Very excited to see this summary come at @vox_dev. The accepted paper is also online at AER @AEAjournals this week [ https://t.co/KbaDivR2ys]. The paper estimates the effects of a large public works program (UPSNP) on the urban poor in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 🧵👇@clem_imbert

🆕 Low-cost housing for Africa’s cities Today on VoxDev, @SimondFranklin (@qmuleconomics) discusses evidence from a large-scale housing lottery programme in Ethiopia:

🚨 Don't miss it! 🚨 Join us for the 7th QMUL Workshop for PhD Students & Post-Docs! 📅 May 22-23 | 📍QMUL ✨ Keynotes: Tim Besley & Martin Pesendorfer 🏨 Accommodation available 📝 Apply by March 14 → https://t.co/xXMviSm0vD #EconTwitter #EconConf https://t.co/mcOeBr7kf9

It's happening again!!🤩 The CFP of the 6th @qmuleconomics PhD & Post-doc Workshop is out. Apply by March 29th!👇🏼

Hi PhD students and Postdocs! Make sure to apply to the workshop we organize at @qmuleconomics. A brilliant opportunity to visit QMUL and get feedback on your paper (with keynote from @GUlyssea and @pauldegrauwe!) More info in @Giulia_Toz's post 👇🏼

How do public works programs perform in cities? With @SimondFranklin, Girum Abebe, @mejiamantillac we have evaluated the Ethiopian UPSNP and found that urban public works can increase the welfare of the poor by 20%.

That’s just one highlight from the paper. Please do read the post and paper to find out more!

Although the resulting approach looks similar to a shift-share design used in trade and migration economics, it’s rarely used in RCTs of social programs. Our approach yields significantly larger estimates than commonly used approaches. Wages increased by nearly 20% citywide.

We address this problem by measuring *exposure* to the program through the network of commuting flows between all neighbourhoods before and after the program was rolled out. For this, we collected detailed commuting data for everyone in our sample, which is rare in this context.

So the usual approach will (i) miss gains to workers in untreated areas, and (ii) underestimate the effects on treated areas because wages rise in the (untreated) comparison group. In other words, there is no control group: everywhere is treated to some extent!

The program was randomised across neighbourhoods within the city. The usual approach would be to compare wages between residents of treated versus untreated neighbourhoods. But these neighbourhoods are highly interconnected: residents of areas may work in treated areas.

A core insight of the paper is our approach to estimating those wage effects that addresses spatial spillovers -- potentially useful for researchers studying other social protection and labour policies.

Here, I'd like to highlight part (ii): the wage effects. The program led workers to leave the labour force for public works, potentially increasing wages citywide due to reduced labour supply.

We use data from a large survey of households, a randomized experiment at scale, and a spatial equilibrium model. We quantify i) the direct effects of program earnings on beneficiary households, ii) equilibrium wage effects, and iii) improvements in urban amenities from the work.

Are you PhD/post-doc? Come to London to discuss your research at the 5th @qmuleconomics PhD & Post-doc Workshop on May 25-26! Submission deadline: March 31. PS. we can also offer accomodation. https://t.co/sLZ7H3uLGu #EconTwitter @econ_conf

Labor market interventions and social networks can interact and affect job search outcomes in unexpected ways. If you want to find out more, check out this short blog post about our paper "Searching with Friends" (forthcoming in the Journal of Labor Economics)

Job-search assistance can adversely affect individuals who do not receive help by weakening job-search networks. Today on VoxDev, @caria_stefano @warwickecon, @SimondFranklin @qmuleconomics & @marcjosefwitte @iza_bonn outline their research in Ethiopia:

⚠️New call for proposals @GLMLIC⚠️Fantastic opportunity to implement great research🖥️. Please help to spread the news!!! @DavidLam_UMich @KateVyborny @elsayed_iza @taryndinkelman @PJakiela @ClareHofmeyr @OwenOzier @jannekepieters @caria_stefano @kanmahajan @SimondFranklin

🤗 First day at Queen Mary (@qmuleconomics)! 🤗 Very happy to join a fantastic applied group. Can't wait to grab a "cup-of-tea" @Marco_Manacorda, @LucieGadenne , @fgerard_BE, Anna Raute, @SimondFranklin, @AnjaPrummer, @tesei_andrea, Sebastian Axbard (and everyone else around)

Hey #EconTwitter, my friend and coauthor @JamilaNigmatul1 is on the JM this year. I've had the pleasure of working with her @LSE_SERC and @LSEGeography for over 6 years now so let me give you the inside scoop on her exceptional work! #econjobmarket https://t.co/nJSrzWwj96