Pub Date : 2025-04-21DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103525
Xianling Long , Zhiqiang Wang
This paper examines how firms respond to climate change through technological innovation. We emphasize that firms facing climate change are not always those innovating. Instead, innovation occurs either to mitigate a firm’s own climate-related damages (internal demand) or to supply climate-related technologies to other firms (external demand). To reflect this, we measure patent-specific exposure to climate change rather than traditional firm-level exposure to local temperatures. Our findings show that in China, climate adaptation patents increased by 8.62%, and climate mitigation patents grew by 10.68% in response to climate change. We document that new technologies respond positively to climate change due to rising public awareness, shifting demand, and regulatory pressures.
{"title":"From heat to high-tech: How innovation responds to climate change","authors":"Xianling Long , Zhiqiang Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103525","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103525","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines how firms respond to climate change through technological innovation. We emphasize that firms facing climate change are not always those innovating. Instead, innovation occurs either to mitigate a firm’s own climate-related damages (internal demand) or to supply climate-related technologies to other firms (external demand). To reflect this, we measure patent-specific exposure to climate change rather than traditional firm-level exposure to local temperatures. Our findings show that in China, climate adaptation patents increased by 8.62%, and climate mitigation patents grew by 10.68% in response to climate change. We document that new technologies respond positively to climate change due to rising public awareness, shifting demand, and regulatory pressures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103525"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-18DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103517
Guangbo Huang , Chong Liu , Tianyang Xi , Huayu Xu , Wei You
We examine the agricultural and economic impacts of China’s South–North Water Diversion Project, a massive initiative that channels water from the resource-rich south to the drier north. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the project increases total grain output by 8.2% and raises agricultural productivity by 4.7% in water-receiving counties. It also mitigates the adverse effects of drought shocks, leading to modest increases in local incomes. Improved water availability induces adaptive responses, including greater land allocation to water-intensive crops and a higher incidence of multi-cropping. Additionally, we find no evidence of significant losses in water-supplying areas. Our back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests an internal rate of return of 6.4%, underscoring the project’s economic viability.
{"title":"The agricultural and economic impacts of massive water diversion","authors":"Guangbo Huang , Chong Liu , Tianyang Xi , Huayu Xu , Wei You","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103517","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103517","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine the agricultural and economic impacts of China’s South–North Water Diversion Project, a massive initiative that channels water from the resource-rich south to the drier north. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the project increases total grain output by 8.2% and raises agricultural productivity by 4.7% in water-receiving counties. It also mitigates the adverse effects of drought shocks, leading to modest increases in local incomes. Improved water availability induces adaptive responses, including greater land allocation to water-intensive crops and a higher incidence of multi-cropping. Additionally, we find no evidence of significant losses in water-supplying areas. Our back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests an internal rate of return of 6.4%, underscoring the project’s economic viability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103517"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143864238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Many available data sets are not used for estimating intergenerational mobility owing to concerns about sample truncation bias in coresident data. Using data from Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Mexico, we report the first evidence that the bias in estimated sibling correlation, a broad measure of relative mobility, is small in coresident samples (4.30%), much smaller than that in intergenerational regression coefficient (10.25%). The low bias reflects offsetting effects of sample truncation on the numerator and denominator of the sibling correlation formula. Sibling correlation estimates from coresident samples preserve the correct cross-country ranking 90%–95% times. Our findings have far-reaching implications for researchers working on intergenerational mobility.
