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For me it was indeed due to the POTUS, but more it was the the people who voted for him and continue to support him.The bigotry and hatred that he exposed and continues to exploit, is sadly as “American as apple pie”.As another respondent so succinctly said, I don’t want to be part of a country that embraces racism.I don’t want to be a part of a country that calls itself “Christian” at all. But when those supposed Christians practice a policy of hatred, exclusion, discrimination and constantly attacks gays and lesbians, Women, Black people, Latinos, Muslims. When they stand behind a man who lies, cheats, steals, and who is profiting off the office of the presidency…I don’t want any part of it. It disgusts me.Trump is a criminal. He cheated more than the 3,500 contractors who sued him. His very technique was to get people to do the work and then screw them out of being paid… and then bankrupt them with his attorneys with delays and motions that bled them dry… This is unethical to the point of being inhuman.He stole from his own charity. He created a private university that screwed thousands of honest and hopeful young people out of their money and gave them no usable degree. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he stole funds from it, and did not return the money to those who spent their life savings and got nothing from it.He openly discriminated against black people in his apartments. Thousands of people denied housing because he is a bigot.But it gets so much worse:At the JR. Miss America Pageant, which he “owned”, Mothers had to blockade the doors to the changing rooms because he loved to walk in on the little girls when they were naked! We’re talking 12–14 year old girls changing and showering. This is beyond creepy, it is criminally perverse.He is a sexual predator, and bragged about his friendship with the sexual predator, Epstein…and 90 % of the Christian Right still endorses him.The man was paying for sex with prostitutes while his wife was at home nursing their baby.He bragged about the beauty of his teenage daughter and openly stated how he wanted to have sex with her.This sort of behavior to me puts the man in a category where he is unfit to be even called a human being, let alone be worthy to represent me as an American citizen.And yet this subhuman perverted behavior that Americans have chosen to reward, and that Christians have decided to elevate to the status of “chosen by God:” to lead them, is being fully rewarded and cheered on everywhere in the United States.He is a disgusting and dispicable human being that I would not allow into the room with my children, because I would not trust that he would not do something sexually perverted with them.i donIt think any decent person should trust him, as he has shown over and over to be untrustworthy… to the point of bragging about not paying his share of taxes, and about screwing people…And if 40% of Americans still think he is a great man**, after his horrid presidency, that has seen a rise in hate crimes, violence against gays and lesbians, women, transsexuals, Jews, Black people, Latinos, Muslims, Sikhs, and so many more… after seeing him fail to bring back manufacturing jobs, fail and betray our allies, cozy up to murderous dictators, cower when confronted by Iran and North Korea, order our troops to cut and run so that Turkey can murder our allies, the Kurds… Possibly the biggest disgrace to our military in history…but he is accustomed to insulting our military, our decorated heroes, our veterans, the handicapped, women…I fail to find the words to describe my disgust.My feelings of horror and shame at the America I used to love, at the American people who used to be the most generous in the world, who used to embrace free education (92% of republicans polled recently believe that higher education is detrimental to American values), who used to have compassion for refugees, but now embrace a man who dehumanizes them and degrade them with terms like “alien”, and “an army of rapists and murderers”, a man who has lied 12 times a day since taking office, who insults women and government officials, attacks decent human beings like a nazi… I really can’t put it all into words…. The man is a horrible human being who makes me ashamed to be an American, ashamed that my people could embrace such an unethical ugly American… and for so called Christians and nazis and white supremacists to be his most ardent supporters, hurts to the core.But he is not alone in responsibility, the American media elected him and will do it again because they prefer a good story that sells ads more than journalistic integrity. They offer no investigative journalism, no truth seeking, no critical thinking. Rather they pursue the next idiotic lying tweet, and report on the reaction to it, rather than unraveling the idiocy…or sticking with the thing that next tweet is distracting them from. They are like hungry rats scurrying after any crumb, instead of professional reporters.So… I am thrilled to have left the United States. I worry because Ruth Badder Ginsberg will not survive the next 5 years, so the court will be loaded with right wing ideologues and sexual predators who do not care a bit about individual rights, education, or human compassion- only furthering the agenda of corporations and lobbyists. So clearly I have not completely left, if I am so bothered. But I am grateful every day that I do not live there.And I am sure i never never will live there again. The gerrymandering ensures a permanent right wing Tea Party hate-mongering Bible Belt government. The very flaw in the system of 2 senators per state which means the 60 million people of California get 2 senators, and the 45 million people who live in Wisconsin, Montana, North Dakota, PLUS 12 states in the Bible Belt giving the minority 30 senators, means that liberalism in America is dead. And liberalism is what the USA was founded on- the radical notion that all people are created equal…and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were fundamental rights for All people, and that that through the consent of the governed, the government had the sacred and sole duty to protect those rights among others….But no matter what happens in the upcoming elections, the devastation of just these 4 years would take 50 years to heal… damage to our education system, the Environmental Protection Agency which has been gutted, the department of Housing and Urban Development which has turned against the poor it serves, the department of Labor , and all interior departments, the damage to our international relations and alliances, the ruination of the presidency with its nepotism and disregard to humanity and to the rule of law….the damage is endless, and we don’t know the half of it, because so much has gone on behind closed doors, while our media