Abstract: This paper investigates whether rural road infrastructure can foster inclusive entrepreneurship. Using enterprise data from India, we examine how a national rural road construction program, which connected previously isolated villages, affects entrepreneurship across different social groups. Our findings reveal that new feeder roads increase the number of service enterprises for all caste categories, including marginalized groups. However, manufacturing entrepreneurship increases only among the non-marginalized caste groups. For marginalized groups, the increase in entrepreneurship appears to be a response to a relative decline in wage employment opportunities following road construction. Formal finance and education infrastructure serve as key channels through which road connectivity fosters entrepreneurship.

Abstract: We present causal evidence on how employment protection legislations (EPL) that penalize firms for hiring contractual workers can have adverse effects in contexts characterized by high levels of informality. While they increase compliance and reduce informality on the "intensive margin'' as formal sector firms reduce hiring contract workers, they increase informality on the "extensive margin'', as firms move to operating in the informal sector instead. This lowers aggregate productivity, wages, and welfare in equilibrium. Counterfactual simulations demonstrate the significance of carefully designing EPL in contexts where informality is prevalent.

Abstract: "We investigate how local governments’ financial constraints affect competition in public procurement and real outcomes. Using detailed procurement data from Brazilian municipalities and population-based discontinuities in federal transfers, we find that higher transfers increase tender frequency, size, and local governments’ ability to pay suppliers on time. In turn, this encourages smaller suppliers’ entry into the bidding process and increases competition, resulting in lower procurement prices. Supplier competition induces large price reductions for essential goods, public services, and healthcare products, suggesting pass-through effects to local populations."

Abstract: The literature on the “New” human capital highlights the critical role of higher order cognitive skills, personal skills -curiosity, being entrepreneurial, aspirational as well socio-emotional skills. While recent literature suggests they can be taught, how to impart these skills in low capacity settings is a challenge. We present results from three large Randomized Control Trial experiments based on different pedagogy interventions in public schools of three states of India (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh). The interventions target various broad aspects of human capital. In Uttar Pradesh, science experiments are introduced to students in middle school to make them curious; in Uttarakhand, a pedagogy based on Theatre targets building socio-emotional and soft skills of middle school students; in Andhra Pradesh an entrepreneurial mindset development program is delivered in school to make secondary school students think out-of-the-box. The overall results from these interventions are mixed- the successes and failures inform the literature on the technological possibilities of pedagogy and the constraints that such methods face. We also highlight the role of local labour markets and their interaction with accumulation of human capital.

Abstract: How do government programs that distort prices in agricultural markets affect producers and consumers along the income distribution? We study the distributional effects of three of the largest and longe

Abstract: The representation and significance of women in the labor force have grown significantly over the past five decades around the globe. Using nationally representative data from over 90 countries, we document distinct gender patterns in employment transitions across both sectors and

The Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL), a leading research organization promoted by the Reserve Bank of India, invites submissions for its fifth annual conference on the Financial system and Macroeconomy in Emerging Economies.

Using loan-level administrative data and a regulatory shock that induced some banks to redirect lending from non-financial firms to Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs), we find that firms dependent on such banks witness a contraction in total borrowing and experience worse real outcomes. NBFIs use additional bank lending to make new loans, increasing lender.

What prevents people from entering the job market, particularly in emerging economies with few social security benefits? It is important to understand this, especially in the context of India, where around 49% of the working-age population choose not to work. Among women, about 75% are out of the labor force. We complement existing literature on low labor force participation by looking at how the interaction of the macroeconomic environment with the intra-household disparities in time spent on household work can explain this