Karen Macours

PSE Chaired Professor

CV IN ENGLISH
Researchgate RePEc page
  • Senior Researcher
  • INRAE
Research groups
  • Associate researcher at the Education Policy and Social Mobility Chair.
Research themes
  • Agricultural Economics and development
  • Evaluation of public policies in developing countries
  • Human capital and development
Contact

Address :48 Boulevard Jourdan,
75014 Paris, France

Campus: Campus Jourdan
Floor: 5
Office: 06
Declaration of interest

Publications HAL

  • Second generation effects of an experimental conditional cash transfer program on early childhood human capital in Nicaragua Journal article

    Interventions targeting improvements in human capital are often motivated by their potential to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty from parents to children. This study contributes to the thin evidence base on these links by examining outcomes for children of former program beneficiaries of a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, capitalizing on randomized variation in the timing and CCT’s impact on maternal human capital. We estimate intent-to-treat (ITT) differential effects on early childhood anthropometric and cognitive outcomes for 0–3-year-old children of program beneficiaries [N=366], as well as effects on key domains including nutrition, health, stimulation and the home environment. We find that moderately higher schooling for mothers (19–22 years old) who were the original program beneficiaries did not translate into improvements in anthropometrics or cognitive outcomes for their children. We also find no effects on behaviors commonly thought to be affected by higher education such as investments in nutrition and preventive health, or stimulation. Early program beneficiary mothers, however, had worse mental health outcomes and were more likely to use violent disciplinary practices such as spanking, threatening and punishing. Findings demonstrate the complexity of intergenerational mechanisms across genetic, biological, environmental and behavioral factors, and also suggest the importance of maternal mental health as a mechanism influencing child outcomes.
    Journal: Economics and Human Biology

    Published in

  • Attrition in Randomized Controlled Trials: Using Tracking Information to Correct Bias Journal article

    This paper analyzes the implications of attrition for the internal and external validity of the results of four randomized experiments and proposes a new method to correct for attrition bias. We find that not including those found during the intensive tracking can lead to a substantial overestimation or underestimation of the intention-to-treat effects, even when attrition without such tracking is balanced. We propose to correct for attrition using inverse probability weighting with estimates of weights that exploit the similarities between missing individuals and those found during an intensive tracking phase.
    Journal: Economic Development and Cultural Change

    Published in

  • Studying inclusive innovation with the right data: An empirical illustration from Ethiopia Journal article

    CONTEXT Agricultural innovations are inclusive when they are used by any member of society who wants to use them. Conversely, agricultural innovations that can only be used by a specific privileged group within society can be characterized as “exclusive”. OBJECTIVE The first objective of this paper is to examine the inclusivity of agricultural innovations in Ethiopia, using national representative data and considering a wide portfolio of innovations resulting from the collaborative research between CGIAR and its national partners. Second, we also examine how measurement error may affect how we characterize the inclusivity of agricultural innovations. METHODS We use nationally-representative survey data from Ethiopia (collected in 2018/19) in which best-practice measures of the adoption of a large number of agricultural innovations were embedded, including the adoption of CGIAR-related improved maize varieties measured using two different approaches: subjective, self-reported survey data; and objective DNA fingerprinting of crop samples taken from the same farmers’ plots. A rich set of household variables is also collected in the survey, which allows characterizing the types of farmers that are adopting different innovations, and the extent to which conclusions regarding the inclusivity of innovations depends on the measurement of the latter. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Many innovations are not disproportionately more likely to be adopted by male, larger, richer, or more connected farmers. When using self-reported data on adoption of improved maize varieties, adoption appears positively correlated with having larger landholdings and households with lower female participation in agriculture, and negatively correlated with poorer households (being among the bottom 40% of consumption distribution). Substituting survey responses with the results of DNA fingerprinting these correlations disappear, with farm size, gender and poverty status no longer predictive of adoption. SIGNIFICANCE The results suggest the potential value of offering a menu of innovations to farmers to increase inclusivity, as it allows each farmer to be a critical consumer of potential innovations and select those that best correspond to their own needs and constraints. We also highlight how important data quality is in ensuring we have correct information about inclusive innovation.
    Journal: Agricultural Systems

    Published in

  • Menstrual Stigma, Hygiene, and Human Capital: Experimental Evidence from Madagascar Pre-print, Working paper

    This paper presents results from an RCT in 140 schools in Madagascar that targets both hygiene practices and menstrual stigma. First, we show that a bundle of interventions (sanitation infrastructure, menstrual products, and teacher sensitization) leads to substantial (0.15 SD) improvements in learning tests and school marks, without affecting attendance or health. These learning benefits appear to be driven by reduced stress and an improved psychosocial environment in treatment schools, where girls’ heart rate at endline is lower (-0.12 SD), severe bullying is less common (-0.08 SD), and a measure of network integration is higher (+0.24 SD). Second, we evaluate the additional effect of nominating and coaching “young girl leaders” – school girls willing to speak out against menstrual stigma – to spread positive messages about hygiene and menstruation. The combined program generates substantial improvements in hygiene knowledge and behavior (0.33-0.56 SD) and in menstrual stigma (0.74 SD), and the Young Girl Leader component significantly increases the impact on all of these dimensions.