chased the next tweet.The world now knows that the Americans can turn their back on humanity, on refugee children, on our allies… that we are traitors to our own values, who will rip up or ignore treaties that have taken decades to create. They even know that the US president can murder anyone in the world any time he wants, because that is what he said after murdering general Soleimani- I can do this to anyone any time I want to-Why would anyone want to be a part of that?If you choose to fight the fight, i applaud you. I’m out and very happy. Better life, lifestyle, in a respectful society whose focus is not world domination, but rather, on the betterment of life for all its people.I’m happy… and i will continue to hope and wish the best to America, but I would never live there again. I value my life and freedom too much.Edit: I saw this: A CNN article this morning. A high school basketball game in Dallas ending in a shooting. You dare not allow your children to watch each other play a game because they are not safe? Really?No lawmakers even bother commenting on this, let alone try to make a change. At least in the past, the Republicans pretended to care with their “thoughts and prayers”, and the president threatened the gun lobby, for a tweet, before distracting us with another. Is this appalling act not something to discuss publicly?Is this is America turning it’s back on our own humanity?A high school basketball game in Dallas ended in a shootingEdit 2: Today I watched a video of a Minneapolis police officer putt his knee on the neck of a handcuffed 42 year old black man he was arresting, and despite the victim begging to let him breathe, the officer continued to put his whole body weight on his neck, until he died, while his partners kept passersby who were begging for mercy for the man, at bay. Then he and his fellow officers put in their report that the man had had a medical issue while being arrested. Only the video of a passerby who was pleading for mercy for the man, only her video brought the possibility of the light of justice for this blatant murder. Last week an ex cop and his son murdered a black jogger. Caught on video, or it would never be known- justifiable homicide, case closed. But how many - HOW MANY black men are killed and brutalized for every one incident that is caught on tape? Ten thousand? Fifty thousand? Probably a lot more. The violence won't go away. The cops will just take it out of sight of passersby. And already republican lawmakers have made it against the law to videotape an officer in the commission of his duty…punishable by 10 years in prison, in several republican states. Like they have made it against the law to videotape animals being abused in pens or slaughterhouses. This is America today. Horrible beyond belief. And taking school lunches away from poor children. Forcing refugees into tight pens and denying them masks during the Coronavirus pandemic. The president’s bullshitting Americans about the dangers while his big supporters were selling their stocks directly caused 60,000 lives and is golfing while the dead count in at over 100,000 Americans. This is your country. It’s not mine. And this is a man whom the republicans and Christian Right, and white supremacists adore. Not me.———————Edi : I am here in Europe enjoying a beautiful sunset, as America Burns. Since this president came in the office, police killings of black people has risen dramatically. Violence against jews, black people, women, spousal abuse, violence against gays… All dramatically on the uptake… Millions of lives negatively affected. People hurt. People dying by the tens of thousands because this president failed to act to protect Americans. Indeed, he stalled intentionally, in my feelings, to make sure that his friends had time to shift their stock positions to make money on this pandemic. Money at the expense of 50,000 lives. The great dream of American equality could’ve become a reality starting in 1968. But the right wing in America has worked tirelessly to imprison black people, give police the authority to use military equipment and terrorist tactics in destroying black lives, created mandatory sentencing for minor drug offenses… And given police carte blanche in destroying human lives. They have also spent tireless hours destroying American education, destroying the environmental protection agency, housing and urban development agency, the CDC – which has caused thousands of death in itself.I don’t know what to say. These people are Nazis. They are anti-American. They are against human beings, and against education. They are against people of color, people of different religions, people of different sexuality, people of different nations, against poor people – not poverty, against equality, against women’s rights, against virtually everything that is humane, humanist, fair, and right. They have gerrymandered, and stripped voter rolls, and changed voter registration laws to make it harder and harder for the most fundamental right - the right of the vote to be xercised by people. America is in a nightmare. And if people do not wake up and take back their rightful power by voting, and getting everyone alive in that country to vote, America as we know it and love it is over.Another Edit: We watch from abroad as in America people who are peacefully demonstrating against police brutality are being brutally assaulted, bullied, beaten, pepper sprayed, and assaulted by police. 200 News reporters, who are in total compliance with police orders have been assaulted and arrested by the police. This newfound feeling of power coming straight to them from the White House, who has incited violence against peaceful protesters and vilified the Press as “the enemy of the people”, when of course , the opposite is true. We watch as people protesting the murder of black people with impunity by the police is met with mockery and derision by the racists who say “all lives matter” - a direct quote of the president. We watch as police chat with racists who are at demonstrations to incite violence, and tell them that they should just get to their cars because they are about to shut things down harshly, then assault the peaceful protesters… We watch the President and Attorney General violate the constitutional rights of peaceful assembly by setting unmarked gestapo-like guards to assault them, tear gas, and shoot with rubber bullets. We watch in disbelief that America could fall so low. And we peacefully demonstrate. The police here do not assault peaceful protestors. Black people here are not treated so poorly or abused by police. The police here do not have military grade equipment, crowd control manuals, or orders to do harm. And they don’t have a union that stops all reform from happening and protects the officers who brutalize and murder.America is broken. Not beyond repair. But this is the last chance. The cancer that is trump and the Republican Party is spreading. They must be taken out at the ballot box, and true reform and healing need to begin.

