Who are Russia’s Entrepreneurs?

Simeon Djankov, Edward Miguel, Yingyi Qian, Gerard Roland, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya
2005
Other
Paper Who are Russias Entrepreneurs.pdf

Social scientists studying entrepreneurship have emphasized three distinct sets of variables: the institutional environment, sociological variables, and personal and psychological characteristics. We are conducting surveys in five large developing and transition economies to better understand entrepreneurship. In this short paper, using over 2,000 interviews from a pilot study in Russia, we find evidence that the three sets of variables matter: perceptions of the local institutional environment, social network effects, and individual characteristics are all important in determining entrepreneurial behavior.

Ethnic Diversity, Social Sanctions, and Public Goods in Kenya

Edward Miguel and Mary Kay Gugerty
2005
African DevelopmentPolitical Economy and Conflict
Paper Ethnic Diversity Social Sanctions and Public Goods in Kenya.pdf

This paper examines ethnic diversity and local public goods in rural western Kenya. The identification strategy relies on the stable historically determined patterns of ethnic land settlement. Ethnic diversity is associated with lower primary school funding and worse school facilities, and there is suggestive evidence that it leads to poor water well maintenance. The theoretical model illustrates how inability to impose social sanctions in diverse communities leads to collective action failures, and we find that school committees in diverse areas do impose fewer sanctions on defaulting parents. We relate these results to the literature on social capital and economic development and discuss implications for decentralization in less developed countries.

Does Social Capital Promote Industrialization? Evidence from a Rapid Industrializer

Edward Miguel, Paul Gertler, and David I. Levine
2005
Other
Paper Does Social Capital Promote Industrialization.pdf

A new stylized fact in development economics is the importance of social capital in promoting economic growth. This paper examines the effect of social capital on industrialization in Indonesia. We analyze a rich set of social capital and social interaction measures, including voluntary associational activity and levels of trust and informal cooperation. The main finding is that initial social capital does not predict subsequent industrial development across 274 Indonesian districts. Though these findings are for only a single nation and may not apply everywhere, they call into question recent claims regarding social capital and economic development.

Health, Education, and Economic Development

Edward Miguel
2005
African DevelopmentHealthEducation and Human CapitalOther
Chapter Health Education and Economic Development.pdf

The volume Health and Economic Growth: Findings and Policy Implications is evidence of the growing awareness within economics of the important connections between health and poverty in less developed countries. The aim of this chapter is to review recent evidence on one potential channel through which health may affect income: education.

Poverty and Witch Killing

Edward Miguel
2005
African DevelopmentEnvironment and ClimatePolitical Economy and Conflict
Paper Poverty and Witch Killing.pdf

This study uses rainfall variation to estimate the impact of income shocks on murder in rural Tanzania. Extreme rainfall (drought or flood) leads to a large increase in the murder of "witches"–typically elderly women killed by relatives–but not other murders. The findings provide novel evidence on the role of income shocks in causing violent crime, and religious violence in particular.

Incentives to Learn: Merit Scholarships That Pay Kids to Do Well

Michael Kremer, Edward Miguel, Rebecca Thorton
Education Next
Incentives-to-Learn-Education-Next.pdf

Proposals for education reform generally focus on teachers and curricula. But the most important factor in education may be the student himself or herself. A growing number of states, including Georgia, Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts, have established programs that provide financial rewards in the form of merit scholarships for college for students who perform well academically. However, such programs are controversial with some educators, and the structure of many existing programs in the United States makes it difficult to evaluate rigorously the impact of such incentive programs because it is hard to identify for comparison a credible group of…