    Published in

  • Forthcoming : Experimental Evidence from a Conditional Cash Transfer Program: Schooling, learning, fertility and labor market outcomes after 10 years Journal article

    Conditional cash transfer programs are the anti-poverty program of choice in many developing countries, aiming to improve human capital and break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. A decade after a randomized 3-year CCT program began, earlier exposure during primary school ages when children were at risk of dropout led to higher labor market participation for young men and women and higher earnings for men. Results highlight the roles of the different program components with variation in timing of access to nutrition, health and education investments translating into substantial differential effects on learning for men and reproductive health outcomes for women.
    Journal: Journal of the European Economic Association

    Published in

All publications

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Karen Macours is a chaired professor at the Paris School of Economics (PSE), and senior researcher (directrice de recherche) at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE). Her research focusses on the evaluation of programs addressing households’ productive and human capital investments (early childhood, health, nutrition, education), agricultural productivity and rural poverty reduction in low- and middle-income countries, impact assessment related to agricultural R&D,  and related measurement and methodological questions. 

 

She is co-editor of the Journal of Development Economics, and co-founder of the Virtual Development Economics Seminar Series: VDEV/CEPR/BREAD.

 

She is a board member of JPAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) and serves as co-chair of JPAL’s health sector and the Learning for All Initiative, is a member of the board of directors of BREAD (Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development), and a member of the Weiss Fund committee. She is a research fellow of CEPR (Center for Economic Policy Research) and affiliate of EUDN (European Universities Development Network).  

 

 

Google scholar profile

 

She previously served as chair of the CGIAR’s Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA), associate editor of AJAE, and was associate professor of international economics at SAIS-Johns Hopkins University. She received her MS in Agricultural Engineering from the K.U. Leuven and her PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

 

 

New publications and working papers

Menstrual Stigma, Hygiene, and Human Capital: Experimental Evidence from Madagascar (with Julieta Vera and Duncan Webb)

 

The Complexity of Multidimensional Learning in Agriculture (with Rachid Laajaj), 2024. CEPR discussion paper 19009,

   R&R, Econometrica

 

Experimental Evidence from a Conditional Cash Transfer Program: Schooling, Learning, Fertility, and Labor Market Outcomes After 10 Years (with Tania Barham, and J.A. Maluccio). 2024. Journal of European Economic Association, jvae005.https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvae005

   This combines previous discussion papers  CEPR 13165,CEPR 11937  and IDB-WP 432.

   Online appendix  

   Open access replication data: JEEA 2024 replication files 

   Press: Voxdev

 

Impact of Small Farmers’ Access to Improved Seeds and Deforestation in DR Congo (with Tanguy Bernard, Sylvie Lambert and Margaux Vinez), Nature Communications, 2023, 14:1603,  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37278-2

   Open access replication data

   PRESS: Voxdev, EcoPourTous Bande Dessinee, EconomicsForEverybody Comic Strip

    

 

Education, Income and Mobility: Experimental Impacts of Childhood Exposure to Progresa after 20 Years (with M. Caridad Araujo)

 R&R American Economic Review

 PRESS: Voxdev Podcast. Video, Examplars in Global Health, Washington Post

 

The Rigor Revolution: New Standards of Evidence for Impact Assessment of International Agricultural Research (with James Stevenson and Douglas Gollin), 2023. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 15. 495-515.

 

Input subsidies, credit constraints, and expectations of future transfers: Evidence from Haiti (with Jeremie Gignoux, Daniel Stein and Kelsey Wright), 2022. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12337

   Open access replication data

 

Transfers, Diversification and Household Risk Strategies: Experimental Evidence with Lessons for Climate Change Adaptation (with Patrick Premand and Renos Vakis), 2022. Economic Journal,132 (647):2438–2470.  https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueac018

PRESS: Nature Climate Change News and Views

 Open access: replication data MPV  and online appendix MPV2022 

 

Texting Parents about Early Childhood Development: Behavioural Changes and Unintended Social Effects (with Oscar Barrera, Patrick Premand and Renos Vakis), World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9492.

 

Social Learning in Agriculture: Does Smallholder Heterogeneity Impede Technology Diffusion in Sub-Saharan Africa? (with Luc Behaghel and Jeremie Gignoux), CEPR Discussion Paper 15220. 