I'm from Germany so I'll comment on what is better or worse in Germany.Germany:Pros:Higher Education is cheaper (you have to pay around €300 every semester if you go to university but it does not include books, housing....etc. only a ticket and that's it).Higher education is on an similar level, so you don't need to look at the university's image. Education wise they can keep up with the best universities in the world.Public transportation is way better.More vacation at work. In Germany you are legally guaranteed a paid minimum entitlement of 20 days of vacation if you work five days a week on a full time job, and 24 if you work 6 days a week. If you are disabled you get 5 days more. If you are underage, you also get more (between 25 - 30 days, depending on your age). In practice almost everybody often gets even more (between 25 - 30 days), on an average Germans get 29 days of vacation.More legal holidays.Almost everyone has a health insurance, it's cheaper and better in so many ways. For example If you are an employee you have to pay between ca. 15 -17% of your income for a statutory health insurance. Children can be insured through one of their parents insurance for free until they are at least 18 years old but If the children go to university or trade school they can be insured through a parent during this time up until they are 25 years old. There are also no deductibles for seeing a doctor or staying in the hospital. If you get a prescription you only have a 5€ deductible for most medicines. If you don’t have a job but are on welfare, the government pays your entire statutory health insurance for you. We have private insurances as well and they are a bit more expensive and work a bit differently, but for what you get they are still way cheaper than American ones.Lower drinking age: 16 for soft alcohol like beer, wine...etc. and 18 for harder alcohol like vodka, whiskey...etc.Better social safety net.The distance between cities are smaller, so you can arrive faster.You can go for a weekend trip to pretty much anywhere in Europe because it is not that far away (but it can be expensive).It has a rich history with a lot of old building like castles which one can visit.Immigration is usually easier.Paparazzi's are not allowed to follow you around without your permission (Granted it’s only a pro for celebrities).The sales tax is included in the price of an item.Germany has protection laws for mothers and mothers-to-be at the workplace. As soon as you break the news of your pregnancy until four months after childbirth, you cannot be dismissed either with or without notice (unless there is a special case such as insolvency of the company). Female employees are entitled to full-paid maternity leave starting six weeks before the expected due date and ending eight weeks after childbirth. Both male and female employees are entitled to a maximum of three years' unpaid parental leave per child. Throughout the period of paternal leave, the employee may not be dismissed from their job and is entitled to work part time (under 30 hours per week). Pregnant women are not allowed to work at night and work overtime. From the third month they are not allowed to work in transport such as buses, taxis, either as a driver or as a ticket inspector or stewardess (but it also can be a downside).German labor and employment law requires the continuation of full salary payments for a period of six weeks in case of sickness of an employee (granted it's only a pro for employees and a con for the employers).In Germany people are not allowed to just name their children whatever they want. There is a book called the “International Manual of First Names” containing all the names a parent can choose from to legally name their children. If you want to name your child something that is not on the list you have to pay for an application that must then be sent to the Standesamt, the German civil registration office, for approval. The law protects the child from ridiculous names. In order to protect the child, the name must not be absurd or degrading in any way. Surnames, product names or names of objects are not permitted as first names in Germany. It must be possible to determine the gender of the child by its first name. If a neutral name is chosen, a second, gender-specific name has to be added. Boys names may be selected for boys only and girls names for girls. The only exception is the female name “Maria”, which may also be used as a second name for boys. You also may not give your child an excessive number of names. The longest name yet to be approved was 5 first names. In a way it's good that the children are protected but on the other hand it can be a pain in the ass if you want a nice but unusual name for your child. It all seems to depend on the bias of the folks inside the Standesamt and the vague, and bizarre arguments they end up making either for or against a name.It has less gun violence (mainly due to very strict gun laws) and less crime in general.The European Union is way stricter if it comes to what is allowed in our food and personal care products. While the European Union has taken restrictive measures to ensure that a lot of potentially harmful food additives and ingredients in personal care products don’t reach its consumers, most of these substances however are still allowed and used in the USA.If you have underaged children (who live with you) you are entitlement to receive child allowance from the government. For the first two children it’s €204 (each), for the third one €210 and from the forth one on €235. If the children go to trade school or university you can receive that money during that time even if they are older than 18 years old (but only up to 25 years old). However the amount has changed over the years and I’m sure it will continuo to change, so those numbers could be outdated in a few years.Childcare is way cheaper.Cons:The education system is very rigid and you might not be able to study what you really want or go in the career direction you are really interested in. The possibility to even be able to study or go to a trade school at all is not always there. A lot of Germans have to wait for a place in the university but a lot of times you have to wait for a very long time which means many people decide to study something they are not really that interested in instead of waiting for a long time (for example 10 years or more). Trade school is not always a possible alternative. You can't just go to a trade school just because you want to. You have to find a company which is willing to give you an apprenticeship you want for three years and only if you find one you can get in and a lot of people struggle to find an apprenticeship that they want. There