Reading List

Instruction: Papers with * will be presented in class by me or TAs. Each student must choose a paper from the list below to present (inform me by week 3 and present it on week 8), write up a referee report for the paper chosen (submit it on week 10), and write up a research proposal and present it at the end of the class. The research proposal should be based on several papers listed here (not just the one chosen).

1) Human Capital and Economic Development: Early Childhood and Education

1. *Cunha, F. and J. Heckman (2008). Formulating, identifying and estimating the technology of cognitive and noncognitive skill formation.  Journal of Human Resources 43(4), 738–782. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation. 

2. *Heckman, J., Pinto, R., and Savelyev, P. (2013). Understanding the mechanisms through which an influential early childhood program boosted adult outcomes. American Economic Review, 103(6):2052–86. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

3. *Attanasio and et al. (2020).  Estimating the production function for human capital: results from a randomized controlled trial in Colombia. American Economic Review, volume 110, pages 48--85. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

4. *Doepke, M., & Zilibotti, F. (2017). Parenting with Style: Altruism and Paternalism in Intergenerational Preference Transmission. Econometrica, 85(5), 1331--1371. Online Appendix.

5. Heckman, J. J., S. Moon, R. R. Pinto, P. A. Savelyev, and A. Q. Yavitz (2010). The rate of return to the Perry Preschool program. Journal of Public Economics. Volume 94, pages: 114--128. Online Appendix.

6. Heckman, J. J., S. Moon, R. R. Pinto, P. A. Savelyev, and A. Q. Yavitz (2010). Analyzing social experiments as implemented: A reexamination of the evidence from the HighScope Perry Preschool Program. Quantitative Economics. Volume 1, pages: 1--46. Online Appendix.

7. Heckman, J., and G. Karapakula (2019). The Perry Preschoolers at late midlife: A study in design-specific inference. NBER Working Paper.

8. Cunha, F., James J Heckman, and Susanne M Schennach (2010). Estimating the technology of cognitive and noncognitive skill formation. Econometrica, 78(3):883--931. Online Appendix and Additional Material.

9. Garcia et al. (2020). Quantifying the Life-Cycle Benefits of an Influential Early-Childhood Program. Journal of Political Economy Volume 128(7), pages 2502--2541.

10. Chujan, W. and W. T. Kilenthong (forthcoming). Short-term Impact of an Early Childhood Curriculum Intervention in Rural Thailand. Journal of Human Capital. Online Appendix.

11. Đinh, N. and W. T. Kilenthong (forthcoming). Do Parental Absence and Children’s Gender Affect Early Childhood Investment? Evidence from Rural Thailand. Singapore Economic Review. Online Appendix.

12. Roland G. Fryer, Jr. (2018). The “Pupil” Factory: Specialization and the Production of Human Capital in Schools. American Economic Review 108(3): 616--656.

13. Attanasio, O., Costas Meghir, and Emily Nix. Human capital development and parental investment in india. NBER, 2015b.

14. Cunha, F. and J. Heckman (2007).   The technology of skill formation. American Economic Review 97(2), 31--47.

15. Attanasio, O. (2015). The determinants of human capital formation during the early years of life: Theory, measurement, and policies. Journal of the European Economic Association, 13(6): 949--997.

16. Todd, P. and Kenneth I Wolpin. On the specification and estimation of the production function for cognitive achievement. The Economic Journal, 113(485), 2003.

17. Fiorini, M. and Michael P Keane. How the allocation of childrens time affects cognitive and noncognitive development. Journal of Labor Economics, 32(4):787--836, 2014.

18. Solomon W Polachek, Tirthatanmoy Das, and Rewat Thamma-Apiroam. Micro-and macroeconomic implications of heterogeneity in the production of human capital. Journal of Political Economy, 123(6):1410--1455, 2015.

19. Fryer, R. (2017). The Production of Human Capital in Developed Countries: Evidence from 196 Randomized Field Experiments. In Handbook of Field Experiments Vol. 2. pp. 95--322.

20. Del Boca, D., Flinn, C. and Wiswall, M. (2014). Household choices and child development. Review of Economic Studies, 81(1), 137--185.

