Izaz Rasul
Biographic Data
| ID | 196542 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Izaz Rasul |
| GIVEN NAMES | Izaz |
| FAMILY NAME | Rasul |
| SIGNATURE | RASUL I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7652-0705 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 236 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The Search for Good Jobs: Evidence from a Six-Year Field Experiment in Uganda
There are 420 million young people in Africa today, and only one in three has a regular salaried job. We study how two common labor market interventions—vocational training and matching—affect the job search behavior of young workers. We do so by means of a field experiment tracking young job seekers for 6 years in Uganda’s main cities. Vocational training amplifies the job seekers’ initial optimism, leading them to search more intensively and to…
Microfinance and Diversification
The bulk of the world's extreme poor work in subsistence agriculture. Diversification out of this activity is often seen as the sine qua non of economic development. We evaluate whether the roll‐out of a mainstay development intervention—microfinance—into poor, agricultural and largely unbanked populations in rural Uganda helps borrowers to diversify into non‐agricultural labour activities. The new microfinance product is targeted to women, and d…
Contagious Animosity in the Field: Evidence from the Federal Criminal Justice System
We investigate whether increased animosity toward Muslims after 9/11 had spillover effects on Black and Hispanic individuals in the federal criminal justice system. Using linked administrative data tracking defendants from arrest through sentencing, we find that after 9/11, sentence and presentence outcomes for Hispanic defendants significantly worsened. Outcomes for Black defendants were unchanged. The findings are consistent with judges and pro…
Measuring the Market Size for Cannabis: A New Approach Using Forensic Economics
Quantifying the market size for cannabis is important given vigorous policy debates about how to intervene in this market. We develop a new approach to measuring the size of the cannabis market using forensic economics. The key insight is that cannabis consumption often requires the use of complementary legal inputs: roll‐your‐own tobacco and rolling papers. The forensic approach specifies how legal and illegal inputs are combined in the producti…
Management, Organizational Performance, and Task Clarity: Evidence from Ghana’s Civil Service
We study the relationship between management practices, organizational performance, and task clarity, using observational data analysis on an original survey of the universe of Ghanaian civil servants across 45 organizations and novel administrative data on over 3,600 tasks they undertake. We first demonstrate that there is a large range of variation across government organizations, both in management quality and in task completion, and show that…
A future for the world's children? A WHO–Unicef–Lancet Commission
Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, today's children face an uncertain future. Climate change, ecological degradation, migrating populations, conflict, pervasive inequalities, and predatory commercial practices threaten the health and future of children in every country. In 2015, the world's countries agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet nearly 5 years later, few countries ha…
Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration
Why did America introduce compulsory schooling laws at a time when financial investments in education and voluntary school attendance were high? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that states adopted compulsory schooling laws as a nation-building tool to instil civic values to the culturally diverse migrants during the ‘Age of Mass Migration’ between 1850 and 1914. We show the adoption of compulsory schooling laws occurred significa…
Management and Bureaucratic Effectiveness: Evidence from the Ghanaian Civil Service
A burgeoning area of social science research examines how state capabilities and bureaucratic effectiveness shape economic development. This paper studies how the management practices of civil service bureaucrats correlate to the delivery of public projects, using novel data from the Ghanaian Civil Service. This paper combines hand-coded progress reports on 3,600 projects with a management survey in the government ministries and departments respo…
Management of Bureaucrats and Public Service Delivery: Evidence from the Nigerian Civil Service
We study how the management practices bureaucrats operate under correlate with the quantity of public services delivered, using data from the Nigerian Civil Service. We have hand‐coded independent engineering assessments of 4,700 project completion rates. We supplement this with a management survey in the bureaucracies responsible for these projects, building on Bloom and Van Reenen (2013). Management practices matter: increasing bureaucrats’ aut…
Consumption and Investment in Resource Pooling Family Networks
This article examines a novel motive for resource pooling in family networks in rural economies: to relax credit constraints and facilitate investment in non‐collateraliseable assets for which credit market imperfections are most binding. We thus complement established literatures examining risk‐sharing motives for resource transfers within family networks, as well as motives based on kinship tax obligations. We do so exploiting the Progresa prog…
Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies
We study how women's choices over labor activities in village economies correlate with poverty and whether enabling the poorest women to take on the activities of their richer counterparts can set them on a sustainable trajectory out of poverty. To do this we conduct a large-scale randomized control trial, covering over 21,000 households in 1,309 villages surveyed four times over a seven-year period, to evaluate a nationwide program in Bangladesh…
Household environment and behavioral determinants of respiratory tract infection in infants and young children in northern bangladesh
OBJECTIVES: Respiratory tract infections (RTI) are one of the leading causes of under-five mortality in Bangladesh. Solid biomass fuels are the main source of domestic fuel used for cooking across Bangladesh, leading to smoke and pollution exposure in the home. This article aims to identify risk factors for RTI among children aged under five years in Bangladesh with a particular focus on the household environment, fuel use, and cooking practices.…
Crime and the Depenalization of Cannabis Possession: Evidence from a Policing Experiment
We evaluate the impact on crime of a localized policing experiment that depenalized the possession of small quantities of cannabis in the London borough of Lambeth. We find that depenalization policy caused the police to reallocate effort towards non-drug crime. Despite the overall fall in crime attributable to the policy, we find the total welfare of local residents likely fell, as measured by house prices. We shed light on what would be the imp…
The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration
The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration
Field Experiments with Firms
We discuss how the use of field experiments sheds light on long-standing research questions relating to firm behavior. We present insights from two classes of experiments-within and across firms-and draw common lessons from both sets. Field experiments within firms generally aim to shed light on the nature of agency problems. Along these lines, we discuss how field experiments have provided new insights on shirking behavior and the provision of m…
Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students
Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of students and faculty. We find that: ("i") at the average class size, the effect size is - 0.108; ("ii") the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class siz…
Social Incentives in the Workplace
We present evidence on social incentives in the workplace, namely on whether workers' behaviour is affected by the presence of those they are socially tied to, even in settings where there are no externalities among workers due to either the production technology or the compensation scheme in place. To do so, we combine data on individual worker productivity from a firm's personnel records with information on each worker's social network of frien…
Household bargaining over fertility: Theory and evidence from Malaysia
The Economics of Child Custody
I develop a model of marriage in which spouses decide on investments in child quality during marriage, and on the allocation of child custody should they divorce. The custodial allocation determines the share of the marital surplus each spouse appropriates, which in turn influences spouses' investment incentives. The custodial allocation therefore has both distributional and efficiency consequences. I derive the equilibrium investments and optima…
Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique
Despite their potentially strong impact on poverty, agricultural innovations are often adopted slowly. Using a unique household dataset on sunflower adoption in Mozambique, we analyse whether and how individual adoption decisions depend upon the choices of others in the same social networks. Since farmers anticipate that they will share information with others, we expect farmers to be more likely to adopt when they know many other adopters. Dynam…
Management of Bureaucrats and Public Service Delivery: Evidence from the Nigerian Civil Service
We study how the management practices bureaucrats operate under correlate with the quantity of public services delivered, using data from the Nigerian Civil Service. We have hand‐coded independent engineering assessments of 4,700 project completion rates. We supplement this with a management survey in the bureaucracies responsible for these projects, building on Bloom and Van Reenen (2013). Management practices matter: increasing bureaucrats’ aut…
Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique
Despite their potentially strong impact on poverty, agricultural innovations are often adopted slowly. Using a unique household dataset on sunflower adoption in Mozambique, we analyse whether and how individual adoption decisions depend upon the choices of others in the same social networks. Since farmers anticipate that they will share information with others, we expect farmers to be more likely to adopt when they know many other adopters. Dynam…
Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration
Why did America introduce compulsory schooling laws at a time when financial investments in education and voluntary school attendance were high? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that states adopted compulsory schooling laws as a nation-building tool to instil civic values to the culturally diverse migrants during the ‘Age of Mass Migration’ between 1850 and 1914. We show the adoption of compulsory schooling laws occurred significa…
Household bargaining over fertility: Theory and evidence from Malaysia
The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration
Crime and the Depenalization of Cannabis Possession: Evidence from a Policing Experiment
We evaluate the impact on crime of a localized policing experiment that depenalized the possession of small quantities of cannabis in the London borough of Lambeth. We find that depenalization policy caused the police to reallocate effort towards non-drug crime. Despite the overall fall in crime attributable to the policy, we find the total welfare of local residents likely fell, as measured by house prices. We shed light on what would be the imp…
Management, Organizational Performance, and Task Clarity: Evidence from Ghana’s Civil Service
We study the relationship between management practices, organizational performance, and task clarity, using observational data analysis on an original survey of the universe of Ghanaian civil servants across 45 organizations and novel administrative data on over 3,600 tasks they undertake. We first demonstrate that there is a large range of variation across government organizations, both in management quality and in task completion, and show that…
Consumption and Investment in Resource Pooling Family Networks
This article examines a novel motive for resource pooling in family networks in rural economies: to relax credit constraints and facilitate investment in non‐collateraliseable assets for which credit market imperfections are most binding. We thus complement established literatures examining risk‐sharing motives for resource transfers within family networks, as well as motives based on kinship tax obligations. We do so exploiting the Progresa prog…
Field Experiments with Firms
We discuss how the use of field experiments sheds light on long-standing research questions relating to firm behavior. We present insights from two classes of experiments-within and across firms-and draw common lessons from both sets. Field experiments within firms generally aim to shed light on the nature of agency problems. Along these lines, we discuss how field experiments have provided new insights on shirking behavior and the provision of m…
Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students
Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of students and faculty. We find that: ("i") at the average class size, the effect size is - 0.108; ("ii") the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class siz…
The Economics of Child Custody
I develop a model of marriage in which spouses decide on investments in child quality during marriage, and on the allocation of child custody should they divorce. The custodial allocation determines the share of the marital surplus each spouse appropriates, which in turn influences spouses' investment incentives. The custodial allocation therefore has both distributional and efficiency consequences. I derive the equilibrium investments and optima…
The Economics of Child Custody
I develop a model of marriage in which spouses decide on investments in child quality during marriage, and on the allocation of child custody should they divorce. The custodial allocation determines the share of the marital surplus each spouse appropriates, which in turn influences spouses' investment incentives. The custodial allocation therefore has both distributional and efficiency consequences. I derive the equilibrium investments and optima…
Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique
Despite their potentially strong impact on poverty, agricultural innovations are often adopted slowly. Using a unique household dataset on sunflower adoption in Mozambique, we analyse whether and how individual adoption decisions depend upon the choices of others in the same social networks. Since farmers anticipate that they will share information with others, we expect farmers to be more likely to adopt when they know many other adopters. Dynam…
Household bargaining over fertility: Theory and evidence from Malaysia
Social Incentives in the Workplace
We present evidence on social incentives in the workplace, namely on whether workers' behaviour is affected by the presence of those they are socially tied to, even in settings where there are no externalities among workers due to either the production technology or the compensation scheme in place. To do so, we combine data on individual worker productivity from a firm's personnel records with information on each worker's social network of frien…
Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students
Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of students and faculty. We find that: ("i") at the average class size, the effect size is - 0.108; ("ii") the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class siz…
Field Experiments with Firms
We discuss how the use of field experiments sheds light on long-standing research questions relating to firm behavior. We present insights from two classes of experiments-within and across firms-and draw common lessons from both sets. Field experiments within firms generally aim to shed light on the nature of agency problems. Along these lines, we discuss how field experiments have provided new insights on shirking behavior and the provision of m…
The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration
The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration
Crime and the Depenalization of Cannabis Possession: Evidence from a Policing Experiment
We evaluate the impact on crime of a localized policing experiment that depenalized the possession of small quantities of cannabis in the London borough of Lambeth. We find that depenalization policy caused the police to reallocate effort towards non-drug crime. Despite the overall fall in crime attributable to the policy, we find the total welfare of local residents likely fell, as measured by house prices. We shed light on what would be the imp…
Household environment and behavioral determinants of respiratory tract infection in infants and young children in northern bangladesh
OBJECTIVES: Respiratory tract infections (RTI) are one of the leading causes of under-five mortality in Bangladesh. Solid biomass fuels are the main source of domestic fuel used for cooking across Bangladesh, leading to smoke and pollution exposure in the home. This article aims to identify risk factors for RTI among children aged under five years in Bangladesh with a particular focus on the household environment, fuel use, and cooking practices.…
Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies
