outperforming peers.

Working Paper

12 Mar 2018

Earnings Inequality and the Minimum Wage: Evidence from Brazil

In this working paper Moser and Engbom (2016) assess the extent to which a rise in the minimum wage can account for three facts characterizing a large decline in earnings inequality in Brazil from 1996–2012: (i) the decline is more pronounced towards the bottom of the distribution; (ii) one quart

Working Paper

9 Mar 2018

Closer Monetary Union and Product Market Integration in Emerging Economies: Evidence from the Common Monetary Area in Southern Africa

This study by Nchake, Edwards and Rankin (2017), published in the International Review of Economics and Finance, utilizes detailed micro price data to estimate the impact of closer monetary union on the integration of product markets across countries, considering two

Journal Article

1 Mar 2018

Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations: Evidence from Ethiopia

Abebe et al. (2018) quantify foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers by comparing changes in total factor productivity (TFP) among domestic plants in districts that attracted a large greenfield foreign plant and districts where greenfield FDI was licensed but not yet operational.

Working Paper

1 Mar 2018

The Light and the Heat: Productivity Co-benefits of Energy-saving Technology

Measurement of the full costs and benefits of energy-saving technologies is often difficult, confounding adoption decisions. Adhvaryu et al. (2017) study consequences of the adoption of energy-efficient LED lighting in garment factories around Bangalore, India.

Working Paper

1 Feb 2018

Risk and Return in Village Economies

This paper by Samphantharak and Townsend (2018), published in the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, provides a theory-based empirical framework for understanding the risk and return on productive capital assets and their allocation across activities in an eco

Journal Article

1 Feb 2018

Land Mines and Spatial Development

What happens to the economic performance of a region contaminated by explosive remnants of war (unexploded ordnance and landmines) when it is finally cleared? Which regions benefit the most? And what are the aggregate country-wide effects of landmine clearance?

Research Note

19 Jan 2018

It Takes Two: Experimental Evidence on the Determinants of Technology Diffusion

Previous studies of peer-to-peer technology diffusion have primarily focused on the decision of potential adopters. Often equally relevant for observed diffusion is the willingness of incumbent adopters to actively share technology.

Research Note

18 Jan 2018

Misallocation in the Market for Inputs: Enforcement and the Organization of Production

The timely enforcement of supplier contracts by courts of justice is an important determinant of firms’ organizational structure and overall productivity.

Research Note

18 Jan 2018

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Browse all publications

Do Performance Ranks Increase Productivity? Evidence from a Field Experiment

Earnings Inequality and the Minimum Wage: Evidence from Brazil

Closer Monetary Union and Product Market Integration in Emerging Economies: Evidence from the Common Monetary Area in Southern Africa

Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations: Evidence from Ethiopia

The Light and the Heat: Productivity Co-benefits of Energy-saving Technology

Risk and Return in Village Economies

Land Mines and Spatial Development

It Takes Two: Experimental Evidence on the Determinants of Technology Diffusion

Misallocation in the Market for Inputs: Enforcement and the Organization of Production

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