are not enough companies who are willing to take people in for that and if they take people in then usually only people who are very young (usually between 16-25). A lot of times they also have very high requirements that a lot of people just can't fulfill. If the company or the job is popular you won’t be the only person who will try to get the apprenticeship, chances are there are several hundred other people who will apply for it. Students are also categorized and placed in career tracks very early (when they are around ten years old) and once you are on a track it is very hard to change the direction, sometimes it's almost impossible. The process of being credentialed to work in a career is much more strict in Germany. The system is very different from the US one and people have much less opportunities and freedom. Most jobs require a trade school or university attendance for a full time job even “simple” jobs like a mail carrier, salesperson or a server.The downside to the parental leave law and the maternity protection law is that because of this laws sometimes employers rather hire men than women and if they suspect you could be pregnant or want to be pregnant in the (near) future, you might have a hard time finding a job. So women between 25-40 have sometimes a harder time finding jobs. Because of the long parental leave that women usually take and because they are suspected to take more days off (due to the children) their careers are mostly over after they return to work.Considerable smaller houses, which are usually way more expensive on an average, often older on an average and most of the time don’t even look that good. In some US regions you could buy a mansion or a big property for a price for which you could never buy one in Germany ever. But to be fair german houses are mostly build with bricks and are often of higher quality.Higher taxes, in fact Germany is among the top 20 countries with the highest taxes in the world. It has a progressive tax, which means the higher your income is the higher tax percentage you have to pay.You have to be 17 to get a driver's license and if you are 17 you can only drive with an adult (who has a driver's license) next to you. You only are allowed to drive alone if you are at least 18 and it requires a lot of training and is quite expensive.In comparison bad costumer service.No free refills in restaurants.Gas is more expensive.Germany has very restrictive abortion laws compared to most US states and it's way harder to get an abortion.People who are not German have less opportunities in life.If you want to be an entrepreneur you will have it harder because of bureaucracy, higher costs that comes with it, less privacy, more regulations and therefore less freedom and opportunities.Most of the year the weather isn't really good.Less diversity in Nature.It's harder to get to know people, they are more distant and it's not true that they are better friends and more loyal once you get to know them.The TV programs are worse.More bureaucracy.Cars and clothes are more expensive on an average.Less salary on an average.Less fun stuff to do.Almost everything is closed at Sundays except of some restaurants, museums and cinemas.Joint adoption by same-sex couples is not allowed.Most people live in rented apartments. When renting, you are expected to put in ceiling lamps, bathroom cabinets and the kitchen yourself. There are also no built in closets.Shopping hours are more limited.Less variety in restaurants, shopping, and nightlife on an average.Less public restrooms and public restrooms often have an attendant who expects a tip for keeping it clean. Except at airports, pay toilets are the rule.Germans must pay a fee to finance the public broadcast networks even if they don't have a TV, radio or internet.A lot of companies try to get rid of their older (over 50) employees and people over 50 have a very hard time finding a new job.You can't change your name easily. You only can change your name if your name is discriminatory and you can prove that you got mental issues through it or that it made your life extremely hard due to the discrimination you had to face during your life. If it's just about your last name you can only change it through marriage. But if you were born in Germany you were not able to get a discriminatory first name anyway because Germany has strict rules about what can be given as a first name.A lot of places don't accept credit cards.Mostly absence of air conditioners in buildings.Surrogacy is not allowed (I admit it can be seen as a pro as well since exploitation of women in this specific way is therefore not possible).It is way harder to get the medicine you want from a doctor. They are way stricter with prescriptions.Homeschooling isn't allowed (I admit it can be a pro too).Both countries have their pros and cons and in the end it comes down to what points are more important to oneself. I personally think Germany is better for poor people & (lower) middle class and the USA is better for rich or ambitious people.

I’ve grouped papers by category, and I’ve tagged each paper by country and by method, in case you really want to know everything on Uganda or Kyrgyzstan, or you just want to skim the latest randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The categories are Education, then Health (the two biggest groups of papers), then the other categories alphabetically: Agriculture, All In Utero All the Time, Cash Transfers, Conflict, Contracts, Energy, Firms, Governance, Households, Labor, Land, Methods & Measurement, Migration, Randomization, Savings, Credit, & Insurance, Transport, Trade, Tax, and a few others.EDUCATIONTargeted instruction, particularly through teaching assistants (rather than the teacher herself), has enduring learning impacts. Teaching assistants without the targeted instruction don't impact learning. #Ghana #RCT (Duflo & Kiessel)Rewarding students for inputs (getting through learning software modules) was much more effective than for outputs (a test at the end), and almost twice as cost-effective. #India #RCT (Hirshleifer)A policy change allows separate measurement of an additional year of schooling and achievement of a credential: Return to schooling is MUCH lower #China #RD (Eble & Hu)Grants don't improve learnings, but grants plus incentives do. (Mbiti et al. -- Coming soon!)Grants to upgrade secondary schools led to improved test scores for boys but not girls, driven by low end of distribution #DiffInDiff #Kenya (Brudevold)Students in #Mexico take a mock high school admission test: They're totally wrong about how they'll do. Afterwards, those who did better than expected update their plans, but not so much those who did worse. #RCT (Bobba & Frisancho)Eliminating secondary school fees for girls increases secondary completion but also test scores, with spillovers to boys in households with beneficiary girls #DiffInDiff #Gambia (Blimpo et al.)A weekly phone call to the chief, the teacher, & a couple of students led to increased learning in adult literacy #RCT #Niger (Aker & Ksoll) – I wrote a blog post on this one.Getting into an elite high school increases the future earnings that students expect from a college education #Mexico #RD (Estrada & Gignoux)Centralized assignment to higher education increases mobility but also dropout #Brazil #DiffInDiff (Machado & Szerman)In ethnic groups that have bride price, households take advantage of school expansion to increase female enrollment #Indonesia #Zambia (Ashraf et al.)Adult education increases rationality on some dimensions (rejected dominated options) but not on others (preference transitivity) in #India #LIF-RCT (Ksoll & Maertens)The downside of #China's state-owned enterprise reform: Children whose fathers were employed by the enterprises had lower schooling outcomes. #DiffInDiff (Ge)Publication of grades from standardized tests in #Brazil did NOT lead parents to re-allocate to better schools, either in the public or private sector. #RD (Lépine)In the context of #China's one-child policy, " fertility fines during girls’ teenage years raised their educational attainment." #DiffInDiff (Huang et al.)People who -- as youth -- were sent to #China's rural areas for manual labor now invest more in their own children's education. #IV (Zhou)Education aspirations are affects by priming for either gender or caste in #India, and performance is affected for some. #RCT (Mukherjee)Workfare program in #India reduces educational investments in adolescent children (boys go to the market; girls go home). #Diff-in-diff (Shah et al.)An increase in college-education labor in #China led to higher total factor productivity in human-capital-intensive firms. #DiffInDiff (Che & Zhang)General equilibrium effects reduce the returns to schooling by a third and the increase in welfare from additional schooling by a quarter in #India. #RD (Khanna)HEALTHA couple of surprising interventions dramatically improved uptake of male circumcision in #SouthAfrica, including US$10 (just for a counseling session) and an ad that said "Are you man enough?" Apparently they are. (Friedman & Wilson)Text messages to adolescent girls in #Ghana about reproductive health increased knowledge AND reduced pregnancy. #RCT (Rokicki et al.) – I wrote a blog post on this one, too.10% fall in soda prices in #Peru --> 10% increase in consumption, 8.5% increase in obesity for adult women, & 22% decrease in diarrhea prevalance. #DiffInDiff (Ritter)After "the introduction of a series of taxes on sugary drinks" in #Mexico, "the demand of calories from taxed foods and the consumption of total calories do not change significantly." (Aguilar et al.)"Bed net distribution results in large & statistically significant improvements in the approval levels of a broad range of political leaders" in #Tanzania. #RD (Croke)In household consultations about family planning with a health worker in #Tanzania, when wives went alone, they subsequently reduced pregnancies a lot. But when husbands went, husbands significantly reduced desired fertility. #RCT (McCarthy)Cell phone data in #Senegal are used to correlated in-country travel with malaria incidence: 1 new case for every 100 visitors & 4 new cases for every 100 residents returning home. (Milusheva)In 19th century France, migrants precipitated the fertility transition by sending word home that fertility rates were super low at destinations #OldTimeyFrance #IV (Daudin et al.)Decline in fertility increased the demand for sex selection in #China. #DiffInDiff (Marden)Income shocks from crop loss lead to increased contraception and delayed pregnancies in #Tanzania. #DiffInDiff (Alam & Pörter)Matching contracts to individual time preferences of vaccinators leads to more smoothing of effort in #Pakistan. #RCT (Andreoni)Christian infants have better height-for-weight than Muslim or Hindu infants in #India, apparently because longer term health and sanitation education. #IV (Menon et al.)Heads of public clinics moonlight at private clinics, lowering their public hours, although they don't refer more patients to their private clinic in #Indonesia. #DiffInDiff (Montes-Rojas & Pal)Sharia law in northern #Nigeria led to higher fertility and longer breastfeeding. #RD (Alfano)If, during a household survey, you test for hypertension and give a negative result, people will get a medical consultation but won't buy insurance for it. #Tanzania #RCT (Tanovic)Building on a conditional cash transfer associated with receipt of a tetanus vaccine, this paper shows that a friend's decision to get vaccinated affects your decision a LOT. #Nigeria #RCT (Sato & Takasaki)"Exposure to adverse fertility outcomes [in early childhood] leads to higher numbers of subsequent pregnancies and induces women to marry sooner." #Indonesia #DiffInDiff (Dhanushka et al.)"Arrival of the first antibiotics to the USA reduced maternal mortality ratios nearly two times as much in early suffrage versus late suffrage states." #OldTimeyUSA #DiffInDiff (Bhalotra et al.)Dramatic increase in mortality from the drug war in #Mexico led to a reduction in risky sex among female sex workers. #DiffInDiff (Manian)Improved delivery of anti-malarial drugs in public clinics reduces prices in private clinics, with particularly benefits for the poor in #Uganda. #DiffInDiff (Fitzpatrick)"Health insurance has a large effect on utilisation [in #SouthAfrica], and that this effect is mainly due to the increased usage of high quality medical services." #DiffInDiff #IV (Burger)A strict antibiotics law in #Mexico had no impact on bacterial-related hospitalization but decreased virus-related hospitalization among the advantaged. (Rubli)AGRICULTUREAgricultural extension in #Uganda reduced malaria incidence, probably through increased incomes. #RD (Pan & Singhal)Using mobile phones to deliver info on livestock insemination success leads to 27% higher success for treatment farmers in #Pakistan. #RCT (Rezaeey et al.)Using randomized phase-out of an extension program, improved practices were generally continued after 3 seasons, although it took time for farmers to find new seed sellers. (Bobic et al.)"Even though female communicators learn and retain the new [agricultural technology] information better, and those taught by women experience higher farm yields, the women are not as successful at teaching or convincing others to adopt." (Ben Yishay et al.)Privatization of property rights on agricultural investments in #Peru leads to investment in higher value crops. #FuzzyRD (#IV) (Gafaro)A 10% increase in windbreak trees "leads to a 7-10% increase in agricultural revenue." #OldTimeyUSA #IV (Li)A multi-faceted fruit fly eradication program in #Peru led to higher fruit crop production and sales. #RD (Agurto et al.)"Access to credit during the lean season increases harvest