Knowledge that Transforms

Abstract We assess the effect of the built environment on low-cost helping behavior toward neighbors. The setting is households in Shanghai, China that, due to rapid development, were involuntarily, i.e. as good as randomly, relocated to different building structures. Using a natural field experiment of misdelivered mail, we test the causal effect of spatial proximity and the built environment on helping behavior. Living one floor apart reduces the willingness to help a neighbor by 16 percentage points, similar to adding one more apartment per floor. Small spatial barriers can profoundly shape social interactions, and helping behavior, in urban settings.

Abstract Platform-based information sharing among competing firms presents challenges for antitrust authorities, yet effective remedies remain unclear. Drawing inspiration from the Informed Sources retail gasoline antitrust case, we develop a theoretical model that offers policy guidance for disrupting anticompetitive coordination facilitated through price-sharing platforms. Removing only one firm from a platform may be ineffective for disrupting such coordination. However, competitive benefits can emerge if (i) at least two firms lack platform access, and (ii) the costs of price leadership are sufficiently high. More broadly, coordinating price increases becomes more difficult when multiple firms cannot quickly observe or respond to rivals' prices.

Abstract Dispersion in marginal revenue products of capital (MRPK) across firms may lower aggregate productivity through misallocation. Using firm-level panel data from China, I document that MRPK dispersion decreases substantially with firm age, particularly before age five. Building on this novel fact, I propose a new interpretation of MRPK dispersion as resulting from firm life-cycle learning. To formalize this idea, I develop a quantitative model in which firms learn about their fundamental productivity as they age in a frictional market with endogenous exits. I find that omitting learning can result in considerable overestimation of TFP losses from "distortions" .

Abstract Adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa face high rates of intimate partner violence (IPV). This paper evaluates the impact of offering adolescent females a goal-setting inter- vention to improve sexual and reproductive health and offering their male partners a soccer-based intervention, which educates and inspires young men to make better sexual and reproductive health choices. Both interventions significantly reduce female reports of IPV. The soccer intervention improves male attitudes around violence and risky sexual behaviors. Females in the goal setting arm take control of their sexual and reproductive health by exiting violent relationships. Both mechanisms drive reductions in IPV.

Abstract The presence of pricing power in housing markets significantly impacts our understanding of the housing supply. It biases estimates of housing production functions, supply elasticities, the effects of land-use policies, and the results of quantitative spatial models. We test for the existence of pricing power in the New York City rental market. Using tax policy changes, we conduct complementary difference-in-differences and instrumental variable analyses. An idiosyncratic increase in a single building's costs leads to a proportional rent increase, holding market-level rents constant. Our findings support the existence of pricing power and challenge the prevailing perfect competition framework.

Abstract This study analyzes how multinational enterprises (MNEs) influence corporate labor share in their home countries, using the 2011 Thailand Floods as a natural experiment. Flood-related disruptions to Thai subsidiaries of Japanese MNEs generated a negative foreign productivity shock that raised labor share in Japan. We interpret this pattern using a model with international factor substitution and estimate the elasticity of substitution between domestic labor and foreign inputs using an instrument based on flood exposure. The estimated model quantifies the long-run e!ect of Thai productivity growth on Japan's labor share, indicating that expanding global production networks can shift labor–capital balances.

Abstract As the financial system expands to new clients and services, countries are promoting financial education, with unknown long-run returns. In 2011, we studied the short-run impact of a comprehensive financial education program through a randomized controlled trial with 892 high schools in Brazil. This paper uses administrative data for 16,000 students over the next nine years to measure the program's long-term impact. We find that treatment students are less likely to borrow from expensive sources or to make delayed loan repayments than control students. The program also caused students to shift from formal jobs to microenterprise ownership.

Abstract Using inflation and growth forecasts for a panel of emerging and advanced economies, we provide evidence that foreign forecasters publish and update their forecasts less frequently than local forecasters and make larger errors. We provide tests that identify differences in information frictions across groups and show that the lower accuracy of foreigners is not due to more irrational expectations, but to less precise information. This informational advantage is linked both to barriers to information and to incentives and is typically stronger when uncertainty is lower. These results provide a basis for disciplining international finance and trade models with heterogeneous information.

Abstract Does mining activity lead to deforestation? How does investor origin affect the environmental impacts of mining operations? We investigate these questions by estimating the causal impact of mineral price changes on deforestation near mining sites. Combining global mine propertylevel data with high-resolution satellite imagery on forest cover, we find a positive elasticity of deforestation to mineral price shocks. This elasticity is significantly lower when mine owners are from countries with higher income or better institutions, but it is not affected by host country characteristics. Evidence suggests that mine owners from higher-income countries induce different types of local economic activity.

Abstract Americans with more education vote more, but we know little about whether this effect on civic participation arises from educational quality or quantity. Using admissions lotteries at Boston charter schools, we find that charter attendance boosts voter participation, substantially increasing voting in the first presidential election after a student turns 18 by six percentage points from a baseline of 35 percent. This effect operates through increased turnout, as there is no increase in registration. Rich data enable us to explore multiple potential channels of this voting impact. Our evidence suggests that charters increase voting by increasing noncognitive skills.