{"title":"Making the most of coresident data: Credible evidence on intergenerational mobility with sibling correlation","authors":"Md. Nazmul Ahsan , M. Shahe Emran , Hanchen Jiang , Forhad Shilpi","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103508","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103508","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many available data sets are not used for estimating intergenerational mobility owing to concerns about sample truncation bias in coresident data. Using data from Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Mexico, we report the first evidence that the bias in estimated sibling correlation, a broad measure of relative mobility, is small in coresident samples (4.30%), much smaller than that in intergenerational regression coefficient (10.25%). The low bias reflects offsetting effects of sample truncation on the numerator and denominator of the sibling correlation formula. Sibling correlation estimates from coresident samples preserve the correct cross-country ranking 90%–95% times. Our findings have far-reaching implications for researchers working on intergenerational mobility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103508"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143851431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-12DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103510
Jason Garred , Song Yuan
Rising global political tensions and increasing use of trade policies are popularly seen as potential threats to globalization. Will these factors lead to the ‘decoupling’ of affected economies, or reshape relations between trade partners in more complex ways? We consider this question by studying the recent evolution of the economic relationship between China and the US, in the context of a sharp fall in direct China-US trade. Using firm-level and product-level data, we show that Chinese manufacturing investment and Chinese-produced parts have increasingly flowed to third-country ‘winners’ who have simultaneously increased their US market share. This suggests that Chinese economic actors have continued to participate in reorganized China-US supply chains. We present evidence that our findings capture expanding indirect relationships linking China and the US rather than broader economic trends within the ‘winners’ themselves.
{"title":"Relocation from China (with Chinese characteristics)","authors":"Jason Garred , Song Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103510","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103510","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rising global political tensions and increasing use of trade policies are popularly seen as potential threats to globalization. Will these factors lead to the ‘decoupling’ of affected economies, or reshape relations between trade partners in more complex ways? We consider this question by studying the recent evolution of the economic relationship between China and the US, in the context of a sharp fall in direct China-US trade. Using firm-level and product-level data, we show that Chinese manufacturing investment and Chinese-produced parts have increasingly flowed to third-country ‘winners’ who have simultaneously increased their US market share. This suggests that Chinese economic actors have continued to participate in reorganized China-US supply chains. We present evidence that our findings capture expanding indirect relationships linking China and the US rather than broader economic trends within the ‘winners’ themselves.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103510"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143842833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-12DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103511
Emma Riley , Abu S. Shonchoy , Robert Darko Osei
How can we encourage the adoption of digital financial services? We use an RCT with 115 microfinance groups in Ghana to understand the respective roles of individual incentives to adopt a technology and endorsement of the technology by a peer. We study mobile banking services, a technology which allows deposits and withdrawals between a mobile phone and bank account, dramatically lowering the transaction costs of saving in the bank account. We find that while individual incentives increase adoption of mobile banking services by 60% (6 percentage points) over 6 months, adding endorsement by a peer doubles the impact of the incentives alone. Peer endorsement significantly enhances confidence in dealing with fraud and increases peer support in using mobile banking. Those encouraged to adopt mobile banking by a peer save 30% ($4) more in the linked bank account 6 months later. Our study highlights the power of peers in encouraging technology adoption and facilitating formal financial inclusion.
{"title":"Incentives and endorsement for technology adoption: Evidence from mobile banking in Ghana","authors":"Emma Riley , Abu S. Shonchoy , Robert Darko Osei","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103511","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103511","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How can we encourage the adoption of digital financial services? We use an RCT with 115 microfinance groups in Ghana to understand the respective roles of individual incentives to adopt a technology and endorsement of the technology by a peer. We study mobile banking services, a technology which allows deposits and withdrawals between a mobile phone and bank account, dramatically lowering the transaction costs of saving in the bank account. We find that while individual incentives increase adoption of mobile banking services by 60% (6 percentage points) over 6 months, adding endorsement by a peer doubles the impact of the incentives alone. Peer endorsement significantly enhances confidence in dealing with fraud and increases peer support in using mobile banking. Those encouraged to adopt mobile banking by a peer save 30% ($4) more in the linked bank account 6 months later. Our study highlights the power of peers in encouraging technology adoption and facilitating formal financial inclusion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103511"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143850824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-08DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103505
Simone Bertoli, Melchior Clerc, Jordan Loper, Èric Roca Fernández
The epidemiological approach in comparative development uses data on individuals of immigrant origin to study cultural persistence, the determinants of cultural norms, and the effects of genetic traits. A common assumption of this methodology is its susceptibility to attenuation bias. We challenge it by demonstrating how the increasing reliance on foreign ancestries to identify respondents’ origins can introduce confounding biases. Specifically, self-selection in reporting foreign ancestry and unobserved variation in ancestral migration timing may lead to inflated estimates. We formalize these mechanisms through a theoretical framework and illustrate their empirical significance by reassessing key findings from influential studies by Fernández and Fogli (2006) and Giuliano and Nunn (2021).