output and revenue" significantly in #Zambia. #RCT (Fink et al.)Sugar, ethanol, & biolelectricity mills in #Brazil have big, positive impacts on local GDP, employment, tax revenues, etc. (Assunção et al.)ALL IN UTERO, ALL THE TIME"Temperature shocks in utero increase depressive symptoms in adulthood in Africa" (Adhvaryu et al.)Higher temperatures in-utero (okay, higher temperatures OUTSIDE while the kid is in-utero) = lower earnings, especially for women #Ecuador (Carrillo et al.)"Strong effect of in utero exposure [to homicides in the community] on the physical health and cognitive development of children and no effect on socio-emotional behavior" #DiffInDiff #Mexico (Nasir)Heavy rains in utero reduce birth weight, cognitive development, AND investment by parents #DiffInDiff #Colombia (Brando & Santos)Access to ultrasound technology in #India nearly eliminated post-neonatal gender discrimation…by increasing sex-selective abortions! #India #TripleDiff (Anukriti et al.)Abnormally large flooding in utero leads increases stunting, but households exposed to lots of flooding deal with it better (smaller effects) in Bangladesh. (Guiteras et al.)Being conceived during a heat wave leads to high educational attainment, higher literacy, and lower child mortality. Mechanisms are explored. #Africa #DiffInDiff (Wilde et al.)CASH TRANSFERS“For a range of inequality aversion parameters, the welfare gains from current redistribution…are…possibly much larger than the” increased earning from human capital investments. (Alderman et al.)Aid beneficiaries tend to be indifferent between a donated item and its cash value. Donors overvalue their aid. #Kenya #USA (Shapiro)"Increases in neighbors' wealth strongly decrease life satisfaction and moderately decrease consumption" in #Kenya. #RCT (Haushofer et al.)Cash transfers targeted towards mothers increased their empowerment in #Macedonia. #RCT (Almas et al.)Conditional cash transfers in #Tanzania improve health not through more health center visits but through better timed visits. #RCT (Evans et al.) – This is my paper!CONFLICTConflict pushes households to entrepreneurship activities with low-capital intensity in #Afghanistan. #IV (Ciarli et al.)Opening a mine doesn't increase crime, but closing one does in #SouthAfrica. (Axbard et al.)"Demobilized soldiers who were more involved in local governance during the war are more likely to participate in collective good production more than a decade after the end of the war" in #Angola. #IV (Stojetz & Justino)Community-level reconciliation in post-war #SierraLeone improved social networks but worsened psychological outcomes. #RCT (Cilliers et al.)Saturday work groups to improve community infrastructure in pre-genocide #Rwanda increased participation in the genocide. #IV (Rainfall!) (Bonnier et al.)Post-election violence in #Kenya significantly increased individual risk aversion. #DiffInDiff (Jakiela & Ozier)When states stood to gain more from mining operations, states cracked down more on Maoists and their supports in #India. #DiffInDiff (Eynde)"We cannot reject the hypothesis that all land conflict in the Brazilian Amazon is due to a failure to securely assign property rights." #Brazil #DiffInDiff (Fetzer & Marden)Creating new local governments in pursuit of decentalization has "relatively precise null effects on conflict" but ethnically polarized, new-government areas show an increase in violence. #Indonesia #DiffInDiff (Bazzi & Gudgeon)In food producing areas around #Africa, higher food prices reduce conflicts over control of land but increase conflicts over appropriation of surplus. #DiffInDiff (McGuirk & Burke)"Negative income shocks increase the likelihood of violence against Jews, but only during pogrom waves that are triggered by political turmoil," using "hot springs as an exogenous source of variation." #IV (Durant et al.)CONTRACTSIn a month-long field experiment, heterogeneity of wages in times is randomized: With more inequality, the lower paid workers reduce output significantly. #India #RCT (Breza et al.)Lower earners are willing to engage in destructive actions to pull down higher earners, as well as increase their own constructive effort #Bolivia #LIF-RCT (Zeballos)Repeated principal-agent games show no punishment of low-effort agents, resulting in low average effort in #Ghana (unlike previous experiments elsewhere) #LIF-RCT (Davies & Fafchamps)A dairy processing factory provides a micronutrient fortified yogurt as the reward for fulfilling a performance-based contract, and delivery increases, particularly from households where women control milk production in #Senegal. #RCT (Bernard et al.)At a microfinance institution, giving incentives to strengthen community organizations did as much to expand microcredit as incentives to expand microcredit #Pakistan #RCT (Giné et al.)Workers at a large agricultural firm in #Malawi receive either a lottery chance to win a bonus, or a fixed bonus of equal expected value, based on attendance. Both bonuses increase attendance, but the lottery increases it more. (Brune)Child labor ban for children over 14 in Brazil doesn't affect younger siblings, but parents up labor supply (Piza et al.)ENERGYDistributing solar lamps to 7th graders leads to improved math scores for treated students PLUS spillovers to control students #RCT #Kenya (Hassan & Lucchino)Compact flourescent lightbulbs lead to loyalty (people like them!) and reduced energy consumption in #Kyrgyzstan. #RCT (Carranza & Meeks)FIRMS"Producers’ demand for (commitment) saving devices enables trustworthy buyers to offer low frequency payments and purchase at a lower price" in #Kenya. #RCT (Casaburi & Macchiavello)Exposure to pollution reduces productivity in a garment factory, but good managers can reduce the impact. #India #DiffInDiff (Adhvaryu et al.)Watermelon consumers in #China can't discern sweetness: An innovative technology can signal effectively, but profit gains don't offset costs. #RCT (Bai)Multi-national technology corporations are most likely to rely on foreign employees when they have very poor or very high institutional quality (U-shaped). #Mexico (Santacreu-Vasut & Teshima)"An increase in market size by one percent leads to an increase of 0.27% in firm-specific total factor productivity and an increase in labor productivity by 0.42%" in manufacturing in #China. (Beerli et al.)GOVERNANCE"Political leaders’ ethnographic regions enjoy 10% higher nighttime light intensity." True for rich & poor countries. #Global (De Luca et al.)"24-percentage point lower economic activity arising from the election of a criminally accused politician" #India #RD (Prakash et al.)"When the government repairs problems in the public space, citizens are more likely to complain about other problems in the area" in #Argentina. #DiffInDiff (Trucco)When citizens used cell phones to report voting fraud during a presidential elections, fraudulent