Research Papers
Published Papers
The Syrian refugee life study: First glance (2022)
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 38(3), 625–653.
Coauthors: Edward Miguel, I Bailey Palmer, Sandra V Rozo, Emma Smith, and Sarah Stillman.
Abstract: This paper presents descriptive statistics from the first wave of the Syrian Refugee Life Study (S-RLS), which began in 2020. S-RLS is a longitudinal study that tracks a representative sample of approximately 2,500 registered Syrian refugee households in Jordan. It collects comprehensive data on sociodemographic variables, health and well-being, preferences, social capital, attitudes, and safety and crime perceptions. We use these data to document sociodemographic characteristics of Syrian refugees in Jordan and compare them to representative populations in the 2016 Jordan Labor Market Panel Survey (JLMPS). Our findings point to lags in basic service access, housing quality, and educational attainment for Syrian refugees relative to non-refugees. The impacts of the pandemic may partially explain these disparities. The data also show that most Syrian refugees have not recovered economically after Covid-19 and have larger gender disparities in income, employment, prevalence of child marriage, and gender attitudes than their non-refugee counterparts. Finally, mental health problems were common for Syrian refugees in 2020, with depression indicated among more than 45 per cent of the phone survey sample and 61 per cent of the in-person survey sample.
Working Paper (ungated): Development Research Group, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9940.
Data: Harvard Dataverse for the in-person sample is available here.
Photo credit: Norwegian Refugee Council.
Working Papers
Relaxing Credit and Information Constraints: Five-Year Experimental Evidence from Tanzanian Agriculture (2022)
Submitted.
Coauthors: Marshall Burke, Aurelie P. Harou, David Lobell, Malgosia Madajewicz, Christopher Magomba, Hope Michelson, Cheryl A. Palm, and Jiani Xue.
Abstract: We study the longer term outcomes of a field experiment designed to increase fertilizer use in Tanzania. The original experiment showed that plot-specific fertilizer recommendations combined with a subsidy increased amounts of applied fertilizer and maize yields relative to either intervention alone. We show that these effects do not persist once the subsidy is discontinued. Our results indicate that ability to pay for fertilizer continues to limit fertilizer use even when farmers have information about appropriate fertilizer types and amounts, and even after farmers have learned that fertilizer use is profitable.
Photo credit: Abdulrazzak Tamim.