Research

We study the impact of a large-scale school construction program, the District Primary Education Program (DPEP), on female education and marriage market outcomes in India. Using data from the District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS) and the Indian Census, we employ an event-study framework that exploits variation in DPEP exposure across districts and birth cohorts. Exposure raised educational attainment at both the extensive and intensive margins, with gains for women roughly twice those for men. These gains carry over to the marriage market: exposed women marry and have a first birth later and marry husbands closer to them in both age and education, and their children receive more prenatal and delivery care. Combining the reduced-form estimates with the marital sorting framework of Choo and Siow (2006), we find higher marital gains in exposed districts among couples with some education but not among couples with none, which suggests that DPEP raised the marital return to education.

This paper examines the impacts of the 2008 Great Recession on global value chains (GVCs) using a unified framework that employs input-output analysis based on the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) from 2003 to 2014. We focus on the US production network’s role within the world economy through both final and intermediate trade. In particular, we examine: (i) the backward linkage effect (BLE), which analyzes responses to shifts in US final demand across various countries, and (ii) the forward linkage effect (FLE), which explores how changes in each of US primary inputs (capital and labor) influence global supply chains. The analysis includes a division of the global trade network into eight regions and examines 15 manufacturing sectors across three distinct periods: pre-Recession, during-Recession, and post-Recession. The finding suggests significant reshufflings within the GVC, particularly with stable US exports to and increasing imports from Emerging Asia, and a broad shift in trade dynamics from North and Rest of South regions to Developed and Emerging Asia. The BLE is identified as a crucial driver but its role has been rising in some regions/industries but collapsing in others, varying from pre- to post-recession eras. The FLE is found with limited impact and its role has been more noticeable via the capital channel.

We use the 2011 Fukushima disaster as a natural experiment to study how an exogenous shock to nuclear risk perception shapes public attitudes toward nuclear power and willingness to pay (WTP) for non-nuclear alternatives in Taiwan. Combining five surveys conducted between 1992 and 2017, we estimate attitudes toward Taiwan’s fourth nuclear power plant with an ordered probit model and WTP with the contingent valuation method. Respondents surveyed after the disaster were substantially more likely than those surveyed before it to oppose operating the plant, and higher risk perception predicts stronger support for non-nuclear alternatives. Using variation in proximity to existing plants, we find no not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) effect. The shock raised opposition across the island and narrowed the gap between the Taipei area and other regions. WTP falls with the bid amount and depends more on attitudes than on risk perception, while monthly electricity bills play no significant role.