Alumni

This dissertation consists of four independent chapters, each focusing on a central problem in development economics. The study provides empirical evidence on the effects of environmental and developmental changes on agricultural production, food consumption, and investment in human development decisions in the context of developing countries.  The first part causally investigates how smallholder farmers adjust their land allocation decision in response to early planting season weather variation. The second part adds to the literature by discussing the nutritional effects of small-scale irrigation and identifying the impact pathways. The third part explores the spillover effects of public universities by focusing on the lower-level school outcomes of girls in the host community. The last empirical chapter investigates the impacts of rural roads on children's schooling and labor allocation decisions. The results demonstrate that road access does not encourage school absenteeism or early dropouts to enter the labor force.