{"title":"Migration and the epidemiological approach: Time and self-selection into foreign ancestries matter","authors":"Simone Bertoli, Melchior Clerc, Jordan Loper, Èric Roca Fernández","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103505","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103505","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The epidemiological approach in comparative development uses data on individuals of immigrant origin to study cultural persistence, the determinants of cultural norms, and the effects of genetic traits. A common assumption of this methodology is its susceptibility to attenuation bias. We challenge it by demonstrating how the increasing reliance on foreign ancestries to identify respondents’ origins can introduce confounding biases. Specifically, self-selection in reporting foreign ancestry and unobserved variation in ancestral migration timing may lead to inflated estimates. We formalize these mechanisms through a theoretical framework and illustrate their empirical significance by reassessing key findings from influential studies by Fernández and Fogli (2006) and Giuliano and Nunn (2021).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103505"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143839290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-08DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103502
JaeBin Ahn , Jaerim Choi , Sunghoon Chung
An unprecedented regime change following the 2017 presidential impeachment led to a dramatic shift to more rigid labor market policies in the Republic of Korea, represented by consecutive double-digit hikes in the minimum wage in the next two years. Using a firm-level data set with detailed information about foreign affiliates over the period of 201319, this paper assesses the employment consequences of stricter labor market regulations. The empirical evidence uncovers an underexplored mechanism through which domestic labor market rigidity can reduce domestic employment as multinational firms with flexible internal networks reallocate production tasks across borders.
{"title":"Labor market rigidity at home and multinational corporations’ flexible production reallocation abroad","authors":"JaeBin Ahn , Jaerim Choi , Sunghoon Chung","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103502","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103502","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An unprecedented regime change following the 2017 presidential impeachment led to a dramatic shift to more rigid labor market policies in the Republic of Korea, represented by consecutive double-digit hikes in the minimum wage in the next two years. Using a firm-level data set with detailed information about foreign affiliates over the period of 2013<span><math><mo>∼</mo></math></span>19, this paper assesses the employment consequences of stricter labor market regulations. The empirical evidence uncovers an underexplored mechanism through which domestic labor market rigidity can reduce domestic employment as multinational firms with flexible internal networks reallocate production tasks across borders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103502"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143800467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Solar technologies have been associated with private and social returns, but their technological potential often remains unachieved because of persistently low demand for high-quality products. In a randomized field experiment in Senegal, we assess the potential of three types of quality signaling to increase demand for high-quality solar lamps. We find no effect on demand when consumers are offered a money-back guarantee but increased demand with a third-party certification or warranty, consistent with the notion that consumers are uncertain about product durability rather than their utility. However, despite the higher willingness to pay, the prices they would pay are still well below market prices for the average household, suggesting that reducing information asymmetries alone is insufficient to encourage wider adoption. Surprisingly, we also find that the effective quality signals in our setting stimulate demand for low-quality products by creating product-class effects among those least familiar with the product.
