Princeton Research Program in Development Economics

rpde.princeton.edu/rpde-%E2%80%...

🚨🚨 Pre-doc Hiring! 🚨🚨

We are hiring pre-docs to start in Princeton in Summer 2026, supporting Pascaline Dupas, @thomasfujiwara.bsky.social @seema.bsky.social and Mica Sviatschi. This is a great opportunity to gain experience in development economics research before applying to PhD programs. Link 👇

A conversation with RPDE Visiting Professor Jessica Goldberg: Surprised to return to Princeton after a two decade hiatus Note: This interview is the third in our series interviewing RPDE’s visitors. See the first with visiting faculty Eric Verhoogen here and the second with visiting postdoc Miguel Ortiz here.Before we w...

rpde.princeton.edu/news/2025/co...

We sat down with Jessica Goldberg (RPDE Spring '25 visiting faculty from UMD) this summer to pick her brain.

Learn about the surprising journey that brought her back to Princeton 20 years after finishing her MPA.

👇 Link below in comments 👇

A conversation with RPDE Postdoctoral Research Associate Miguel Ortiz: Understanding the economics of conflict, producing a radio drama, and more Note: This interview is the second in our series interviewing RPDE’s visitors. See the first with Eric Verhoogen here. Check back for our third with Jessica Goldberg soon.Before we welcome in an excit...

rpde.princeton.edu/news/2025/co...

Check out our conversation with Miguel Ortiz, who visited us this year as a Postdoc after his PhD at UC Berkeley, starting at @ubcvse.bsky.social this fall.

Learn about the economics of conflict & how an dissertation involved producing a 24 episode radio drama. Link in comments

🚨 We're hiring! | Tejal Johri 🚨 We're hiring! 🚨 📢 Professors Seema Jayachandran, Rebecca Dizon-Ross and Isabelle Cohen, as well as predoc researcher Fiker Girma Negash, are looking for a Senior Field Research Associate to join o...

www.linkedin.com/posts/tejal-...

🚨 FIELD JOB OPENING ALERT 🚨: @JohriTejal61310 is hiring a Senior Field Research Associate for a 3-month contract based in Uganda.

See LinkedIn post linked below for more details and to apply!

A conversation with RPDE Visiting Professor Eric Verhoogen: from teacher and union organizer to studying soccer ball manufacturing Summer has meant a lot of changes here at RPDE. As with everyone at Princeton, it has meant bracing for summer heat and saying goodbye to graduating students and those leaving for summer. At RPDE in p...

Check out our conversation with Eric Verhoogen @ericverhoogen.bsky.social, who visited us this past year. Hear about his path from union organizer to development economist, how to optimally tile pentagons when making soccer balls, and more

rpde.princeton.edu/news/2025/co...

I have a new review article w/ Alessandra Voena on women's power in the household in LMICs (just submitted to JEL).

I've written ~6 review articles, and I think this is the best one. We make some useful conceptual points IMO. But you decide! Comments welcome!

seemajayachandran.com/womens_power...

Work with me and my star coauthors (Patrick Agte & Pascaline Dupas) on AI & health! We're recruiting a full-time, Hindi-speaking field research associate to work on our project in Rajasthan. Please share and apply.

jpalsouth.asia/jobsPage?ID=...

#econtwitter #econsky #econra

If interested, details are below on how to participate in tomorrow's World Bank webinar on "Women's Voices and Choices" with RPDE faculty member @seema.bsky.social and others.

And a large thank you to Prof. Karthik Muralidharan for giving an insightful talk on his new book, "Accelerating India's Development" last week leading into the BREAD Conference, @karthik-econ.bsky.social

<More pics in comments>

Thanks for all those who attended and presented at the BREAD Conference hosted by RPDE here in Princeton last week! It was a joy to welcome over 100 development economists to discuss their emerging work over the weekend.

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

BREAD Development Conference LIVE STREAM starting in 10 minutes! Hosted here in Princeton by RPDE. Tune-in today and tomorrow to hear author present some of the most exciting recent DevEcon paper #Economics #Development #Princeton

LINK: princeton.zoom.us/j/93399992221

Faculty Focus: The Economics of Gangs with Prof. Mica Sviatschi (Post 1 of 2) Gang behavior has been a highly salient policy topic in 2025. The economics of gangs, however, is not what first comes to mind for most when they think of economics as a discipline, or gangs as instit...

rpde.princeton.edu/news/2025/fa...

Check out our new Q&A with RPDE Professor Mica Sviatschi on her groundbreaking research on the economics of gangs! Part 1 of 2

<Link to full article below>

Entire Staff Is Fired at Office That Helps Poorer Americans Pay for Heating The move threatens to paralyze the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps to offset high utility bills for roughly 6.2 million people nationwide.

Citing Professor Seema Jayachandran's (@seema.bsky.social) research, @nytimes.com analyzes the potential impact of firing the staff at the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/c...

"2025 Sloan Fellow: Maria Micaela Sviatschi, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Affairs." And image of Sviatschi.

Congratulations to Maria Micaela Sviatschi, recently named a 2025 Sloan Fellow! Sviatschi is a microeconomist who studies how the presence of non-state violence shapes individuals’ lives and well-being.

Learn more about Sviatschi and her work: bit.ly/4bvU7nA

The Cost of the Government’s Attack on Columbia American universities have given the country prosperity and security. The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom endangers all of that.

"Strong, independent academic institutions produce new technologies and insights that catalyze economic growth, save lives, improve well-being, and overcome injustices."

— Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber writes in @theatlantic.com

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

2/6 Breakthrough partnered with J-PAL affiliates @seema.bsky.social and @hyderabadi-chai.bsky.social and coauthor Diva Dhar, who found that the curriculum changed gender attitudes and behaviors for 7th and 8th graders. Boys did more household chores and encouraged their sisters to pursue college.

Our affiliate Pacaline Dupas' research in Ghana finds huge returns to secondary school for girls. You just need to look in the right place: The returns are in the form of better health outcomes (e.g., higher survival rate) for their children.

Subsidising secondary school had transformative impacts.

Female recipients had ~15% fewer unplanned pregnancies, 15% fewer children + significantly delayed age at first childbirth & marriage.

Over time, their offspring’s outcomes improved dramatically ⤵️

Now posted on VoxDev: RPDE's @seema.bsky.social and coauthors summarize their research on Payments for Ecosystem Services in Mexico.

Redesigning the PES contract increased cost-effectiveness 5-fold.

Using the results shown below and others, we estimate that couples in Germany act as if they value women's earnings at 48 cents on the Euro, compared to men's earnings. In Sweden, it's 80 cents on the Euro. Full paper here: bit.ly/MTO-T

Featured in the latest Digest: "Designing Cost-Effective Forest Conservation Programs"
https://www.nber.org/digest/202411/designing-cost-effective-forest-conservation-programs

An intervention within schools in Mozambique aimed at reducing gender-based violence mitigated violence by deterring potential perpetrators and fostering a proactive stance among victims, from Amaral, Garcia-Ramos, Gulesci, Ramos, Ore-Quispe, and Sviatschi https://www.nber.org/papers/w33203

It's a treat to have a paper highlighted in the NBER Digest!

Couples' choices about when to relocate offer a lens into how they value each person's career success. In both Sweden and Germany, they seem to prioritize men's careers, even when the woman has similar earning potential. bit.ly/MTO-T