Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES)

This application concerns research on two different programs, each of which includes theoretical as well as empirical research. I give examples of a first set of projects in the two programs, which will be carried out by myself and eleven different collaborators in the U.S., E...

In this project, I will study how individual and social motives interact to drive individual decisions, a question that has fallen between the cracks of different social-science approaches. I will use a common theoretical framework to approach an important, but badly understoo...

Recently, there have been increasing worries about the future growth prospects in developed countries. The standard measure of technical change, the TFP growth, shows in many countries a slightly decreasing trend since the early 2000s. Moreover, the “Great Recession” has led t...

The traditional approach to measuring economic inequality consists of selecting a measure of real income and representing its distribution using the Lorenz curve or a summary scalar index, such as the Gini. Real income is typically constructed by adjusting nominal income for p...

The aim of this research project is to study how temperature influences economic decision making in an experimental setting. There is an extensive literature documenting a relationship between high temperatures, conflict and poor economic performance (Burke et al 2009, Burke e...

This study is motivated by three observations. First, nearly a fifth of the world population lacks access to electricity. Second, it is estimated that 530 million people in, primarily rural, sub-Saharan Africa will remain off-grid for the next 30 years. Finally, due to slow ex...

In less-developed economies, agriculture employs a large share of the labor force and is responsible for a significant fraction of output, yet is typically characterized by low productivity. A major contributor to low productivity appears to be under investment in...

The physical resources available to mankind are limited by “global boundaries”. The need to phase out fossil fuel is now on the agenda but is in principle just one of many potential limits the world community has to operate within.<...