instrumental variables

What Mexico’s drug war reveals about internal migration

Although most Mexicans remained in their communities during the drug war, the associated violence generated large welfare losses that are mostly invisible in standard migration statistics.

Migration & Urbanisation

Aurora Ramírez-Álvarez

Published

12.01.26

Reallocating resources, revitalising economies: How central transfers affect local economies

Evidence from Ecuador reveals that central transfers to subnational governments can meaningfully stimulate local economic activity – operating primarily through higher municipal spending on wages, procurement, and small-scale investment.

Institutions & Political Economy

Leonardo Sánchez-Aragón Gonzalo E. Sánchez Wladimir Zanoni

Published

19.12.25

How political hierarchy shaped a millennium of development in China

Over a thousand years, China’s political hierarchy reshaped regional prosperity – provincial capitals flourished through bureaucracy and market access, but these benefits faded once they lost administrative status.

Institutions & Political Economy

Ying Bai Ruixue Jia

Published

30.10.25

How rural pensions boosted China's economy

China’s New Rural Pension Scheme unexpectedly lowered the high cost of migration by freeing younger workers from household duties – boosting migration, wages, household welfare, and even national GDP.

Social Protection

Qingen Gai Naijia Guo Bingjing Li Qinghua Shi Xiaodong Zhu

Published

02.10.25

Why don’t farmers grow more profitable crops?

Agricultural productivity in developing countries remains low and uneven, with high-return crops offering significant potential gains but limited adoption due to clustered social networks that restrict the diffusion of new technologies.

Agriculture

Andre Groeger Yanos Zylberberg

Published

30.09.25

How internal migration is reshaping rural India

Internal migration of agricultural workers in India leads to a downsizing of farms near cities and an expansion in remote areas, prompting a spatial reorganisation of agriculture whereby remote, non-migrant households adopt more technology and expand...

Migration & Urbanisation

Raahil Madhok Frederik Noack Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak Olivier Deschenes

Published

21.08.25

How do domestic migrants impact local labour markets in developing countries?

Low-skilled natives tend to be most affected by low-skilled migrants, but are high-skilled natives most affected by high-skilled migrants?

Migration & Urbanisation

Marieke Kleemans Jeremy Magruder

Published

31.01.19