votes dropped by a quarter in #Afghanistan. #RD (Gonzalez)Politically connected firms get a 15% discount on land from government sellers (but not from non-government sellers) in #China. #DiffInDiff (Chen et al.)Tanzanians who moved into government-planned villages in the 1970s have lower consumption and assets three decades later. #Tanzania #IV (Silwal)Electronic voting machines (intended to reduce fraud) in #India reduced rejected votes and also improved broader development outcomes. #DiffInDiff (Debnath et al.)"High historical social status but current-period economic performance not keeping pace with industry peers" predicts "large-scale bribery" #Korea (Jeong & Siegel)Governments use recurring benefit programs to get votes #India #DiffInDiff (Bardhan et al.)Democratic transitions in Africa have led to urbanization more spread across cities (not just the capital) #DiffInDiff (Fetzer & Shanghavi)Mayor's effectiveness in implementing the one child policy is more predictive of ability in low competitive areas #China (Serrato & Wang)"Politicians that had relatives in office in the past...spend more resources...in investment in urban infrastructure, health and sanitation [but do not have] improvements in economic growth and changes in the quality of public services" in #Brazil #RD (Bragança et al.)Splitting states in #India leads to better economic outcomes on the new-state side of the border. #RD (Asher & Novosad)Incumbent mayors increase deforestation around election time in #Brazil. Particularly corrupt mayors. #DiffInDiff (Pailler)"Using night luminosity as a measure of economic activity, we find significantly higher economic growth rates in constituencies from which women rather than men are elected to state legislative assemblies in #India." #RD (Baskaran et al.)Mayors from the Soeharto regime who stayed in power longer left a legacy of worse governance outcomes in #Indonesia. #DiffInDiff (Martinez-Bravo & Mukherjee)Female dynastic mayors (i.e., related to the incumbent) have no significant impact on policy or economic outcomes relative to males. #Philippines #DiffInDiff (Labonne et al.)A natural experiment reveals governments giving breaks to firms and firms doing favors to government (unless the leader is leaving office) in #China #DiffInDiff (Lei)E-governance of a workfare program in #India reduced leakage but did not improve employment. #RCT (Banerjee et al.)People don't do perfect Bayesian updating when it comes to government news on pollution in #China. #Lab (Bai et al.)"Individuals living in places with a deeper state history voluntarily pay more tax today" in #Rwanda. (Heldring)When state employees managing polling stations are from minorities, more people vote for minority-associated parties in #India. #RCT (Neggers)Non-linear effects of punishment on law-abiding behavior in #Colombia: When government does "extreme spraying" of crops, farmers actually move out of legality. #DiffInDiff (Vasquez-Escallon)Ambiguity in state- versus municipal- control of water and sanitation sector had large, negative impacts on investment in and access to water in #Brazil. #DiffInDiff (Plous)Free delivery of mail increased voter turnout and led representatives to pay attention to rural interests in #OldTimeyUSA. #IV (Perlman & Schuster)HOUSEHOLDSHusbands and wives do not know each other's income, which affects poverty measures. But the differences can partly be explained by non-cognitive characteristics of the wife. #Mexico (Murillo)"Observed consumption patterns are Pareto efficient for households with relatively old heads, but not households with relative young heads" in #Mexico. (Angelucci & Garlick)Men who hide money from their wives do worse in business; women who hide money from their husbands do better. #Uganda #LIF-RCT (Fiala)Legal reforms intended to shift intra-household decisionmaking from men to women actually distributed from parents-in-law to women in #India. #DiffInDiff (Mookerjee)Allocation of resources is more efficient in nuclear family households than extended family households due to easier contract commitment in #BurkinaFaso. (Kazianga & Wahhaj)People will forgo significant income if they can keep it hidden, and they're much less likely to give that hidden income to anyone else. #Senegal #LIF-RCT (Boltz et al.)A reform reducing women's relative position in terms of passing residency permits to their children led to lower female-favored consumption in households. #China (Han & Shi)Co-wives in polygamous households participate in reproductive rivalry in #Senegal. #DiffInDiff (Rossi)Daughters raise mothers' participation in household decision and freedom of mobility more than sons in #India and #Bangladesh. (Heath & Tan)LABORPaid maternity leave decreased wages but increased on-the-job training. Restrictions on night work actually increased hours worked. #DiffInDiff #Bangladesh (Ahmed & Guven)Extended legislated maternity leave led to more informality, more inactivity in the job market, and more self-employment. #DiffInDiff #Colombia (Bustamante et al.)Typhoons lower short-run income but not employment, probably due to flexibility in wages and hours worked. #DiffInDiff #Philippines (Franklin & Labonne)Fewer men in the labor market = better jobs and better wages for women #Mexico #IV (Conover et al.)When agricultural workers face a weather-induced reduction in demand, they move to casual manufacturing jobs and increase productivity as well as wages for permanent manufacturing workers #India (Colmer)At the discontinuity, social assistance reduces registered employment substantively and significantly (50% actual drop in employment, 50% drop in registration) #Uruguay #RD (Bergolo & Cruces)Fishery households in #Indonesia responded to coral bleaching (which reduces marine life) with more migration, increased labor supply, and occupational switches. #DiffInDiff (Chaijaroen)LANDLand titling in #Tanzania led to positive impacts on housing investment but no increased access to credit markets. #RD (Collin et al.)Factors of production are argued to be heavily misallocated, particularly land and buildings. #India (Duranton et al.)Clarifying land rights on formerly communal lands in #Mexico led to use similar that of historically private land. (de Janvry et al.)METHODS & MEASUREMENTA new way to measure trust in institutions (without participants knowing that's what you're after) #Philippines #LIF-RCT (Penczynski & Santana)Headcount measures of poverty fail to capture the distribution in poverty intensity. Person-equivalent headcount measures seeks to capture intensity while retaining an intuitive interpretation. (Castleman et al.)Strong evidence of recall bias in family farm labor. (Arthi et al.)Some countries base poverty data on one-time household visits; others visit the household more than once. It makes a big difference. #Jordan (Jolliffe & Serajuddin)How to construct synthetic panels using "pseudo-panel, matching and calibration techniques" #Mexico (Bourguignon & Moreno)Using three waves of panel data, measure income mobility more reliably AND test the reliability of the income measure. #South Africa (Burger et al.)Telephone surveys of microenterprise owners seem reliable, and high-frequency data collection does not seem to alter owner behavior. #SouthAfrica #RCT (Garlick et al.)MIGRATIONRandomly assigned resumes in the #Philippines reveal that "workers with foreign experience receive 12 percent fewer callbacks than non-migrants, with callback rates even lower for those who have spent a longer time abroad." #RCT (Abarcar)County-level data between 1850-2010 suggest that the country-of-origin composition in a county matters for local economic outcomes in the US. (Fulford et al.)Household per-capita income goes up 28-38% for internal migrants in #SouthAfrica. Sending households benefit but receiving households do not. (Garlick et al.)Potential migrants from #Nepal to Malaysia overestimate both mortality and earnings abroad. An informational intervention updates both. #RCT (Shrestha)"I estimate the average perceived cost of migration to an individual to lie between 0.3 and 1.1 times annual earnings." #Thailand #IV (Shenoy)"Increase in income in #Mexico reduces [US] migration duration, and increases both the average number of trips per migrant and the responsiveness to economic conditions." #RCT (Gorlach)RANDOMIZATIONIn a life skills program in #India, some girls were randomized into the program and others were elected. For elected cases, there were discouragement effects among peers. #RCT (Delavallade et al.)In a lab game, students in Zurich prefer randomization when expected initial endowments are equal, but poorer participants OPPOSE randomization when endowments are unequal. #Switzerland #Lab (Haushofer et al.)SAVINGS, CREDIT, & INSURANCEMobile-phone based automatic payroll deductions increase participation in savings by 40 percentage points; it takes a 50% employer match to achieve the same without default. #RCT #Afghanistan (Blumenstock et al. – coming soon here)Setting up default payments into a bank account instead of cash means WAY more savings. #RCT #India (Somville & Vandewalle)Worries about future rainfall reduce farmers' cognitive function, and offering insurance doesn't help. #LIF-RCT #Brazil (Lichand & Mani)Microfinance institutions that reach out to women have better financial performance "at all levels of commercialization" #IV #Global (Martinez)The poorer your savings group on average, the less likely you'll be able to meet the needs of the ultra-poor in your group #Uganda #RCT (Burlando & Canidio)The offer of a microsavings program reduces participation in informal risk-sharing arrangements #Kenya #RCT (Dizon et al.)Willingness to pay for a water filter increases significantly when an over-time payment plan is offered (versus a lump-sun) #Bangladesh #RCT (Guiteras et al.)Credit access increases migration significantly for poor households in rural #China. #RCT (Cai)"Moral appeals strongly increase credit card repayments" in #Indonesia. #RCT (Bursztyn et al.)Microcredit institutions are moving away from joint liability, particularly for-profit lenders. (de Quidt et al.)"Behavioral signatures in mobile phone data predict default with accuracy approaching that of credit scoring methods that rely on financial histories" in an unnamed Caribbean country. (Björkegren & Grissen)TRANSPORTLocal access to transporation -- such as the arrival of railroads -- dramatically increased patents. #OldTimeyUSA #IV (Perlman)Provision of rural roads increases use of preventative health care by women in #Pakistan. #FuzzyRD (#IV) (Banerjee & Sachdeva)A highway project in #India increased income but very unequally. A simulation suggest that a Chinese approach would have benefitted lagging regions more. (Alder)Introduction of high-speed railway in #China led to an increase in HSR-related patents in affected cities. #TrippleDiff (Lin et al.)"Using changes in market access due to...distant road construction as a source of exogenous variation in overall market access, we estimate a 30-year elasticity of city population with respect to market access of 0.05 to 0.20" in #Africa. (Jedwab & Storeygard)"Road construction to previously unconnected villages leads to a large and significant reallocation of economic activity out of self-employment in agriculture and into wage earnings" in #India. #FuzzyRD (#IV) (Asher & Novosad)TRADEExogenous variation in access to export markets for rug producers in #Egypt leads to "15-25 percent higher profits and exhibit large improvements in quality alongside reductions in output per hour." #RCT (Atkin et al.)"Sons...with a greater exposure to trade liberalization have a higher probability of being in a better occupation than their father" in #India. (Ahsan & Chatterjee)Population diversity had a positive causal effect on economic specialization and trade in pre-modern societies (Depetris-Chauvin & Özak)TAXSome local government revenues improve living conditions (property tax), other don't (oil revenues) #Colombia #DiffInDiff (Martinez)Politically connected firms are more likely to evade taxes, by underreporting unit prices in #Tunisia. (Rijkers et al.)Profit elasticity with respect to taxes is very large, suggesting a lower revenue-maximizing tax rate in #CostaRica than in rich countries. (Bachas & Soto)A FEW OTHER PAPERS…A dice game intended to teach about gambling risk reduces gambling behavior, except for those who win the dice game, for whom it increases their behavior. :( (Abel et al.)What else does rainfall affect? Personality! Early life rainfall fluctuations drive shifts in "core self-evaluation" in adulthood. #Tanzania #DiffInDiff (Krutikova & Lilleor)Closure of coal mines in the #UK in the 1980s increased male manufacturing workers but decreases female manufacturing workers. #DiffInDiff (Aragón et al.)A public good experiment in #India demonstrates why it can be difficult to motivate people at the center of networks (and thus a capacity for influence) to give more to public goods. #LIF-RCT (Caria & Fafchamps)Non public works districts (with public works neighbors) led to an 8.7% rise in casual wages relative to non-exposed districts in #India. #DiffInDiff (Prasann)What's the impact of providing boats to fishermen affected by the 2004 tsunami in #Indonesia? Small and temporary. #DiffInDiff (Wong)"Places where women were more productive in textile production developed more favorable views towards working women and witnessed rising gender equality." #China (Xue)At post-reproductive ages, women in #India lose bargaining power in households, experience more poverty and higher mortality. (Calvi)How to measure intergenerational mobility? Intergenerational correlations show MUCH less bias than intergenerational regression coefficients. #India #Bangladesh (Emran et al.)