Working Papers
Returns to Capital for Whom? Experimental Evidence from Small Firm Owners and Workers in Ghana. (with Morgan Hardy and Jamie McCasland). Revise and resubmit at American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.
[ Abstract | Working Paper | Development Impact Blog ]
We document capital contributions from workers to their employers in a representative sample of small firms. We separately conduct a two-sided experiment in a sample of small employers, randomizing cash transfers to firm owners or a randomly selected worker. Transfers to either party increase firm profits in equal magnitude. Treated owners purchase additional business assets; treated workers purchase business assets that are used in their employing firm and experience wage increases. Our findings challenge the assumption of a separation of labor and capital in firms, with widespread implications for measurement and for understanding the nature of firms in our context.
Informed Climate Adaptation: Input and Output Subsidies for Shaded Cocoa. (with Yunyu Shu)
[ Abstract | Working Paper | Development Impact Blog | PEDL | IGC blog | AEA Registry ]
With growing climate risks, agro-environmental policies seek to protect the environment while reducing poverty by incentivizing climate adaptation. We study how information shapes adaptation under different subsidy schemes for cocoa farmers in Ghana, where forest tree planting for shade is encouraged as an adaptation strategy. Conducting a lab-in-the-field experiment, we compare the impacts of an information intervention under an input subsidy for planting forest trees and an output subsidy for producing cocoa beans from shaded farms. While farmers receiving the information in both subsidy groups plant more forest trees than their subsidy-only counterparts, the increase is higher under the output subsidy than the input subsidy even though the information leads both groups to similarly update their beliefs about the benefits of shade. We rationalize the differential effects of information with a model in which beliefs about rainfall uncertainty and shade benefits affect ex ante input decisions. Counterfactuals show that output subsidy has greater potential to drive adaptation than input when beliefs are reasonably correct. We validate the lab results by distributing tree seedlings, finding consistent treatment effects on the number of seedlings requested and obtained.
Works in Progress
Credit Constraint and Green Energy Adoption: Evidence from Small Firms in Kenya. (with Wycliffe Oluoch and Yunyu Shu)
[ PEDL | AEA Registry ]
The Unseen Economy. (with Morgan Hardy, Gisella Kagy and Monica Lambon-Quayefio) (draft available upon request)
Information Nudge on Social and Private Benefit, and Impact on Adaptation. (with Ming Li, Yunyu Shu and Jia Xiang)
[ AEA Registry ]
Won't You Hire Your Neighboring Firm Owner? Experimental Evidence on the Benefits of Small Firm Consolidation. (with Morgan Hardy and Jamie McCasland)
Works Prior to Graduate School
Risk of Window Dressing: Quarter-end Spikes in the Japanese Yen Libor-OIS Spread. (with Alfred Wong and Mayu Kikuchi). 2019. Journal of Regulatory Economics.
[ Journal Manuscript ]
Breakdown of Covered Interest Parity: Mystery or Myth?. (with Alfred Wong). 2018.
[ BIS Working Paper ]
