Research

We test the reproducibility and replicability of Dincecco et al. (2022), which reports a positive relationship between pre-colonial interstate warfare and long-run development patterns across India. Overall, we confirm that all of the study’s estimates are computationally reproducible by using both the provided replication package in Stata and code written by the present authors in R. We test for and find no evidence of data manipulation in the final datasets. Concerning direct replicability, we consider different ways of measuring distance to conflicts and also alternative proxies for both the dependent variable and variables which capture channels by which the main effects operate. We are able to replicate the magnitude and significance of the estimated coefficient on conflict exposure in most of the tests, noting that while most estimates are substantively in line with the original study, some alternative measures of distance to conflict imply different magnitudes for estimates, and proxy estimates are sensitive to both the time period and type of conflict considered.

We examine worker training by Chinese manufacturing firms using nationally representative firm-level data from both Ethiopia and Tanzania. While Chinese firms make up a relatively small portion of the manufacturing industry in both Ethiopia and Tanzania, at the firm-level they contribute significantly to both domestic employment and labor training. In both countries more than 85 percent of the workers employed by Chinese firms are local, and Chinese firms (and other foreign firms) are more likely to offer labor training than their domestic counterparts. However, we find evidence that Chinese firms underperform relative to other foreign firms in the share of local workers employed, and in Tanzania the difference is especially large for managerial positions.

This paper examines the response strategies of female and male workers in Nigeria to extreme heat shocks, to understand gender disparities in climate sensitivity. Using the Living Standards Measurement Study (Nigeria) panel dataset and satellite weather data, we quantify the effects of weather shocks on own-farm, wage, and non-farm enterprise work hours, alongside time spent on domestic tasks. We find that heat shocks induce a reallocation of labor for both men and women, but while women experience a significant increase in time devoted to domestic work, there is no significant increase for men. Consequently, the overall burden of adjustment falls disproportionately on women.

This paper examines the mandatory pass policy introduced by the Government of India in 2009 under the Right to Education Act, which prohibited failing students until the completion of grade 8. Exploiting state-level variation in pre-policy pass practices and cohort-level exposure to the mandate, I study four outcomes: years of education, literacy, enrollment, and labor force participation. Across all four measures, I find null results (including for women and non-general castes). The evidence suggests the policy not only failed to improve the outcomes policymakers expected, but was associated with declining test scores.