ESRC-DfID Conference
Improving productivity in developing countries: identifying bottlenecks and obstacles to productive investments and
technology adoption
Goodenough College, London, 8-9 July 2015
Wednesday 8 July
08:30
Registration
Plenary 1
09:20
Welcome by Orazio Attanasio (UCL & Co-Director of Centre for the Evaluation of Development Policies)
09:45
Presentation by Mark Rosenzweig (Yale)
Networks and mis-allocation: Insurance, migration, and the rural-urban wage gap
Large Common
Room
Discussant: Ethan Ligon (Berkley)
11:00
Break
11:30
Parallel Session 1
Session 1a: Health promotion – sanitation and hygiene (Chair: Imran Rasul)
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Bennett (P), Naqvi, Schmidt: Learning, hygiene, and traditional medicine (Discussant: Augsburg)
Guiteras, Mobarak, Levinsohn (P): Strategic complementarities in sanitation demand: Evidence from a
cluster randomized trial in bangladesh (Discussant: Caeyers)
Augsburg (P), Rodríguez Lesmes: Sanitation investment (Discussant: Bennett)
Large Common
Room
Session 1b: Gender and productivity (Chair: Costas Meghir)
Bhalotra, Chakravaty, Gulesci (P): The price of gold: Dowry and death in India (Discussant: Andrew)
Telalagic: Kinship and consumption: The effect of spouses' outside options on household productivity
(Discussant: Corno)
Corno (P), Voena: Selling daughters: age at marriage, income shocks and bride price tradition (Discussant: Meghir)
Session 1c: Tax (Chair: Anders Jenses)
Naritomi: Consumers as tax auditors (Discussant: Abramovsky)
Gadenne: Non-linear commodity taxation in developing countries: theory and an application to India
(Discussant: Naritomi)
Abramovsky (P), Attanasio and Phillips: Value added tax policy and the case for uniformity: empirical evidence from
Mexico (Discussant: Gadenne)
13:00
Lunch
14:00
Plenary 2
Churchill Room
Small Common
Room
Large Common
Room
Presentation by Pascaline Dupas (Stanford)
Decentralization and efficiency of input subsidy targeting: Evidence from chiefs in rural Malawi
(Written with Pia Basurto and Jonathan Robinson)
Discussant: Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale)
15:15
Break
15:30
Parallel Session 2
Session 2a: Credit constraints (Chair: Maitreesh Ghatak)
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Large Common
Attanasio (P), Augsburg, DeHaas: Microfinance contracts and risk diversification (Discussant: Laajaj)
Carter, Laajaj (P), Yang: Savings and subsidies, separately and together: Decomposing effects of a bundled antipoverty program (Discussant: Garlick)
Garlick: The effects of alleviating credit constraints on occupational and educational choices (Discussant: Attanasio)
Session 2b: Land and labour productivity (Chair: Michela Tincani )
Restuccia, Santaeulalia (P): Land misallocation and productivity (Discussant: Rud)
Li , Seok (P), You: Migration restrictions: Implications on human capital, output, and welfare (Discussant: Tincani)
Rud (P), Trapeznikova: Wage dispersion, Job creation and development: Evidence from sub-saharan Africa
(Discussant: Santaeulalia)
Session 2c: Public finance (Chair: Laura Abramovsky)
Conti, Ginja (P), Narita: Equilibrium labor market effects of non-contributory health insurance: Evidence from
Mexico (Discussant: Lopez-Martin)
Garg: Why tax effort falls short of tax capacity in Indian states: A stochastic frontier approach (Discussant: Ginja)
Lopez-Martin: Informal sector misallocation (Discussant: Garg)
17:00
Break
17:15
Plenary 3
Presentation by Eliana La Ferrara (Bocconi)
Shaping educational careers of immigrant children: Motivation, cognitive skills and teachers' beliefs
(Written with M. Carlana and P. Pinotti)
Discussant: Costas Meghir (Yale)
Room
Churchill Room
Small Common
Room
Large Common
Room
18:30
Drinks reception
19:30
Conference dinner
ALL DAY
Poster Session
1. Maffioli & Mohanan (P), Expectations and updating in healthcare choices: Results from data collected using
interactive touchscreens
2. Delavande, University choice: The role of expected earnings, non-pecuniary outcomes and financial
constraints
3. Boltz-Laemmel, Marazyan, Villar (P), Preference for hidden income and redistribution to kin and neighbors:
A lab-in-the-field experiment in senegal
Thursday 9 July 2015
09:30
Parallel session 3
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Session 3a: Expectations and decision-making under uncertainty (Chair: Patrick Nolan)
Bernard, Dercon, Orkin (P), Taffesse: The future in mind: Aspirations and forward-Looking behaviour in rural
Ethiopia (Discussant: Krutikova)
Bobba: Learning about oneself: The effects of signaling academic ability on school choice (Discussant: Almas)
Almas (P), Armand, Attanasio and Carneiro: Changing and assessing control: women’s empowerment and targeted
transfers (Discussant: Bhalotra)
Session 3b: Networks and technology adoption (Chair: Bansi Malde)
Beaman, BenYishay, Magruder, Mobarak (P): Can network theory based targeting increase technology adoption?
Churchill Room
Large Common
Room
(Discussant: Larsen)
Folke Larsen: The network at work: Diffusion of banana cultivation in Tanzania (Discussant: D’Exelle)
D'Exelle: Investment behaviour and network centrality: Evidence from rural Uganda (Discussant: Mobarak)
11:00
Coffee break
11:30
Plenary 4
Large Common
Room
Presentation by Imran Rasul (UCL and IFS)
Labor markets and poverty in village economies
(Written with O. Bandiera, R. Burgess, N. Das, S. Gulesci and M. Sulaiman)
Discussant: TBC
12:45
Lunch
14:00
Parallel session 4
Session 4a: Firm and public sector productivity (Chair: Aureo de Paula)
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Churchill Room
Dillon (P), Friedman: Health information, treatment, and worker productivity: Experimental evidence from malaria
testing and treatment among Nigerian sugarcane cutters (Discussant: Vera Hernandez)
Morjaria (P), Machiavello: Competition and relational contracts: Evidence from Rwanda's coffee mills
(Discussant: de Paula)
Luo, Vera Hernandez (P), Miller, Rozelle, Sylvia: Can bureaucrats really be paid like CEOs? Performance incentives for
improving child nutrition in rural Chinese schools. (Discussant: Dillon)
Session 4b: Formal and informal insurance mechanisms (Chair: Mark Rosenzweig)
Large Common
Room
Wang: Endogenous insurance and informal relationships (Discussant: Malde)
Fitzsimons, Malde (P), Vera Hernandez: Group size, coalitional deviations and informal risk sharing"
(Discussant: Ligon)
Ligon: Asset transfers, productivity, and changes in the welfare of `ultra-poor' households in South Sudan
(Discussant: Dercon)
15:30
Tea Break
16:00
Presentation by Stefan Dercon (DfID and Oxford)
Taking research to policy
17:15
Closing remarks: Orazio Attanasio (UCL & Co-Director of Centre for the Evaluation of Development Policies)
Large Common
Room