Spreading the love around: how hired and family agricultural labor responds to temporary weather shocks
I assess the response of agricultural labor markets to temporary weather shocks by pairing a multi-scalar drought index with 19 rounds of survey data, encompassing six countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria and Tanzania. I observe small, statistically significant, positive effects on the share of farms hiring workers during times of drought, or periods of excess rainfall. My analysis reveals that both family and hired labor tend to become more concentrated in periods of drought. In contrast, during periods of excess rainfall, farmers spread family harvest labor across the farm, while hired harvest labor becomes more concentrated. The results indicate that farmers do not significantly adjust the balance between hired and family labor to aid in absorbing temporary weather shocks. This provides empirical support for different mechanisms influencing the allocation of hired labor and family labor.
Asymmetric information, the digital divide, and the gender price gap
(Joint w/Jawoo Koo (IFPRI))
This paper analyzes transaction data from agricultural surveys carried out in five countries in the developing world to test for a difference in the prices received by men and by women marketing the same crop in the same village. In a unique finding, we identify a gap between the price received by women and the price received by men on three separate continents. Echoing similar results from other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, we provide evidence, using mobile phone ownership and use data, to suggest that women who farm likely suffer from unequal access to information. The presence of asymmetric information is therefore indicated to be a limiting factor in women's ability to receive a fair unit price.
Let the data shine: focusing in on nighttime lights
(w/Jean-Louis Arcand, Global Development Network)
This paper links the newest generation of nighttime satellite images, which offer a resolution 45 times higher than the previous generation, to administrative panel-data on population and income from the United States and Brazil for 2012-2020. We confirm that nighttime light increases with income per capita at a high geospatial resolution, even after controlling for the effect of population density on nighttime light.
Assessing Land Area from Above: Evidence from Armenia
(Joint w/Sydney Gourlay and Alberto Zezza (World Bank))
Using primary data collected by the World Bank in Armenia as part of a randomized controlled trial, we evaluate the use of a satellite image tracing to measure agricultural land in the context of a household survey. Satellite tracing offers several benefits, including a large reduction in the cost of measuring land, the potential to measure more parcels of land, and improved security for survey enumerators. We find the satellite tracing approach yields consistent results, and requires 42% less time than measuring with GPS, and provides value-added over self-reported estimates. Due to the potential cost savings, and other non-trivial benefits, we suggest that land measurement via satellite image tracing offers significant value, though is not as accurate as land area estimates conducted with a handheld GPS.
Other Work in Progress: