Bansi Malde
Biographic Data
| ID | 1104275 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bansi Malde |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bansi |
| FAMILY NAME | Malde |
| SIGNATURE | MALDE B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute for Fiscal Studies |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1323-3383 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 6 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
To invest or not to invest in sanitation
We exploit novel data collected within a randomized controlled trial of a sanitation microcredit intervention to study how intra-household gender differences in perceptions of costs and benefits of sanitation impact investment decisions. We show that – as long as the wife is involved in household decision-making – the intra-household differences in perceptions we document influence borrowing and investments: uptake of the sanitation loan is highe…
Labeled loans and human capital investments
Imperfect capital markets and commitment problems impede lumpy human capital investments. Labeled loans have been postulated as a potential solution to both constraints, but little is known about the role of the label in influencing investment choices in practice. We draw on a cluster randomized controlled trial in rural India to test predictions from a theoretical model, providing novel evidence that labeled microcredit is effective in influenci…
Spillovers of Community-Based Health Interventions on Consumption Smoothing
Community-based group interventions are a cost-effective way of delivering programs in low-income settings. Design features may influence behaviors beyond those targeted by the intervention. This paper studies spillover effects of a participatory community health intervention in rural Malawi, implemented through a cluster randomized control trial, on an untargeted outcome: consumption smoothing after crop losses. While crop losses reduce consumpt…
Group Size and the Efficiency of Informal Risk Sharing
This paper studies the relationship between group size and informal risk sharing. It shows that under limited commitment with coalitional deviations, this relationship is theoretically ambiguous. It investigates this question empirically using data on sibship size of household heads and spouses from rural Malawi, exploiting a social norm among the main sample ethnic group to define the potential risk sharing group. We uncover evidence of worse ri…
Nutrition, information and household behavior
Incorrect knowledge of the health production function may lead to inefficient household choices and thereby to the production of suboptimal levels of health. This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi that, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources. A simple model first investigates theoretically how nutrition …
Empirically probing the quantity–quality model
Nutrition, information and household behavior
Incorrect knowledge of the health production function may lead to inefficient household choices and thereby to the production of suboptimal levels of health. This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi that, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources. A simple model first investigates theoretically how nutrition …
Empirically probing the quantity–quality model
To invest or not to invest in sanitation
We exploit novel data collected within a randomized controlled trial of a sanitation microcredit intervention to study how intra-household gender differences in perceptions of costs and benefits of sanitation impact investment decisions. We show that – as long as the wife is involved in household decision-making – the intra-household differences in perceptions we document influence borrowing and investments: uptake of the sanitation loan is highe…
Labeled loans and human capital investments
Imperfect capital markets and commitment problems impede lumpy human capital investments. Labeled loans have been postulated as a potential solution to both constraints, but little is known about the role of the label in influencing investment choices in practice. We draw on a cluster randomized controlled trial in rural India to test predictions from a theoretical model, providing novel evidence that labeled microcredit is effective in influenci…
Group Size and the Efficiency of Informal Risk Sharing
This paper studies the relationship between group size and informal risk sharing. It shows that under limited commitment with coalitional deviations, this relationship is theoretically ambiguous. It investigates this question empirically using data on sibship size of household heads and spouses from rural Malawi, exploiting a social norm among the main sample ethnic group to define the potential risk sharing group. We uncover evidence of worse ri…
Empirically probing the quantity–quality model
Nutrition, information and household behavior
Incorrect knowledge of the health production function may lead to inefficient household choices and thereby to the production of suboptimal levels of health. This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi that, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources. A simple model first investigates theoretically how nutrition …
Group Size and the Efficiency of Informal Risk Sharing
This paper studies the relationship between group size and informal risk sharing. It shows that under limited commitment with coalitional deviations, this relationship is theoretically ambiguous. It investigates this question empirically using data on sibship size of household heads and spouses from rural Malawi, exploiting a social norm among the main sample ethnic group to define the potential risk sharing group. We uncover evidence of worse ri…
Spillovers of Community-Based Health Interventions on Consumption Smoothing
Community-based group interventions are a cost-effective way of delivering programs in low-income settings. Design features may influence behaviors beyond those targeted by the intervention. This paper studies spillover effects of a participatory community health intervention in rural Malawi, implemented through a cluster randomized control trial, on an untargeted outcome: consumption smoothing after crop losses. While crop losses reduce consumpt…
To invest or not to invest in sanitation
We exploit novel data collected within a randomized controlled trial of a sanitation microcredit intervention to study how intra-household gender differences in perceptions of costs and benefits of sanitation impact investment decisions. We show that – as long as the wife is involved in household decision-making – the intra-household differences in perceptions we document influence borrowing and investments: uptake of the sanitation loan is highe…
Labeled loans and human capital investments
Imperfect capital markets and commitment problems impede lumpy human capital investments. Labeled loans have been postulated as a potential solution to both constraints, but little is known about the role of the label in influencing investment choices in practice. We draw on a cluster randomized controlled trial in rural India to test predictions from a theoretical model, providing novel evidence that labeled microcredit is effective in influenci…
Economics (6 works) · Microeconomics (5 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (5 works) · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion (4 works) · Business (3 works) · Agricultural risk and resilience (2 works) · Demographic economics (2 works) · Econometrics (2 works) · Economic growth (2 works) · Finance (2 works)