A5077506130- Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare
- Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
- Culture, Economy, and Development Studies
- African history and culture analysis
- Forest Management and Policy
- Energy and Environment Impacts
- Military Strategy and Technology
- scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- International Development and Aid
- Media Influence and Politics
- Research Data Management Practices
- European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies
- Mediterranean and Iberian flora and fauna
- Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications
- African history and culture studies
- Child Nutrition and Water Access
- Global Health Care Issues
- Scientific Computing and Data Management
- Global Maternal and Child Health
- Computational Physics and Python Applications
- Forest ecology and management
- Agricultural risk and resilience
- Political Conflict and Governance
- Agricultural Economics and Policy
- Education for Peace and Conflict Resolution
University of California, Berkeley
2016-2025
National Bureau of Economic Research
2015-2024
Center for Effective Global Action
2009-2023
Berkeley College
2005-2023
Berkeley Public Health Division
2023
New York University
2008-2023
Alliant International University
2023
Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
2022
University of California, San Diego
2019-2022
Yale University
2009-2022
Author guidelines for journals could help to promote transparency, openness, and reproducibility
Estimating the impact of economic conditions on likelihood civil conflict is difficult because endogeneity and omitted variable bias. We use rainfall variation as an instrumental for growth in 41 African countries during 1981–99. Growth strongly negatively related to conflict: a negative shock five percentage points increases by one‐half following year. attempt rule out other channels through which may affect conflict. Surprisingly, shocks not significantly different richer, more democratic,...
Intestinal helminths—including hookworm, roundworm, whipworm, and schistosomiasis—infect more than one-quarter of the world's population. Studies in which medical treatment is randomized at individual level potentially doubly underestimate benefits treatment, missing externality to comparison group from reduced disease transmission, therefore also underestimating for group. We evaluate a Kenyan project school-based mass with deworming drugs was randomly phased into schools, rather...
Introduction Despite the existence of institutions designed to promote peace, interactions between individuals and groups sometimes lead conflict. Understanding causes such conflict is a major project in social sciences, researchers anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, sociology have long debated extent which climatic changes are responsible. Recent advances interest prompted an explosion quantitative studies on this question. Methods We carried out...
Most nations have experienced an internal armed conflict since 1960. Yet while civil war is central to many nations' development, it has stood at the periphery of economics research and teaching. The past decade witnessed a long overdue explosion into war's causes consequences. We summarize progress, identify weaknesses, chart path forward. Why war? Existing theory provocative but incomplete, omitting advances in behavioral making little progress key areas, like why groups form cohere, or...
We study cultural norms and legal enforcement in controlling corruption by analyzing the parking behavior of United Nations officials Manhattan. Until 2002, diplomatic immunity protected UN diplomats from actions, so diplomats’ actions were constrained alone. find a strong effect norms: high‐corruption countries (on basis existing survey‐based indices) accumulated significantly more unpaid violations. In authorities acquired right to confiscate license plates violators. Unpaid violations...
Armed conflict within nations has had disastrous humanitarian consequences throughout much of the world. Here we undertake first comprehensive examination potential impact global climate change on armed in sub-Saharan Africa. We find strong historical linkages between civil war and temperature Africa, with warmer years leading to significant increases likelihood war. When combined model projections future trends, this response suggests a roughly 54% increase incidence by 2030, or an...
This article draws on data from over 35,000 respondents in 22 public opinion surveys 10 countries and finds strong evidence that ethnic identities Africa are strengthened by exposure to political competition. In particular, for every month closer their country is a competitive presidential election, survey 1.8 percentage points more likely identify terms. Using an innovative multinomial logit empirical methodology, we find these shifts accompanied corresponding reduction the salience of...
In the past decade, nearly 20 studies have found a strong, persistent pattern in surveys and behavioral experiments from over 40 countries: individual exposure to war violence tends increase social cooperation at local level, including community participation prosocial behavior. Thus while has many negative legacies for individuals societies, it appears leave positive legacy terms of civic engagement. We discuss, synthesize, reanalyze emerging body evidence weigh alternative explanations....
Ethnic favoritism is seen as antithetical to development. This paper provides credible quantification of the extent ethnic using data on road building in Kenyan districts across 1963–2011 period. Guided by a model, it then examines whether transition and out democracy under same president constrains or exacerbates favoritism. Across post-independence period, we find strong evidence favoritism: that share ethnicity receive twice much expenditure roads have five times length paved built....
We use a randomized evaluation of Kenyan deworming program to estimate peer effects in technology adoption and shed light on foreign aid donors' movement towards sustainable community provision public goods. Deworming is good since much its social benefit comes through reduced disease transmission. People were less likely take if their direct first-order or indirect second-order contacts exposed deworming. Efforts replace subsidies with worm control measures ineffective: drug cost-recovery...
This article examines how government policies affect ethnic relations by comparing outcomes across two nearby districts, one in Kenya and Tanzania, using colonial-era boundary placement as a “natural experiment.” Despite similar geography historical legacies, governments Tanzania have followed radically different language, education, local institutional policies, with consistently pursuing more serious nation building. The evidence suggests that building has allowed diverse communities rural...
We review the emerging literature on climate and conflict. consider multiple types of human conflict, including both interpersonal such as assault murder, intergroup riots civil war. discuss key methodological issues in estimating causal relationships largely focus natural experiments that exploit variation over time. Using a hierarchical meta-analysis allows us to estimate mean effect quantify degree variability across 55 studies, we find deviations from moderate temperatures precipitation...
Social scientists should adopt higher transparency standards to improve the quality and credibility of research.
We study a randomized evaluation of merit scholarship program in which Kenyan girls who scored well on academic exams had school fees paid and received grant. Girls showed substantial exam score gains, teacher attendance improved schools. There were positive externalities for with low pretest scores, unlikely to win scholarship. see no evidence weakened intrinsic motivation. heterogeneous effects. In one the two districts, there large gains spillovers boys. other, attrition complicates...
Abstract Despite their importance, there is limited evidence on how institutions can be strengthened. Evaluating the effects of specific reforms complicated by lack exogenous variation in institutions, difficulty measuring institutional performance, and temptation to “cherry pick” estimates from among large number indicators required capture this multifaceted subject. We evaluate one attempt make local more democratic egalitarian imposing participation requirements for marginalized groups...
Journal Article Poverty and Witch Killing Get access Edward Miguel University of California, Berkeley NBER Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review Economic Studies, Volume 72, Issue 4, October 2005, Pages 1153–1172, https://doi.org/10.1111/0034-6527.00365 Published: 01 2005 history Received: March 2003 Accepted: February
Despite numerous journalistic accounts, systematic quantitative evidence on economic conditions during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic remains scarce for most low- and middle-income countries, partly due to limitations of official statistics in environments with large informal sectors subsistence agriculture. We assemble from over 30,000 respondents 16 original household surveys nine countries Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone), Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines),...
There is growing interest in enhancing research transparency and reproducibility economics other scientific fields. We survey existing work on these topics within discuss the evidence suggesting that publication bias, inability to replicate, specification searching remain widespread discipline. next recent progress this area, including through improved design, study registration pre-analysis plans, disclosure standards, open sharing of data materials, drawing experiences both social...