Spring 2025 Development Economics Challenge Scoping Projects

Scoping Projects  

The Development Economics Challenge provides opportunities for junior researchers to take leadership roles on projects in which they are interested and supports their efforts to bring innovation to the field of development economics. 

Researchers are encouraged to first gain an in-depth understanding of the context in which they wish to work and to test the feasibility of their ideas. While support for such explorative work is limited in the wider fundraising ecosystem, the Development Economics Challenge fills this gap by providing support for “scoping projects” during every funding round.

Typically less than $10,000, these “scoping grants” cover travel costs, facilitate conversations with policymakers, and, in some cases, support small-scale feasibility studies.

Explore the scoping work that was funded through the Spring 2025 Development Economics Challenge below.

Edgar Sanchez-Cuevas – University of California, Berkeley – $4,350 – Climate Adaptation, Attribution, and Political Accountability in Brazil’s Semiarid

This project studies how the implementation of federally funded climate adaptation programs shapes political attribution and accountability in Brazil’s drought-prone Semiarid region. It exploits institutional variation in the delivery of over one million identical rainwater cisterns, implemented either programmatically by a civil society network (ASA) or discretionarily by state governments, to isolate how voters assign political credit. Using administrative data merged with municipal and congressional election results from 2000–2024, the analysis estimates how different delivery channels affect electoral support for mayors and governors. A staggered event study design and interactions with mayor–governor alignment test whether political gains depend on credible credit claiming. By holding technology constant, the project identifies attribution as a key mechanism in the political effects of climate adaptation programs.

Ei Thandar Myint – University of California, Berkeley – $5,000 – Digital Learning Under Censorship

This project examines the effects of prolonged internet shutdowns on information-seeking, learning, and political engagement in authoritarian settings, using post-coup Myanmar as a case study. In regions subject to complete digital blackouts, it pilots an individual-level randomized controlled trial comparing an internet subsidy delivered via café vouchers to an equivalent cash transfer and a control group. The design tests whether restoring affordable connectivity increases willingness to pay for internet access, changes usage patterns, and improves political knowledge, beliefs, and civic engagement. Leveraging survey data, incentivized valuation measures, and anonymized server logs, the study evaluates how exposure to subsidized access reshapes learning and behavior under repression. By focusing on total digital isolation rather than partial censorship, the project fills a key gap in the literature on information control and political behavior.

Isabel Hincapie – University of California, Berkeley – $5,000 – The Economic Effects of Safe Transportation in Developing Cities

This project evaluates whether safety-oriented public transportation investments improve mobility and economic outcomes in developing cities, with a focus on gender disparities. It studies Chile’s “Safe Bus Stops” program in Santiago, which upgraded bus stops with lighting, surveillance, emergency systems, and real-time information to reduce crime risk. Leveraging a randomized rollout with imperfect compliance, the analysis combines smartcard transaction data, crime reports, and survey data to measure changes in commuting behavior and exposure to high-risk travel times. Preliminary results show that improved safety shifts travel toward later afternoon hours, typically associated with higher perceived risk, suggesting reduced mobility constraints, especially in neighborhoods with moderate baseline crime. The project provides policy-relevant evidence on when and where scalable transportation safety investments yield the highest returns.

Lily Medina – University of California, Berkeley – $4,900 – With or Without the State: Understanding the Origins and Effects of Militias in Civil War

This project examines why states delegate violence to legally authorized militias and how such delegation shapes civilian victimization during civil war. Focusing on Colombia’s Convivir program (1995–1997), it studies the political and local conditions under which legal militias emerge and how these differ from those that produce extralegal armed groups. Leveraging staggered legalization across municipalities, the analysis uses modern panel-data methods to estimate the causal effects of militia legalization on violence against civilians. The empirical strategy is complemented by archival research and interviews with former militia members, local elites, and national policymakers. By clarifying how legal frameworks redefine legitimate violence, the project advances understanding of state security strategies and their consequences in conflict settings.

Lucy Hackett – University of California, Berkeley – $5,000 – Subsidence: Environmental risk, moral hazard and housing development adaptation Mexico City

This project studies how information frictions about environmental risk shape housing development and residential sorting in Mexico City, one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. It focuses on land subsidence caused by groundwater depletion, examining whether imperfect information leads to inefficient housing supply in high-risk neighborhoods. Using a representative survey of 800 homeowners linked to satellite measures of ground sinking, the analysis documents that residents in the fastest-subsiding areas were least likely to consider subsidence risk when purchasing their homes and later experienced worse-than-expected damage. These patterns are consistent with a model in which less-informed households sort into more hazardous locations. The findings are used to value policy interventions that could reduce information frictions and limit the long-run costs of environmental risk in urban housing markets.

Madeleine Walker – University of California, Davis – $3,500 – Gender-influenced valuation of child welfare

This project examines whether gender differences in preferences and decision-making justify targeting cash transfers to women in order to improve child welfare outcomes. Focusing on nutrition choices in Guatemala, it combines a scoping survey with plans for a randomized experiment that compares how men and women value nutritionally superior foods. Survey evidence suggests that women are perceived to place higher value on healthy foods and play a dominant role in deciding children’s diets, while men are more likely to value less healthy options. These patterns are consistent with a modest advantage for women in allocating resources to benefit children, though they may also reflect social norms assigning responsibility for child nutrition to women. The project aims to experimentally disentangle preferences from norms to inform more effective targeting of large-scale cash transfer programs.

Nachiket Shah – University of California, Berkeley – $2,655 – The Effect of Driver Incentive Structures on Urban Road Safety: Evidence from Addis Ababa

This project studies whether alternative incentive structures can improve road safety among minibus drivers in informal urban transport systems, using evidence from Addis Ababa. It pilots a randomized controlled trial comparing financial incentives tied to driving errors with low-cost social incentives based on public safety rankings. Using GPS data to track speeding and sharp braking, the study finds small but suggestive reductions in unsafe driving under both incentive schemes. The analysis also reveals advantageous selection: more overconfident drivers were more willing to participate and showed greater improvement over time. These findings highlight how beliefs about performance shape participation and suggest that incentive design must account for selection and behavioral responses in informal transit settings.

Wilson King – University of California, Berkeley – $3,885 – Promoting Lead-Free Paint Production: Experimental Evidence from India

Zixu Chen – University of California, Berkeley – $5,000 – Short-Term, Lasting Impact? Evaluating Temporary Shelter Stays for Abuse Survivors

Amol Singh Raswan – University of California, Berkeley – $5,625 – Bureaucrat-Politician Complementarities in Public Goods Provision

This project investigates how complementarities between local bureaucrats and elected politicians affect the provision of public goods in rural India. Using detailed administrative expenditure data from approximately 10,000 village governments (panchayats) over eight years, matched with politician and bureaucrat records, the study examines why a large share of allocated funds remains unspent. The research design exploits variation from bureaucrat transfers, electoral turnover, and cross-sectional differences to estimate a joint production function of bureaucrats and politicians using quasi-experimental methods. Complementary surveys of bureaucrats, politicians, and citizens will be conducted to measure skills, coordination frictions, and local preferences. The project aims to identify whether mismatches or complementarities between officials drive inefficiencies in public spending and to inform policies on bureaucrat assignment and training.