The NBER Summer Institute’s Development Economics meeting, 27–28 July 2026, organised by Vittorio Bassi, Jing Cai, Eric Edmonds, Frederico Finan, Douglas Gollin, Seema Jayachandran, Melanie Morten and Sandip Sukhtankar. Eighteen papers over two days, including two three-paper lightning rounds and Dilip Mookherjee’s invited lecture opening day two. NBER Development runs without discussants — questions are interleaved through each talk.
Day 1 · Monday 27 July
- Public and Private Transit: Evidence from Lagos development · urban · transport
- Risk Aversion and Barriers to Firm Growth: Experimental Evidence from Small Retailers development · firms · risk
- Economic and Psychological Returns to Social Relationships: Alleviating Constraints to Network Formation in Malawi development · networks · mental health
- Activation of Ethnic Tensions: Resettlement, Diversity, and Conflict in the Long Run development · conflict · ethnicity
- The Limits of Government Outsourcing: Property Tax Re-Assessments in India development · state capacity · taxation
- Micro-enterprise Saturation: Critical Mass or Overcrowding? development · microenterprise · scaling
- Screening Women Out? Pay Transparency in Job Postings development · labour · gender
- Beliefs Over Contracts development · contracts · firms
- Relational Frictions Along the Supply Chain: Evidence from Senegalese Traders development · trade · relational contracts
Day 2 · Tuesday 28 July
- Intermediaries and Supply Chain Distortions development · agriculture · market power
- When Competition Compels Change: Trade, Management, and Productivity development · trade · management
- Managers and Offices: Location-Based Determinants of Bureaucratic Effectiveness in India development · bureaucracy · state capacity
- Activating Parental Managerial Capital: How Role Clarity Improves Education Outcomes development · education · management
- Menstrual Stigma and Human Capital: Experimental Evidence from Madagascar development · education · gender
- Open Dumps and the Global Trade in Garbage development · environment · trade
- Startups in Africa development · entrepreneurship · finance
- Liquidity Constraints and Capital Allocation in Agriculture: Theory and Evidence from Uganda development · agriculture · credit
- Green Subsidies with Demand Distortions development · environment · energy