Job Market Paper

"The Buck Stops Where? Federalism and Investment in Public Utilities: Evidence from the Brazilian Water and Sanitation Sector"

Abstract: This paper studies how legal ambiguities regarding the roles of different levels of government can lead to systematic underinvestment in public utilities. I look at legal reforms that clarified the relationship between municipal and state governments in the water and sanitation (WS) sector in Brazil. I use a difference-in-differences framework, using an administrative, municipality-level panel dataset from 2001-2012. I compare municipalities that self-provide WS services with those that contract these services to state-run companies. Results suggest that post-legislation - when the threat of expropriation by state companies disappeared - self-run municipalities almost doubled their investment. Moreover, this increased investment was funded by both debt and self-financing. I also find evidence that this increase in investment led to an increase in access to the WS system in these municipalities. The analysis provides strong evidence that reform eliminating the threat of federal expropriation of municipalities with self-run WS companies leads to increased levels of investment in these companies.

Working Papers and Works in Progress

"Measuring the Health Effects of Downriver Pollution Externalities in Indonesia: A Spatial Econometric Approach" with Teevrat Garg and Jacob Hochard

"The Role of Basic Sanitation Plans on Service Quality: Evidence from Sao Paulo"

“Screening, contracting and government procurement: Experimental evidence from Brazil” with Michael Best, Joana Naritomi, Dina Pomeranz, Laura De Castro Zoratto and Alexandre de Oliveira

"Climate Change and the Transmission of Infectious Diseases: Impacts & Adaptation" with Teevrat Garg and Jacob Hochard

"The Effects of Price Changes on Bill Payment Behavior in a Developing Country Setting"

Published and Forthcoming Papers

"The Effects of Home-Based HIV Counseling and Testing on HIV/AIDS Stigma among Individuals and Community Leaders in Western Kenya: Evidence from a Cluster-Randomized Trial"
Corinne Low, Cristian Pop-Eleches, Winnie Rono, Evan Plous, Angeli Kirk, Samson Ndege, Markus Goldstein, and Harsha Thirumurthy. AIDS Care, Special Issue: Effects of Investing in Communities on HIV/AIDS Outcomes, 25:S1 (2013)