SI 2018 Development Economics
Organized by David Atkin, Pascaline Dupas, Andrew Foster, Sebastian Galiani, Costas Meghir, and Duncan Thomas
July 22-24, 2018
Royal Sonesta Hotel, 40 Edwin H. Land Blvd., Cambridge, MA
Sunday, July 22
12:00 noon
Lunch
1:00 pm

Master Lecture: "Machinistas meet Randomistas: Some useful ML tools for RCT researchers" (slides)

Esther Duflo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
2:30 pm
Break
3:00 pm

Social Ties, Identity and the Delivery of Public Services

Oriana Bandiera, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Robin Burgess, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Erika Deserranno, Northwestern University
Ricardo Morel, Innovations for Poverty Action
Imran Rasul, University College London
Munshi Sulaiman, BRAC University

Discussant:
Erica M. Field, Duke University and NBER
4:15 pm

Outsourcing Service Delivery in a Fragile State: Experimental Evidence from Liberia (slides)

Mauricio Romero, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM)
Justin Sandefur, Center for Global Development
Wayne A. Sandholtz, Nova School of Business and Economics

Discussant:
Michael Kremer, University of Chicago and NBER
5:30 pm
Adjourn
Monday, July 23
8:30 am
Coffee and Pastries
9:00 am

Community Networks and the Growth of Private Enterprise in China (slides)

Ruochen Dai, Central University of Finance and Economics
Dilip Mookherjee, Boston University and NBER
Kaivan Munshi, Yale University and NBER
Xiaobo Zhang, Peking University

Discussant:
Daniel Xu, Duke University and NBER
10:15 am
Break
10:45 am

A New Engel on the Gains from Trade

David Atkin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
Benjamin Faber, University of California, Berkeley and NBER
Thibault Fally, University of California, Berkeley and NBER
Marco Gonzalez-Navarro, University of California, Berkeley

Discussant:
Ethan Ligon, University of California, Berkeley
12:00 noon
Lunch
1:00 pm

Targeting High Ability Entrepreneurs Using Community Information: Mechanism Design in The Field

Natalia Rigol, Harvard University and NBER
Benjamin N. Roth, Harvard University
Reshmaan N. Hussam, Harvard University and NBER

Discussant:
Christopher Woodruff, University of Oxford
2:15 pm

The Selection of Talent. Experimental and Structural Evidence from Ethiopia

Stefano Caria, University of Oxford
Girum Abebe, International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, University of Oxford

Discussant:
Rocco Macchiavello, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
3:30 pm
Break
4:00 pm

Toward an Ethical Experiment

Yusuke Narita, Yale University

Discussant:
Gerard Padró I Miquel, Yale University and NBER
5:15 pm
Adjourn
Tuesday, July 24
8:00 am
Coffee and Pastries
8:30 am

Spatial Structural Change

Fabian Eckert, University of California, San Diego
Michael Peters, Yale University and NBER

Discussant:
Andrew Foster, Brown University and NBER
9:45 am

The Aggregate and Distributional Effects of Urban Transit Infrastructure: Evidence from Bogota’s TransMilenio

Nick Tsivanidis, University of California, Berkeley and NBER

Discussant:
David Atkin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
11:00 am
Break
11:30 am

Master Lecture: "Firms in Developing Countries: Can Trade Policy Serve as Competition Policy?" (slides)

Pinelopi K. Goldberg, Yale University and NBER
1:00 pm
Adjourn and Lunch