Peer-reviewed & in progress
Publications, working papers, and work in progress on social mobility, inequality, institutions, and public policy in emerging and developing economies.
Do Risk and Time Preference Explain Household Demand for Microinsurance? A Lab-in-the-Field Approach
Microinsurance take-up remains puzzlingly low across the Global South despite being a key instrument for managing risk and vulnerability among low-income households. Using panel data with incentivised lab-in-the-field experiments across five rural villages in India, this paper finds that most individuals are risk- and loss-averse, underweight large-probability events, and are present-biased. Impatience is associated with lower insurance take-up, while risk-seeking behaviour and prior shocks — such as a death in the family — predict higher take-up.
Are Risk and Time Preferences Stable? Evidence from Lab-in-the-Field in India
Standard economic theory assumes stable preferences, a claim recent experimental literature has questioned. Drawing on three waves of surveys and lab-in-the-field experiments conducted between 2016 and 2020 in five rural Indian villages, this paper finds a positive association in risk-preference responses over time but none for time preference. Households below the poverty line are more risk-seeking than those above it, and shocks such as illness, job loss or bereavement are linked to greater risk aversion, while crop failure and unemployment are linked to greater patience.