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Promises and Pitfalls of Mobile Money in Afghanistan: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial

Despite substantial interest in the potential for mobile money to positively impact the lives of the poor, little empirical evidence exists to substantiate these claims.

Conference Paper

1 May 2015

Markup and Cost Dispersion across Firms: Direct Evidence from Producer Surveys in Pakistan

In this short paper, published in the American Economic Review, Atkin, Chaudhry, Chaudry, Khandelwal and Verhoogen (2015) directly asked firms about their mark-ups.

Journal Article

1 May 2015

Differentiation, Property Rights, and Performance Among Micro-entrepreneurs

In contexts where ownership as a mode of access to productive assets is limited, research shows that leasing has a strong positive impact on micro-entrepreneur performance and differentiation from competitors.

Research Note

10 Apr 2015

The Misallocation of Land and Other Factors of Production in India

This paper by Kerr, Duranton, Grover and Ghandi (2015) quantifies the misallocation of manufacturing output and factors of production between establishments across Indian districts during 1989–2010.

Working Paper

1 Mar 2015

Barriers to Private-Sector Arbitrage in Kenyan Maize Markets

Limited access to capital, risk of unpredictable price fluctuations, and the availability of more profitable alternatives may limit traders’ willingness to arbitrage away seasonal price fluctuations in African agricultural markets.

Research Note

24 Feb 2015

The Impact of Cartels in Low-Income Countries (ICLIC)

An estimation of the aggregate economic harm caused by cartels in developing countries provides evidence that it can be substantial irrespective of the scale of the economy in question.

Research Note

20 Feb 2015

Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi

Despite regulatory efforts designed to make it easier for firms to formalize, informality remains extremely high among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. In most of the region, business registration in a national registry is separate from tax registration.

Working Paper

1 Jan 2015

Spatial Competition among Financial Service Providers and Optimal Contract Design

In this working paper Townsend and Zhorin (2014) present a contract-based model of industrial organization that allows us to consider in a unified way both different information frictions (moral hazard, adverse selection, both) and a variety of market structures (monopoly, imperfect competition,

Working Paper

28 Dec 2014

Microenterprise Competition, Social Pressures, and Innovation

What is the nature of competition amongst densely-located, largely similar microenterprises in the developing world?

Working Paper

1 Dec 2014

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Browse all publications

Promises and Pitfalls of Mobile Money in Afghanistan: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial

Markup and Cost Dispersion across Firms: Direct Evidence from Producer Surveys in Pakistan

Differentiation, Property Rights, and Performance Among Micro-entrepreneurs

The Misallocation of Land and Other Factors of Production in India

Barriers to Private-Sector Arbitrage in Kenyan Maize Markets

The Impact of Cartels in Low-Income Countries (ICLIC)

Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi

Spatial Competition among Financial Service Providers and Optimal Contract Design

Microenterprise Competition, Social Pressures, and Innovation

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