{"title":"Quality signaling and demand for renewable energy technology: Evidence from a randomized field experiment","authors":"Aidan Coville , Joshua Graff Zivin , Arndt Reichert , Ann-Kristin Reitmann","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103514","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103514","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Solar technologies have been associated with private and social returns, but their technological potential often remains unachieved because of persistently low demand for high-quality products. In a randomized field experiment in Senegal, we assess the potential of three types of quality signaling to increase demand for high-quality solar lamps. We find no effect on demand when consumers are offered a money-back guarantee but increased demand with a third-party certification or warranty, consistent with the notion that consumers are uncertain about product durability rather than their utility. However, despite the higher willingness to pay, the prices they would pay are still well below market prices for the average household, suggesting that reducing information asymmetries alone is insufficient to encourage wider adoption. Surprisingly, we also find that the effective quality signals in our setting stimulate demand for low-quality products by creating product-class effects among those least familiar with the product.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103514"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143824283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-07DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103513
Jie-Sheng Tan-Soo , Mingda Cheng , Shuai Chen
This study evaluates the labor supply implications of China's Dibao program, one of the largest means-tested cash transfer initiatives globally. Leveraging its unique payment structure, which ensures a smooth income transition at the eligibility threshold, we employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to identify causal effects on employment outcomes. Despite the program's design to minimize disincentives, we find that Dibao beneficiaries are 46.2 % less likely to be employed after enrollment, with effects primarily driven by vulnerable groups, including the elderly and individuals with low educational attainment. Further analysis reveals significant labor supply reductions among low-income-contributing household members, while higher-income members remain unaffected. Our findings contribute to the discourse on cash transfers by highlighting how program design can balance social protection with labor market efficiency, offering insights for policymakers seeking to mitigate work disincentives while ensuring support for vulnerable populations.
{"title":"Evaluating the labor supply implications of a cash transfer program: Evidence from China","authors":"Jie-Sheng Tan-Soo , Mingda Cheng , Shuai Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103513","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103513","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study evaluates the labor supply implications of China's <em>Dibao</em> program, one of the largest means-tested cash transfer initiatives globally. Leveraging its unique payment structure, which ensures a smooth income transition at the eligibility threshold, we employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to identify causal effects on employment outcomes. Despite the program's design to minimize disincentives, we find that <em>Dibao</em> beneficiaries are 46.2 % less likely to be employed after enrollment, with effects primarily driven by vulnerable groups, including the elderly and individuals with low educational attainment. Further analysis reveals significant labor supply reductions among low-income-contributing household members, while higher-income members remain unaffected. Our findings contribute to the discourse on cash transfers by highlighting how program design can balance social protection with labor market efficiency, offering insights for policymakers seeking to mitigate work disincentives while ensuring support for vulnerable populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103513"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143864285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-05DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103506
Alexandra M. de Pleijt , Ewout Frankema
Since 1970, Southeast Asia’s per capita GDP grew seven-fold and headcount poverty rates declined from ca. 70 to 5%. This paper explores the 20th century schooling revolution as one of the deeper roots of this major leap in human prosperity. Using micro-data on the educational attainment and migration status of ca. 123 million individuals, subdivided across 277 provinces in eight Southeast Asian countries, we establish a strong and significant relationship between early educational attainment and sub-national economic development at the start of the 21st century. Using a wide range of historical and geographic controls, we find that higher education shares are more strongly associated with regional development outcomes than mass education. We also find a strong and robust contribution of inter-regional and international migration to human capital accumulation and long-term development.
{"title":"The deeper roots of human capital formation and economic development in Southeast Asia, 1900–2000","authors":"Alexandra M. de Pleijt , Ewout Frankema","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103506","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103506","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since 1970, Southeast Asia’s per capita GDP grew seven-fold and headcount poverty rates declined from ca. 70 to 5%. This paper explores the 20th century schooling revolution as one of the deeper roots of this major leap in human prosperity. Using micro-data on the educational attainment and migration status of ca. 123 million individuals, subdivided across 277 provinces in eight Southeast Asian countries, we establish a strong and significant relationship between early educational attainment and sub-national economic development at the start of the 21st century. Using a wide range of historical and geographic controls, we find that higher education shares are more strongly associated with regional development outcomes than mass education. We also find a strong and robust contribution of inter-regional and international migration to human capital accumulation and long-term development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 103506"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143864239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号