Featured Research
Climate and Conflict
Burke, Marshall, Solomon M. Hsiang, and Edward Miguel
2015
Other
Environment and ClimatePolitical Economy and ConflictResearch Methodology
We review the emerging literature on climate and conflict.We consider multiple types of human conflict, including both interpersonal conflict, such as assault and murder, and intergroup conflict, in
Preparing for an Aging Africa: DataDriven Priorities for EconomicResearch and Policy
Madeline Duhon, Edward Miguel, Amos Njuguna, Daniela Pinto Veizaga, Michael Walker
Working Paper
African Development
The over-60 population in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades, tripling between 2020 and 2050. Despite this explosive projected growth, few countries in the region hav
Money or Power? Choosing Covid-19 aid in Kenya
Susanna Berkouwer, Pierre Biscaye, Eric Hsu, Oliver Kim, Kenneth Lee, Edward Miguel, Catherine Wolfram
Published Paper
African DevelopmentHealth
In response to the Covid-19 crisis, 186 countries implemented direct cash transfers to households, and 181 introduced in-kind programs that lowered the cost of utilities such as electricity, water, tr
Replication games: how to make reproducibility research more systematic
Abel Brodeur, Anna Dreber, Fernando Hoces de la Guardia & Edward Miguel
Published Paper
Research Methodology
In some areas of social science, around half of studies can’t be replicated. A new test-fast, fail-fast initiative aims to show what research is hot — and what’s not.
Survey of open science practices and attitudes in the social sciences
Joel Ferguson, Rebecca Littman, Garret Christensen, Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Nicholas Swanson, Zenan Wang, Edward Miguel, David Birke & John-Henry Pezzuto
Published Paper
Research Methodology
Open science practices such as posting data or code and pre-registering analyses are increasingly prescribed and debated in the applied sciences, but the actual popularity and lifetime usage of these
Scaling Agricultural Policy Interventions
Lauren Falcao Bergquist, Benjamin Faber, Thibault Fally, Matthias Hoelzlein, Edward Miguel, Andres Rodriguez-Clare
African DevelopmentResearch Methodology
Policies aimed at raising agricultural productivity have been a centerpiece in the fight against global poverty. We propose a new approach for quantifying large-scale agricultural policy counterfactua
Donor contracting conditions and public procurement:
Causal evidence from Kenyan electrification
Catherine D. Wolfram, Edward Miguel, Eric Hsu, Susanna B. Berkouwer
Working Paper
African Development
There is limited causal evidence on the effects of different public procurement regulations on project quality and value-for-money for projects funded both by national governments and foreign aid dono
Long-Run Effects of Aid: Forecasts and Evidence from Sierra Leone
Katherine Casey, Rachel Glennerster, Edward Miguel, Maarten Voors
Published Paper
African DevelopmentHealth
We evaluate the long-run effects of a decentralised approach to economic development called community-driven development-a prominent strategy for delivering foreign aid-by revisiting a randomised comm
Targeting impact versus deprivation
Johannes Haushofer, Paul Niehaus, Carlos Paramo, Edward Miguel, and Michael Walker
2022
Working Paper
African DevelopmentResearch Methodology
A large literature has examined how best to target anti-poverty programs to those most deprived in some sense (e.g., consumption). We examine the potential tradeoff between this objective versus targe
The Syrian refugee life study: first glance
Sarah Stillman, Sandra V. Rozo, Abdulrazzak Tamim, I. Bailey Palmer, Emma Smith, and Edward Miguel
2022
Published Paper
African Development
This paper presents descriptive statistics from the first wave of the Syrian Refugee Life Study (S-RLS), which began in 2020. S-RLS is a longitudinal study that tracks a representative sample of appro
The Economics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poor Countries
Edward Miguel and Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
2022
Other
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended health and living standards around the world. This article provides an interim overview of these effects, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries
The illusion of stable fertility preferences
Maximilian W. Müller, Joan Hamory, Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, Edward Miguel
2022
Published Paper
Fertility preferences have long played a key role in models of fertility differentials and change. We examine the stability of preferences over time using rich panel data on Kenyan women’s fertility
End COVID-19 in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Edward Miguel, Jason Abaluck, Amrita Ahuja, Marcella Alsan, Abhijit Banerjee, Emily Breza, Arun G. Chandrasekhar, Esther Duflo, James Dzansi, Denise Garrett, Paul Goldsmith-Pink
2022
Published Paper
African DevelopmentHealth
Vaccines are changing the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but in grossly uneven ways. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face considerable obstacles in both receiving and distributing doses. To