Ariel Benyishay
Biographic Data
| ID | 1632356 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ariel Benyishay |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ariel |
| FAMILY NAME | Benyishay |
| SIGNATURE | BENYISHAY A |
| AFFILIATIONS | William & Mary |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6159-4592 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Landmine clearance and economic development
The widespread prevalence of unexploded landmines in many countries leads to thousands of deaths and injuries annually. In addition, landmines may block transport corridors – restricting the flow of goods and people – and prevent the productive use of contaminated land. We study the clearance of more than 15,000 hazardous areas in Afghanistan over the past several decades, obtaining precise geographic boundaries for these areas. We use multispect…
Rebuilding Irrigation Infrastructure and Institutions
We study the rebuilding of irrigation infrastructure and associations in a postconflict setting, where conflict risks, corruption, and farmer uncertainty can undermine such efforts. To do so, we use satellite measures of crop greenness in the catchment areas around 80 canals and spatiotemporal variation in their rehabilitation. We find sizable gains due to the rebuilding efforts, equal to a 25% improvement in wheat yields. Gains are particularly …
Testing multi‐stakeholder dialogue for better local governance in Niger
The economic efficiency of aid targeting
How efficient is the targeting of foreign aid to populations in need? A long literature has focused on the impacts of foreign aid, but much rarer are studies that examine how such aid is allocated within countries. We examine the extent to which donors efficiently respond to exogenous budget shocks by shifting resources toward needier districts within a given country, as predicted by theory. We use recently geocoded data on the World Bank’s aid i…
Can Network Theory-Based Targeting Increase Technology Adoption?
Can targeting information to network-central farmers induce more adoption of a new agricultural technology? By combining social network data and a field experiment in 200 villages in Malawi, we find that targeting central farmers is important to spur the diffusion process. We also provide evidence of one explanation for why centrality matters: a diffusion process governed by complex contagion. Our results are consistent with a model in which many…
Impacts of a large-scale titling initiative on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
Influence of land tenure interventions on human well-being and environmental outcomes
Social Learning and Incentives for Experimentation and Communication
Low adoption of agricultural technologies holds large productivity consequences for developing countries. Many countries hire agricultural extension agents to communicate with farmers about new technologies, even though a large academic literature has established that information from social networks is a key determinant of product adoption. We incorporate social learning in extension policy using a large-scale field experiment in which we commun…
Gender gaps in technology diffusion
The fish is the friend of matriliny
Crime and Microenterprise Growth
Informational Barriers to Credit for Migrants
Does being a migrant in a developing country cause an individual to receive less access to credit? Migrant status can be a useful signal for lenders in settings with weak contract enforcement and in the absence of well-developed information markets. I investigate this contract enforcement–based explanation using data on households that have migrated within Guatemala. To address reverse causality and omitted variable issues, I adopt an instrumenta…
Influence of land tenure interventions on human well-being and environmental outcomes
Impacts of a large-scale titling initiative on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
Crime and Microenterprise Growth
Gender gaps in technology diffusion
The fish is the friend of matriliny
The economic efficiency of aid targeting
How efficient is the targeting of foreign aid to populations in need? A long literature has focused on the impacts of foreign aid, but much rarer are studies that examine how such aid is allocated within countries. We examine the extent to which donors efficiently respond to exogenous budget shocks by shifting resources toward needier districts within a given country, as predicted by theory. We use recently geocoded data on the World Bank’s aid i…
Informational Barriers to Credit for Migrants
Does being a migrant in a developing country cause an individual to receive less access to credit? Migrant status can be a useful signal for lenders in settings with weak contract enforcement and in the absence of well-developed information markets. I investigate this contract enforcement–based explanation using data on households that have migrated within Guatemala. To address reverse causality and omitted variable issues, I adopt an instrumenta…
Crime and Microenterprise Growth
The fish is the friend of matriliny
Social Learning and Incentives for Experimentation and Communication
Low adoption of agricultural technologies holds large productivity consequences for developing countries. Many countries hire agricultural extension agents to communicate with farmers about new technologies, even though a large academic literature has established that information from social networks is a key determinant of product adoption. We incorporate social learning in extension policy using a large-scale field experiment in which we commun…
Gender gaps in technology diffusion
Impacts of a large-scale titling initiative on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
Influence of land tenure interventions on human well-being and environmental outcomes
Can Network Theory-Based Targeting Increase Technology Adoption?
Can targeting information to network-central farmers induce more adoption of a new agricultural technology? By combining social network data and a field experiment in 200 villages in Malawi, we find that targeting central farmers is important to spur the diffusion process. We also provide evidence of one explanation for why centrality matters: a diffusion process governed by complex contagion. Our results are consistent with a model in which many…
Testing multi‐stakeholder dialogue for better local governance in Niger
The economic efficiency of aid targeting
How efficient is the targeting of foreign aid to populations in need? A long literature has focused on the impacts of foreign aid, but much rarer are studies that examine how such aid is allocated within countries. We examine the extent to which donors efficiently respond to exogenous budget shocks by shifting resources toward needier districts within a given country, as predicted by theory. We use recently geocoded data on the World Bank’s aid i…
Rebuilding Irrigation Infrastructure and Institutions
We study the rebuilding of irrigation infrastructure and associations in a postconflict setting, where conflict risks, corruption, and farmer uncertainty can undermine such efforts. To do so, we use satellite measures of crop greenness in the catchment areas around 80 canals and spatiotemporal variation in their rehabilitation. We find sizable gains due to the rebuilding efforts, equal to a 25% improvement in wheat yields. Gains are particularly …
Landmine clearance and economic development
The widespread prevalence of unexploded landmines in many countries leads to thousands of deaths and injuries annually. In addition, landmines may block transport corridors – restricting the flow of goods and people – and prevent the productive use of contaminated land. We study the clearance of more than 15,000 hazardous areas in Afghanistan over the past several decades, obtaining precise geographic boundaries for these areas. We use multispect…
Economics (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Political science (5 works) · Agriculture (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Agricultural Innovations and Practices (3 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Demographic economics (3 works) · Ecology (3 works) · Economic growth (3 works)