Fortieth Conference

40th Conference on Development Economics
Online
1 – 3 October 2020

*All timings are in UK Time

Organisers:
David Atkin (MIT, BREAD and CEPR)
Oriana Bandiera (LSE, BREAD and CEPR)
Robin Burgess (LSE, BREAD and CEPR)
Michael Callen (LSE, BREAD and CEPR)
Eliana La Ferrara (Bocconi, BREAD and CEPR)
Isabela Manelici (Princeton University)
Gaia Narciso (Trinity College Dublin)
Jonathan Weigel (LSE and CEPR)

Thursday 1 October

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TU-_xDR3x7I

Chair: Isabela Manelici (Princeton University)

3:30PM-3:50PM     Do Financial Concerns Make Workers Less Productive? – Suanna Oh, Paris School of Economics (with Supreet Kaur, Sendhil Mullainathan and Frank          Schilbach

3:50PM-4:10PM     Job Search and Hiring with Two-Sided Limited Information about Workseekers’ Skills – Kate Orkin, University of Oxford (with Eliana Carranza, Robert Garlick, Neil Rankin)

4:10PM-4:30PM    Inducing Positive Sorting through Performance Pay: Experimental Evidence from Pakistani Schools – Christina Brown, University of California, Berkeley (with Tahir Andrabi)

4:30PM-4:40PM     Break

4:40pm-5:00PM    Can White Elephants Kill? Unintended Consequences of Infrastructure Development in Peru – Antonella Bancalari, LSE

5:00PM-5:20PM     Local Elites as State Capacity: How City Chiefs Use Local Information to Increase Tax Compliance in the D.R. Congo (Presentation slides– Gabriel Tourek, MIT (with Pablo  Balan, Augustin Bergeron and Jonathan L. Weigel)

5:20PM-5:40PM     The Human Side of Structural Transformation – Federico Rossi, University of Warwick (with Tommaso Porzio and Gabriella Santangelo)

5:40PM-5:50PM     Break

Chair:                      Jonathan Weigel (LSE and CEPR)

5:50PM-6:10PM      The Ocean and Early-Childhood Mortality and Development – Alex Armand, Nova School of Business and Economics (with Ivan Kim Taveras)

6:10PM-6:30PM      Anticipation and Consumption – Neil Thakral, Brown University (with Linh T. Tô)

6:30PM-6:50PM      Worth Your Weight: Experimental Evidence on the Benefits of Obesity in Low-Income Countries – Elisa Macchi, University of Zurich

6:50PM-7:00PM      Break

7:00PM-7:20PM      Prison Labor: The Price of Prisons and the Lasting Effects of Incarceration – Belinda Archibong, Barnard College (with Nonso Obikili)

7:20PM-7:40PM      High-Value Work and the Rise of Women: The Cotton Revolution and Gender Equality in China – Melanie Meng Xue, New York University Abu Dhabi

7:40PM-8:00PM      Women’s Employment in India: Intra-Household and Intra-Personal Constraints – Madeline McKelway, Stanford King Center on Global                                                  Development

Friday 2 October

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s5e59mY81L0
4:00PM-4:50PM      The Equilibrium Effects of Public Provision in Education Markets: Evidence from a Public School Expansion Policy – Michael Dinerstein, University of    Chicago (with Christopher Neilson and Sebastián Otero)

4:50PM-5:00PM      Break/Extra Discussion

5:00PM-5:50PM      Non-Random Exposure to Exogenous Shocks: Theory and Applications – Kirill Borusyak, UCL and CEPR (with Peter Hull)

5:50PM-6:00PM      Break/Extra Discussion

6:00PM-6:50PM      Gang Rule: Understanding and Countering Criminal Governance   – Christopher Blattman, University of Chicago, BREAD and CEPR (with Gustavo Duncan, Benjamin Lessing and Santiago Tobon)

6:50PM-7:00PM       Break/Extra Discussion

7:00PM-8:00PM       Discussion: Development Economics Research in the Time of COVID

Discussions led by: Martina Björkman Nyqvist, Paula Bustos, Shawn Cole, Marcel Fafchamps, Douglas Gollin, Joe Kaboski, Rocco Macchiavello, Karen Macours, David McKenzie, Ben Olken, Nancy Qian, Tavneet Suri, Christopher Udry and Dean Yang.
Saturday 3 October 

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Hantn-qH1AM
4:00PM-4:50PM     Monitoring in Target Contracts: Theory and Experiment in Kenyan Public Transit  – Gregory Lane, American University (with Erin Kelley and David              Schönholzer)

4:50PM-5:00PM     Break/Extra Discussion

5:00PM-5:50PM     Forced Displacement, Human Capital and Occupational Choice – Sandra Sequeira, LSE and CEPR (with Giorgio Chiovelli, Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou)

5:50PM-6:00PM     Break/Extra Discussion

6:00PM-6:50PM     Search and Information Frictions on Global E-Commerce Platforms: Evidence from AliExpress – Jie Bai, Harvard University and BREAD (with Maggie Chen, Jin Liu, Daniel Yi Xu)

6:50PM-7:00PM     Break/Extra Discussion

7:00PM-7:50PM     Data-intensive Innovation and the State: Evidence from AI Firms in China – Noam Yuchtman, LSE and CEPR (with Martin Beraja and David Y. Yang)

7:50PM-8:00PM     Break/Extra Discussion