We study how women's choices over labor activities in village economies correlate with poverty and whether enabling the poorest women to take on the activities of their richer counterparts can set them on a sustainable trajectory out of poverty. To do this we conduct a large-scale randomized control trial, covering over 21,000 households in 1,309 villages surveyed four times over a seven-year period, to evaluate a nationwide program in Bangladesh…
Management and Bureaucratic Effectiveness: Evidence from the Ghanaian Civil Service
A burgeoning area of social science research examines how state capabilities and bureaucratic effectiveness shape economic development. This paper studies how the management practices of civil service bureaucrats correlate to the delivery of public projects, using novel data from the Ghanaian Civil Service. This paper combines hand-coded progress reports on 3,600 projects with a management survey in the government ministries and departments respo…
Management of Bureaucrats and Public Service Delivery: Evidence from the Nigerian Civil Service
We study how the management practices bureaucrats operate under correlate with the quantity of public services delivered, using data from the Nigerian Civil Service. We have hand‐coded independent engineering assessments of 4,700 project completion rates. We supplement this with a management survey in the bureaucracies responsible for these projects, building on Bloom and Van Reenen (2013). Management practices matter: increasing bureaucrats’ aut…
Consumption and Investment in Resource Pooling Family Networks
This article examines a novel motive for resource pooling in family networks in rural economies: to relax credit constraints and facilitate investment in non‐collateraliseable assets for which credit market imperfections are most binding. We thus complement established literatures examining risk‐sharing motives for resource transfers within family networks, as well as motives based on kinship tax obligations. We do so exploiting the Progresa prog…
Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration
Why did America introduce compulsory schooling laws at a time when financial investments in education and voluntary school attendance were high? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that states adopted compulsory schooling laws as a nation-building tool to instil civic values to the culturally diverse migrants during the ‘Age of Mass Migration’ between 1850 and 1914. We show the adoption of compulsory schooling laws occurred significa…
A future for the world's children? A WHO–Unicef–Lancet Commission
Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, today's children face an uncertain future. Climate change, ecological degradation, migrating populations, conflict, pervasive inequalities, and predatory commercial practices threaten the health and future of children in every country. In 2015, the world's countries agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet nearly 5 years later, few countries ha…
Contagious Animosity in the Field: Evidence from the Federal Criminal Justice System
We investigate whether increased animosity toward Muslims after 9/11 had spillover effects on Black and Hispanic individuals in the federal criminal justice system. Using linked administrative data tracking defendants from arrest through sentencing, we find that after 9/11, sentence and presentence outcomes for Hispanic defendants significantly worsened. Outcomes for Black defendants were unchanged. The findings are consistent with judges and pro…
Measuring the Market Size for Cannabis: A New Approach Using Forensic Economics
Quantifying the market size for cannabis is important given vigorous policy debates about how to intervene in this market. We develop a new approach to measuring the size of the cannabis market using forensic economics. The key insight is that cannabis consumption often requires the use of complementary legal inputs: roll‐your‐own tobacco and rolling papers. The forensic approach specifies how legal and illegal inputs are combined in the producti…
Management, Organizational Performance, and Task Clarity: Evidence from Ghana’s Civil Service
We study the relationship between management practices, organizational performance, and task clarity, using observational data analysis on an original survey of the universe of Ghanaian civil servants across 45 organizations and novel administrative data on over 3,600 tasks they undertake. We first demonstrate that there is a large range of variation across government organizations, both in management quality and in task completion, and show that…
Microfinance and Diversification
The bulk of the world's extreme poor work in subsistence agriculture. Diversification out of this activity is often seen as the sine qua non of economic development. We evaluate whether the roll‐out of a mainstay development intervention—microfinance—into poor, agricultural and largely unbanked populations in rural Uganda helps borrowers to diversify into non‐agricultural labour activities. The new microfinance product is targeted to women, and d…
The Search for Good Jobs: Evidence from a Six-Year Field Experiment in Uganda
There are 420 million young people in Africa today, and only one in three has a regular salaried job. We study how two common labor market interventions—vocational training and matching—affect the job search behavior of young workers. We do so by means of a field experiment tracking young job seekers for 6 years in Uganda’s main cities. Vocational training amplifies the job seekers’ initial optimism, leading them to search more intensively and to…
Economics (16 works) · Political science (11 works) · Business (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Geography (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Demographic economics (6 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Demography (4 works)