2) Economic Development and Organization Management 

1. *Bloom, N. et al. (2013). Does management matter: evidence from India. Quarterly Journal of Economics pp. 1--51. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

2. *Bloom, N. et al. (2015). The Impact of Competition on Management Practices in Public Hospitals. Review of Economic Studies pp. 457--489. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

3. *Romero, M. et al. (2020). Outsourcing Education: Experimental Evidence from Liberia. American Economic Review, 110(2): 364--400. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

4. Fryer, R.  (2017). Management and Student Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment. Working Paper. Online Appendix.

5. de Ree, J. et al. (2017). Double for Nothing? Experimental Evidence on an Unconditional Teacher Salary Increase in Indonesia. Quarterly Journal of Economics, pages 993--1039.

6. Bloom, N. et al. (2020). Do Management Interventions Last? Evidence from India American Economic Journal Applied 12(2): 198--219.

7. Bloom, N. et al. (2019). What Drives Differences in Management Practices? American Economic Review 109(5): 1648--1683.

8. Bloom, N. et al. (2015). Does management matter in schools? Economic Journal.

9. Bloom, N. and J. Van Reenen (2007).  Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries. Quarterly Journal of Economics pp. 539--591.

10. Dobbie, W. and Fryer, R. (2020). Charter schools and labor market outcomes. Journal of Labor Economics pp. 915--957.

11. Fryer, R. (2014) Injecting Charter School Best Practices into Traditional Public Schools: Evidence From Field Experiments. Quarterly Journal of Economics 129 (3):1355--1407.

12. Mbiti, I. et al. (2019). Inputs, incentives, and complementarities in education: Experimental evidence from Tanzania. Quarterly Journal of Economics, pages 1627--1673.

13. Muralidharan, K. and V. Sundararaman (2011). Teacher Performance Pay: Experimental Evidence from India. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 119, No. 1, pp. 39--77.

14. Muralidharan, K. and A. Singh (2021). Improving Public Sector Management at Scale? Experimental Evidence on School Governance in India? NBER Working Paper.

15. Andrabi, T., J. Das, A. Khwaja (2017). Report Cards: The Impact of Providing School and Child Test Scores on Educational Markets. American Economic Review, 107(6): pp. 1535--63.

16. Banerjee et al. (2007). Remedying education: Evidence from two randomized experiments in India. Quarterly Journal of Economics, pp. 1235--64.

17. Das, J. and T. Zajonc (2010). India Shining and Bharat Drowning: Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide. Journal of Development Economics, pp. 175--87.

18. Duflo, E.,  P. Dupas and M. Kremer (2015). School Governance, Teacher Incentives, and Pupil-Teacher Ratios: Experimental Evidence from Kenyan Primary Schools.  Journal of Public Economics. Volume 123: pp. 92--110. 

19. P Glewwe, P., N. Ilias and M. Kremer (2010). Teacher Incentives. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2(3): pp. 205--27.

20. P Glewwe, P., M. Kremer and S. Moulin (2009). Many children left behind? Textbooks and test scores in Kenya.  American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(1): pp. 112--35.

21. Pradhan, M. et al. (2014). Improving Educational Quality through Enhancing Community Participation: Results from a Randomized Field Experiment in Indonesia. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 6(2): pp. 105--26.

22. Singh, A. (2015). Private school effects in urban and rural India: Panel estimates at primary and secondary school ages. Journal of Development Economics, 113(March): pp. 16--32.

3) Risk and Insurances

1. *Townsend, R.M. (1994). Risk and insurance in village India, Econometrica, pp. 539–591. Slide Presentation.

2. *Blundell, R., Luigi Pistaferri, and Ian Preston (2008). Consumption inequality and partial insurance. American Economic Review, pages 1887--192. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

3. *Jack, W. and T. Suri (2014). Risk Sharing and Transactions Costs: Evidence from Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution. American Economic Review 104, no. 1:183–223. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

4. Mazzocco, M. and Saini, S. (2012). Testing Efficient Risk Sharing with Heterogeneous Risk Preferences. American Economic Review, pp. 428--468.

5. Sam Schulhofer-Wohl (2006). Heterogeneity and tests of risk sharing. Journal of Political Economy, pp. 925--958.

6. Chiappori, P.A. and et.al.  (2014). Heterogeneity and risk sharing in Thai villages. Quantitative Economics, pp. 1--27. 

