Month: December 2014

CSWEP Junior Economists Mentoring Breaksfasts

It’s almost that time again. The ASSAs are fast upon us and while I haven’t been quite as attuned to the job market this year, I’m surely going to attend the meetings when they are in a place I have free paid for place to stay (my apartment, that is). With that, I’d also like to call your attention to the third annual mentoring breakfasts for women put on by CSWEP. Details below. I’ll hopefully be there on Monday. Hope to see some of you there!

Also worth noting. There’s a mid-career peer mentoring breakfast on Sunday this year, too.

Spaces Available for CSWEP’s Mentoring Breakfasts for Junior Economists

Two Sessions: Saturday, January 3rd & Monday, January 5th

8:00-10:0AM, Sheraton Boston, Fairfax A& B

For more info and to register, visit: http://bit.ly/1y9v8yC. 

CSWEP is pleased to host the third annual mentoring breakfasts for junior economists from 8-10AM on Saturday, January 3rd & Monday, January 5th in the Sheraton Boston, Fairfax A&B.  At these informal meet and greet events, senior economists (predominately senior women) will be on hand to provide mentoring and networking opportunities.

Junior economists are invited to drop in with questions on topics such as publishing, teaching, grant writing, networking, job search, career paths, and the tenure process.  For the 2015 breakfasts we will encourage rotation of mentees so that they may have the opportunity to connect with a greater number of mentors.

Mentors are currently committed from Agnes Scott, Brown, BU, Colgate, Columbia, Duke, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, George Mason, Georgetown, Illinois, Indiana, MacArthur Foundation, Maryland, Missouri-St. Louis, Occidental, Princeton, Providence College, UCBerkeley, UCLA, UNC- Chapel Hill, University of Texas, UPenn, USM, and Virginia.

Junior economists who have completed their PhD in the past 6 years or graduate students who are on the job market are particularly encouraged to attend.  The event is open to both males and females.

Agricultural technology adoption and persistence

A new paper (gated) by Michael Carter, Rachid Laagja and Dean Yang shows, using a randomized fertilizer subsidy, that reducing costs increases adoption, but also, somewhat in opposition to previous research and importantly, that adoption is persistent into the following season.

First, we provide one of the 􏰄first randomized controlled trials of the impact of an input subsidy program, and the 􏰄first to measure impacts on a range of important household outcomes beyond fertilizer use itself. The only previous study using randomized methods is Dufl􏰅o et al. (2011), who estimate impacts of fertilizer subsidies on fertilizer use alone (in rural Kenya). We show positive impacts of input subsidies (in Mozambique) on a range of outcomes beyond input use, including farm output, household consumption, assets, and housing quality.

Second, we 􏰄find positive e􏰃ffects of input subsidies that persist up to two annual agricultural seasons beyond the season in which the subsidies were off􏰃ered. This result contrasts with Du􏰅flo et al. (2011), who 􏰄find no persistent impact of either 􏰀heavy􏰁 (50%) subsidies for fertilizer or the 􏰀well-timed nudge􏰁 of o􏰃ffering free delivery at the time of the previous harvest. Both treatments raise fertilizer use in the season they are provided, but impacts are very close to zero and not statistically signi􏰄ficantly di􏰃fferent from zero in the next season.

Having spent a lot of time lately with a friend writing a book on fertilizer and the apparent failure to launch of Africa’s Green Revolution, my thoughts immediately go to whether the fertilizer available on the market is real and how perceptions of fake fertilizer are affecting the decisions of farmers to continue (or not) using fertilizer in their fields.

Luckily, a few people are looking into this and maybe we’ll have some answers soon.