Title: Moving to Opportunity, Together

Title: Statistical Discrimination and the Distribution of Wages

Here is the MS Teams link for this CRETA seminar 

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3a44e76bae944e45478914cb98497b7098%40thread.tacv2/1715100204271?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2209bacfbd-47ef-4465-9265-3546f2eaf6bc%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22aac8c148-e99c-4793-9a9e-9a8b8d83de0e%22%7d

Title: National Road Upgrading and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Ugandan Households (with Ian Herzog and Siyuan Liu)
Abstract: Structural transformation, typically characterized by labor transitioning from agriculture to a diverse industrial economy, has been slow in Sub-Saharan Africa. Even though the region is urbanizing, a significant portion of the urban population continues to depend on agriculture. We argue that this is because smaller cities are isolated from national markets and trade. We test this claim using granular individual panel data and Uganda's doubling of paved roads, which improved remote areas' market access. We find that market access causes workers to quit family farms and take specialized paid work. Effects concentrate in peripheral areas, households with a comparative advantage in off-farm work and reflect off-farm opportunities rather than reduced demand for farm output. In addition, market access causes remote households to simplify farming techniques and scale back farming. Findings are consistent with reliable transport allowing trade with urban areas, creating opportunities to specialize according to individual comparative advantage.

Title : Parents’ Earnings and the Returns to Universal Pre-Kindergarten.

Title: The use of social networks to improve engagement and implement a research-led curriculum.

Abstract: Improving the integration between research and teaching in higher education is an interesting yet complex issue that has been studied in several research papers. However, the relationship between research quality and students’ satisfaction, is consistently negative for economics over time. Past research suggests that the integration of research in higher education teaching has positive results in both students’ motivation and final grades in different areas, but in practice, this is a complex issue. We introduce an Instagram account as a complementary teaching resource in 4 different modules across 2 universities.

The purpose of the account it to (1) introduce research-led teaching activities; (2) increase engagement and (3) relate teaching to students’ real lives. We find that engagement with the content persists even after the teaching term finishes, furthermore we observe a positive relationship between the students’ final grades and interaction with the account.

Title: Strategic Disclosure in Research Races (joint with Kalyan Chatterjee and Kaustav Das)

Title to be advised.

Title: The Value of Ratings: Evidence from their Introduction in Securities Markets (Asaf Bernstein, Carola Frydman & Eric Hilt)

 Abstract: We study the effects of the first-ever ratings for corporate securities. In 1909, John Moody published a book that partitioned the majority of listed railroad bonds into letter-graded ratings based on his assessments of their credit risk. These ratings had no regulatory implications and were largely explainable using publicly available information. Despite this, we find that lower than market-implied ratings caused a rise in secondary market bond yields. Using an instrumental-variables design, we show that bonds that were rated experienced a substantial decline in their bid-ask spreads, which is consistent with reduced information asymmetries and improved liquidity. Our findings suggest that ratings can improve information transmission, even in settings with the highest monetary stakes, and highlight their potential value for the functioning of financial markets.

Title: Higher Order Moments for Differential Measurement Error, with Application to Tobin's q and Corporate Investment (co-authored with Daniel Kim) 

Here’s a link to the paper .

Title: Organizing a Kingdom (with Charles Angelucci and Simone Meraglia)

Abstract: We develop a framework that examines the organizational challenges faced by central rulers governing large territories, where administrative power needs to be delegated to local elites. We describe how economic change can motivate rulers to empower different elites and emphasize the interaction between local and nationwide institutions. We show that rising economic potential of towns leads to local administrative power (self-governance) of urban elites. As a result, the ruler summons them to central assemblies in order to ensure effective communication and coordination between self-governing towns and the rest of the realm. This framework can explain the emergence of municipal autonomy and towns’ representation in early modern European parliaments -- a blueprint for Western Europe’s institutional framework that promoted state-formation and economic growth in the centuries to follow. We provide empirical evidence for our core mechanisms and discuss how the model applies to other historical dynamics, and to alternative organizational settings.

Title: Multidimensional Screening with Returns (joint with Alexander Haberman and Frank Yang)

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Title: Enhancing Learning Through Group Work: Challenges and Strategies

Abstract: Group work is a powerful pedagogical tool that promotes active learning, collaboration, and critical thinking skills among students. This seminar explores some effective strategies for implementing group work in educational settings along with the challenges associated with integrating group work into formative and summative assessments.

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Title: Homeward Bound: How Migrants Seek Out Familiar Climates (with Marguerite Obolensky, Charles A Taylor)..