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Research Briefs·Oct 10, 2024

On the Origins of Direct Rule: Armed Groups and Customary Chiefs in Eastern Congo • Social Origins of Militias: The Extraordinary Rise of “Outraged Citizens” • Seeing like a Citizen: Experimental Evidence on How Empowerment Affects Engagement with the State

Soeren J. Henn, Gauthier Marchais, Christian Mastaki Mugaruka, Laura Paler, Wilson Prichard, Cyrus Samii, Raul Sanchez de la Sierra, and David Qihang Wu
In recent decades, civil unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including armed rebellion that threatens to expand regionally, has raised numerous challenges for the state and its citizens, from how a weakened state can effectively manage security and...
Research Briefs·Oct 10, 2024

Social Signaling and Childhood Immunization: A Field Experiment in Sierra Leone

Anne Karing
This study tests whether social signaling can positively influence parents’ vaccination decisions in Sierra Leone. Giving children color-coded bracelets that indicate their vaccination status increases parents’ belief in the visibility of their actions and their knowledge of other children’s vaccine...
Research Briefs·Oct 2, 2024

Moving to Opportunity, Together

Seema Jayachandran, Lea Nassal, Matthew J. Notowidigdo, Marie Paul, Heather Sarsons, and Elin Sundberg
When heterosexual couples in Germany and Sweden relocate, men’s earnings increase by 5-10%, while women’s do not change. Couples are more likely to relocate when the man, rather than the woman, is laid off. These gaps appear at least in...
Topics: Employment & Wages
Research Briefs·Oct 1, 2024

Why Do Workers Dislike Inflation? Wage Erosion and Conflict Costs

Joao Guerreiro, Jonathon Hazell, Chen Lian, and Christina Patterson
Why do people hate inflation? Employers do not automatically give workers raises when inflation is high. Instead, workers have to fight for raises, leading to conflict with employers. Accounting for this conflict meaningfully changes the costs of inflation to workers.
Research Briefs·Sep 27, 2024

Toward an Understanding of the Economics of Prosumers: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

John List, Ioannis C. Pragidis, and Michael K. Price
Nudging energy prosumers to conserve via a home energy report reduces their energy consumption, with significant variation across seasons and times of day. This suggests that prosumers both shift their energy use away from peak hours and conserve overall.
Topics: Energy & Environment
Research Briefs·Sep 25, 2024

Investing in Vaccines to Mitigate Harm from COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

Rachel Glennerster, Catherine Che, Sarrin Chethik, Claire McMahon, and Christopher M. Snyder
During pandemics, rapid vaccination can significantly reduce mortality, economic losses, and societal disruptions. Vaccine manufacturers often lack incentives to expand their speed and capacity, however. This market failure can be addressed with strategic policies that realign incentives both during and...
Topics: Health care
Research Briefs·Sep 13, 2024

The Evolution of Black-White Differences in Occupational Mobility Across Post-Civil War America

Steven Durlauf, Gueyon Kim, Dohyeon Lee, and Xi Song
Black men born between 1940 and 1950 played an outsized role in narrowing occupational disparities between Black and White men and determining today’s distribution of jobs. This momentum dissipated in later cohorts, however, and today’s disparities in occupational mobility are...
Research Briefs·Sep 12, 2024

Movements in Yields, not the Equity Premium: Bernanke-Kuttner Redux

Stefan Nagel and Zhengyang Xu
The stock market reacts to monetary policy surprises mainly because of changes in the default-free yield curve, rather than changes in the equity premium.
Research Briefs·Sep 11, 2024

Global Hegemony and Exorbitant Privilege

Carolin Pflueger and Pierre Yared
The United States’ position as the global hegemon endows it with an “exorbitant privilege”: It can borrow cheaply from the rest of the world. This global source of funding can support investment in its military, which further solidifies its hegemonic...
Research Briefs·Sep 11, 2024

Anti-Social Norms

Leopoldo Fergusson, José-Alberto Guerra, and James Robinson
The mere possibility of invoking Colombia’s “don’t be a toad” social norm, which tells people to mind their own business, increases deviation from fair social outcomes. Even though most people disapprove of the norm, they expect the majority to invoke...