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作者：Kondylis, Florence; Mueller, Valerie; Zhu, Jessica
作者单位：The World Bank; CGIAR; International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
摘要：Extension is designed to enable lab-to-farm technology diffusion. Decentralized models assume that information flows from researchers to extension workers, and from extension agents to contact farmers(CFs). CFs should then train other farmers in their communities. Such a modality may fail to address informational inefficiencies and accountability issues. We run a field experiment to measure the impact of augmenting the CF model with a direct CF training on the diffusion of a new technology. Al...
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作者：Angeles, Luis; Elizalde, Aldo
作者单位：University of Glasgow
摘要：We study the effects of pre-colonial institutions on present-day socioeconomic outcomes for Latin America. Our thesis is that more advanced pre-colonial institutions relate to better socioeconomic outcomes today. We advance that pre-colonial institutions survived to our days thanks to the existence of largely self-governed Amerindian communities in rural Latin America. Amerindians groups with more advanced institutional capacity would have been able to organize and defend their interests in fr...
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作者：Borensztein, Eduardo; Cavallo, Eduardo; Jeanne, Olivier
作者单位：Inter-American Development Bank; Johns Hopkins University; Peterson Institute for International Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
摘要：This paper uses a dynamic optimization model to estimate the welfare gains that a small open economy can derive from insuring against natural disasters with catastrophe (CAT) bonds. We calibrate the model by reference to the risk of earthquakes, floods and storms in developing countries. We find that the countries most vulnerable to these risks would find it optimal to use CAT bonds for insurance if the cost of issuing these bonds were significantly smaller than it is in the data. The welfare ...
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作者：Jennings, Colin; Sanchez-Pages, Santiago
作者单位：University of London; King's College London; University of Barcelona
摘要：This paper analyzes the role of external conflict as a force that can create social capital. Hostile inter-group interactions can help to resolve intra-group social dilemmas but these potential gains must be weighed against the insecurity of hostile relations with an out-group. Our central result is that the presence of an outside threat can induce higher levels of social capital either because a protective aspect of social capital comes into play and/or as a reallocation of investments from p...
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作者：Brown, Ryan; Velasquez, Andrea
作者单位：Children's Hospital Colorado; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Denver; University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
摘要：This paper estimates the effect of an unprecedented increase of drug-related violence in Mexico on the educational outcomes and employment behavior of young adults. The panel nature and the timing of the Mexican Family Life Survey allows for unique gains in this literature, as we can compare pre- and post-violence outcomes of the same individual, and control for migratory response. The results suggest that young adults exposed to increased local violence attained significantly less years of ed...
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作者：Gokmen, Gunes
作者单位：New Economic School
摘要：This paper studies the Clash of Civilizations hypothesis from an economic perspective. Using data on bilateral trade and measures of culture, we evaluate how the impact of cultural differences on trade evolves over time during and after the Cold War. Evidence suggests that the negative influence of cultural differences on trade is more prominent in the post-Cold War era than during the Cold War. For instance, ethnic differences reduce trade by 24% during the Cold War, whereas this reduction is...
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作者：Baten, Joerg; Bianchi, Nicola; Moser, Petra
作者单位：Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Northwestern University; New York University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：Compulsory licensing allows governments to license patented inventions without the consent of patent owners. Intended to mitigate the potential welfare losses from enforcing foreign-owned patents, many developing countries use this policy to improve access to drugs that are covered by foreign -owned patents. The effects of compulsory licensing on access to new drugs, however, are theoretically ambiguous: Compulsory licensing may encourage innovation by increasing competition or discourage inno...
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作者：Palloni, Giordano
作者单位：CGIAR; International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
摘要：Maternal desire for children of a particular sex has important implications for the well-being of household members. A simple theoretical model predicts that when a child is born of their mother's preferred sex, parents will allocate more resources towards that child, resulting in healthier children. I test this prediction empirically using a longitudinal data set from Indonesia. Each mother's preferred sex, defined by whether she prefers for future children to be male or female, is matched to...
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作者：Henderson, J. Vernon; Storeygard, Adam; Deichmann, Uwe
作者单位：University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Tufts University; The World Bank
摘要：This paper documents strong but differentiated links between climate and urbanization in large panels of districts and cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has dried substantially in the past fifty years. The key dimension of heterogeneity is whether cities are likely to have manufacturing for export outside their regions, as opposed to being exclusively market towns providing local services to agricultural hinterlands. In regions where cities are likely to be manufacturing centers (25% of our ...
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作者：Rijkers, Bob; Freund, Caroline; Nucifora, Antonio
作者单位：The World Bank; Peterson Institute for International Economics
摘要：We examine the relationship between entry regulation and the business interests of former President Ben Ali's family using firm-level data from Tunisia. Connected firms account for a disproportionate share of aggregate employment, output and profits, especially in sectors subject to authorization and restrictions on FDI. Quantile regressions show that profit and market share premia from being connected increase along the firm-size distribution, especially in highly regulated sectors. These pat...
