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Technology Adoption for Development, and the Complexities of Scaling (ECO-AD-DEVELECO)

ECO-AD-DEVELECO

Description

Course Overview

The design of the course is inspired by the observation that the poor are often unwilling to invest  in new products, behaviors and technologies that (we think) are apparently welfare-enhancing.This suggests that either we need to re-visit our assumptions, or that we need to better understand  those consumers’ decision-making environment, constraints and preferences, both rational and  ‘behavioral’ or psychological. These constraints may in turn suggest the design of strategies to help consumers overcome these sources of aversion to behavior change. We will draw heavily on state-of-the-art evidence generated from the recent spate of randomized controlled trials conducted  in developing countries to better understand the behaviors and constraints of poor citizens. The course will therefore also expose students to design issues and empirical inference from randomized controlled trial based evaluations. Some of interventions tested are successful at overcoming  behavior change barriers in pilot-scale evaluations, but new complexities arise when we contemplate scaling the intervention up to design policy. We will also discuss how to develop a research agenda to explore the complexities of scaling, which often necessitates moving away from randomized controlled trial based evaluations.

Readings:
Almost all readings below are published journal articles and working papers that can be found  online. I have added clickable links for all papers. If any link is broken, please let me know and I will update. You can probably easily find the correct link through a Google search.

Assessments and Grading
You are required to submit a 3 to 5 page research proposal on any topic in development economics for a paper that reflects your Ph.D.-level training in economics.

Session 1: Introduction to Class: Models of Technology Adoption and Behavior Change
Readings:
1.  “Sure, we can build a better toilet, but will people use it?” Wired Science News, August 17, 2012, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/gates-foundation-toilets/
2. “What Cookstoves Tell us about the Limits of Technology,” The Washington Post, May 8, 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/what-cook-stoves-tell-us-about-the-limits-of-technology/2012/05/08/gIQApp8YAU_blog.html

3.  Alessandro Tarozzi, Aprajit Mahajan, Brian Blackburn, Dan Kopf, Lakshmi Krishnan and Joanne Yoong (2014). “Micro-loans, bednets and malaria: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Orissa (India).” American Economic Review 104(7), 1909-1941.



Session 2: Evaluation Designs to Test the Complexities of Scaling Development Interventions

1. C. A. Davis and A. M. Mobarak, “The Challenge of Scaling Effective Interventions: A Path Forward for Research and Policy,” World Development, v 127, March 2020 Paper
2. A. M. Mobarak and M. Rosenzweig. “Risk, Insurance and Wages in General Equilibrium” Paper
3. A. M. Mobarak, “Assessing social aid: the scale-up process needs evidence, too” Nature, vol. 609, pp. 892-894 (September 29, 2022), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03039-2
4. J. List, “Optimally Generate Policy-based Evidence before Scaling,” Nature, v626, pp. 491-99, 15 Feb 2024. https://rdcu.be/eaNJH



Sessions 3,4: Applications for Seasonal Poverty and Migration

1. G. Bryan, S. Chowdhury and A. M. Mobarak, “Under-Investment in a Profitable Technology: The Case of Seasonal Migration in Bangladesh,” Econometrica, 82(5): 1671-1748, September 2014 Paper [Supplement, Econometrica link, Data Repository/Replication Code]
2.  Fink, G., B.K. Jack and F. Masiye (2018) “Seasonal liquidity, rural labor markets and agricultural production” American Economic Review. Appendix
3. A. Akram, S. Chowdhury and A. M. Mobarak. “Effects of Emigration on Rural Labor Markets” Paper
4. C. Meghir, A. M. Mobarak, C. Mommaerts, M. Morten, “Migration and Informal Insurance,” Review of Economic Studies, Paper
5. D. Lagakos, A.M. Mobarak, M.E. Waugh, “The Welfare Effects of Encouraging Rural-Urban Migration,” Econometrica Paper Data and Code
6. A. Kharel, A. M. Mobarak, C. Vernot, “Remittance Frictions and Seasonal Poverty,” Paper


Sessions 5: Rural-Urban Wage Gaps and Spatial Misallocation

1. Gollin, D., Lagakos, D., & Waugh, M. E. (2013). The agricultural productivity gap. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(2), 939-993.
2. Hicks, J. H., Kleemans, M., Li, N. Y., & Miguel, E. (2017). Reevaluating Agricultural Productivity Gaps with Longitudinal Microdata (No. w23253). National Bureau of Economic Research.
3. Lagakos, S. Marshall, A. M. Mobarak, C. Vernot and M. Waugh, “Migration Costs and Observational Returns to Rural-Urban Migration in the Developing World,” Journal of Monetary Economics, Paper
4.  Alwyn Young. “Inequality, the Urban-Rural Gap, and Migration.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 128 (November 2013): 1727-1785. Appendix

ENROL FOR THIS COURSE