7. Paxson, C.H. (1992), Using weather variability to estimate the response of savings to transitory income in Thailand. American Economic Review, pp.  15–33.

8. Paxson, C.H.  (1993). Consumption and income seasonality in Thailand. Journal of Political Economy, pp. 39–72.

9. Townsend, R. M. (1993). The Medieval Village Economy: Chapter 2.

10. Townsend, Robert M. (2011). Financial Systems in developing Economies: Chapter 7.

11. Bardhan, P. and Christopher Udry (1999). Development  Microeconomics: Chapter 8.

12. Udry, C. (1995). Risk and saving in northern Nigeria. American Economic Review, pp.  1287–1300.

13. Deaton, A. (1991). Saving and Liquidity Constraints. Econometrica, pp. 1221–1248.

14. Rosenzweig, M.R. and Wolpin, K.I. (1993). Credit market constraints, consumption smoothing, and the accumulation  of durable production assets in low-income countries:  Investments in bullocks in India.  Journal of Political Economy,  pp.  223–244.

15. Fafchamp,  Marcel and  Lund,  Susan  (1997).  Risk-sharing networks in rural Philippines. Journal of Development Economics, pp. 261—287.

16. Townsend, Robert  (1995). Financial Systems in Northern Thai Villages, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110(4), 10111046.

17. Browning, Martin and  Pierre-Andre Chiappori  (1998). Efficient Intra-household Allocations: A General Characterization and Empirical Tests. Econometrica,  Vol. 66 (6), pp.  1241-1278.

18. Duflo, Esther and Christopher Udry (2001). Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Cted’Ivoire:  Social Norms, Separate  Accounts and Consumption Choices. NBER WP#10498.

19. Kinnan, C., and Robert M. Townsend (2012).  Kinship and Financial Networks, Formal  Financial Access and Risk Reduction.  American Economic dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/73141/Townsend_Kinship%20and.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Review P&P, 289—293.

20. Ligon, E. (1998). Risk sharing and information in village economies. Review of Economic Studies, 65: pp. 847--864.

21. Chiappori, P.A. (1997). Introducing Household Production in Collective Models of Labor Supply. Journal of Political Economy, 105, 191-209.

4) Technology Adoption

1. *Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, and Jonathan Robinson (2011). Nudging farmers to use fertilizer: Theory and experimental evidence from Kenya. American Economic Review, 101(6):2350--2390. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

2. *Tessa Bold, Kayuki C Kaizzi, Jakob Svensson, and David Yanagizawa-Drott (2017). Lemon technologies and adoption: Measurement, theory and evidence from agricultural markets in Uganda. Quarterly Journal of Economics, pages: 1055--1100. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

3. *Suri, T, (2011). Selection and comparative advantage in technology adoption. Econometrica, 79(1):159--209, 2011. Online Appendix. Slide Presentation.

4. Timothy G Conley and Christopher R Udry (2010). Learning about a new technology: Pineapple in Ghana. American Economic Review, 100(1):35--69.

5. Griliches, Z. (1957). Hybrid Corn: An Exploration in the Economics of Technological Change. Econometrica, October, 25 (4), 501-522.

6. Andrew D Foster and Mark R Rosenzweig (2010). Microeconomics of technology adoption. Annu. Rev. Econ., 2(1): pp. 395--424.

7. Oster, E. and Thornton, R. (2012). Determinants of Technology Adoption: Peer Effects in Menstrual Cup Take-up. Journal of the European Economic Association, 10: 1263–1293.

8. Timothy Besley and Anne Case (1993). Modeling technology adoption in developing countries. American Economic Review, 83(2): 396--402.

9. Kaivan Munshi (2004). Social learning in a heterogeneous population: technology diffusion in the Indian green revolution. Journal of Development Economics, 73(1):185--213.

10. Bandiera, Oriana and Imran Rasul, (2006). Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique. The Economic Journal, October, 116, 869--902.

11. Cohen, J., and Dupas, P. (2010). Free Distribution or Cost-Sharing? Evidence from a Randomized Malaria Prevention Experiment. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125 (1), pp.1-45.

12. Miguel, E., and Kremer, M. (2004). Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities. Econometrica, 72, 159-217.

13. Karthik, M. et al. (2019) Disrupting education? Experimental evidence on technology-aided instruction in India. American Economic Review, pp. 1426--1460.