Research

This paper examines how traditional leaders in Malawi allocate social subsidies intended for the poor and how accountability and social incentives shape their decisions. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment, I study how traditional leaders' allocation preferences change under different accountability treatments. I find that when traditional leaders are informed that their allocations will be disclosed to villagers, they shift toward wealthier and more productive households, resulting in higher targeting errors, whereas disclosure to their superiors has little effect. These shifts are not driven by expectations of direct transfers to leaders but are strongest where leaders’ authority is weaker, such as in smaller villages, among shorter-tenured leaders, or those facing complaints. Leaders also appear to expect that allocating to households with greater resources or higher returns to input use will improve overall village welfare, though this expectation is not realized in practice. Taken together, increased transparency may worsen poverty targeting while improving productivity targeting, as accountability to villagers leads leaders to favor wealthier yet more productive households to maintain local stability and to promote perceived village welfare.

Abstract: I investigate internal migration and its effect on human capital in Malawi. Exploiting cross-district variation in annual rainfall, I apply an Instrumental Variables (IV) strategy to estimate the causal effect of household migration patterns on child education. I find that migration leads to significant improvements in the schooling outcomes of children from non-agricultural households. Migration during primary school age increases the years of education of children whose parents are employed in non-agricultural sectors by 1.40 years, while children from agricultural households do not benefit from internal migration. Additionally, using panel survey data, I find that internal migration increases school attendance rates by approximately 27 percentage points six years after the move, suggesting a long-term positive effect.

Abstract: We investigate the intergenerational transmission of parental education on children’s outcomes in Malawi. Using the variations induced by the Free Primary Education reform implemented in 1994, we find that an extra year of mothers’ and fathers’ schooling increases children’s schooling years by 0.19 and 0.16 years, respectively. Children with more educated mothers are less likely to work, while no such evidence is found for children with more educated fathers. We examine an array of potential mechanisms, including assortative mating, reduced fertility, and improvements in family resources. We find that spousal quality, fertility response, and a narrower age gap between spouses may be the underlying channels for the intergenerational transmission of education.

Abstract: This paper analyses structural changes in demographic, social, and economic conditions in North Korea and draws policy implications on housing supply and residential environment. Demographic and social structures in North Korea, such as population aging, low fertility rate, and increases in nuclear families, are changing, just as many developed countries have experienced. At the same time, there is a high demand for house and infrastructure redevelopment. Meanwhile, there are significant differences in household wealth, living infrastructure, and family compositions across North Korean provinces. Hence, policymakers in North Korea must take into account such regional heterogeneities when they consider the house supply and residential improvement policies.