   PRESS: Voxdev

 

Shining a Brigher Light: Comprehensive Evidence on Adoption and Diffusion of CGIAR-related Innovations in Ethiopia. (with Frederic Kosmowski, Solomon Alemu, Paola Mallia and James Stevenson). Rome: Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA). 

   Open access Replication data

 

Experimental Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood and School-Age Exposure to a Conditional Cash Transfer Program (with Teresa Molina Millan, John Maluccio and Luis Tejerina), 2020, Journal of Development Economics, 143(102385).

    PRESS: Foreign Affairs

 

Reconciling yield gains in agronomic trials with returns under African smallholder conditions (with Rachid Laajaj, Cargele Masso, Moses Thuita, and Bernard Vanlauwe), Scientific Reports, 10, 14286 (2020).

   PRESS: Forbes, Voxdev talk Podcast

   Open access Replication data 

 

Measuring Skills in Developing Countries (with Rachid Laajaj), 2021. Journal of Human Reources, 56 (4), 1254-1295,

   PRESS: VoxDev

  Online appendix with detailed information on methods to facilitate use in other applications

  Open acces Replication data

 

Challenges to Capture the Big Five Personality Traits in non-WEIRD populations (with Rachid Laajaj, Daniel Alejandro Pinzon Hernandez, Omar Arias, Samuel Gosling, Jeff Potter, Marta Rubio-Codina, and Renos Vakis), 2019. Science Advances, 5(7): eaaw5226. 

   PRESS: NPR (National Public Radio), Discover Magazine, New Scientist, ORF, N+1, VoxDev,

                 De Morgen, Medical Xpress, De Volkskrant, Spektrum, Parsing Science (podcast)

   Open access Replication data

 

Impacts on school entry of exposure since birth to a conditional cash transfer programme in El Salvador (with Ana Sanchez Chico, John Maluccio and Marco Stampini), 2020.  J Dev Eff., DOI: 10.1080/19439342.2020.1773900

 

Long Term Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers: Review of the Evidence (with Teresa Molina-Millan, Tania Barham, John Maluccio, Marco Stampini), 2019. World Bank Research Observer, 34: 119-159.

 

Farmers’ Demand and the Traits and Diffusion of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries, 2019. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 11, 483-499.

 

 

Second Generation Effects of an Experimental Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Early Childhood Human Capital in Nicaragua (with Tania Barham, Oscar M. Diaz-Botia, J.A. Maluccio, and Julieta Vera Rueda), Economics & Human Biology, 57:101483.

  Open access replication data

 

Attrition in Randomized Controlled Trials: Using Tracking Information to Correct Bias (with Teresa Molina Millan), 2025, EDCC, 73(2): 811-834.

   Open access replication data

 

Experimental Evidence from a Conditional Cash Transfer Program: Schooling, Learning, Fertility, and Labor Market Outcomes After 10 Years (with Tania Barham, and John A. Maluccio). 2024. Journal of European Economic Association, jvae005.https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvae005

   This combines previous discussion papers  CEPR 13165,CEPR 11937  and IDB-WP 432.

   Online appendix  

   Open access replication data: JEEA 2024 replication files 

  

Studying inclusive innovation with the right data: An empirical illustration from Ethiopia (with Solomon Alemu, Frederic Kosmowski, James R. Stevenson, Paola Mallia, and Lemi Taye), 2024, Agricultural Systems, 219 (103988).

 

The Rigor Revolution: New Standards of Evidence for Impact Assessment of International Agricultural Research (with James R. Stevenson and Douglas Gollin), 2023. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 15. 495-515.

 

Piloting, testing and scaling parental training: a multi-partnership approach in Côte d’Ivoire (with Romuald Anago, Tiphaine Forzy, Sosthene Guei, Charlotte Pelras, Samuel Ramde, Camille Tevenart, Julieta Vera Rueda), 2023. Frontiers in Public Health 11 (August): https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1106565 

 

Impact of Small Farmers’ Access to Improved Seeds and Deforestation in DR Congo (with Tanguy Bernard, Sylvie Lambert and Margaux Vinez), 2023. Nature Communications, 14(1603),  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37278-2

    PRESS: Voxdev

    Open access replication data

 

Transfers, Diversification and Household Risk Strategies: Experimental Evidence with Lessons for Climate Change Adaptation (with Patrick Premand and Renos Vakis), 2022. Economic Journal,132 (647):2438–2470.  https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueac018

   PRESS: Vox, Nature Climate Change News and Views

   Open access: replication data MPV  and online appendix MPV2022 

 

Input subsidies, credit constraints, and expectations of future transfers: Evidence from Haiti (with Jeremie Gignoux, Daniel Stein and Kelsey Wright), 2022. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12337

    Open access replication data

 

Measuring Skills in Developing Countries (with Rachid Laajaj), 2021. Journal of Human Reources, 56:1254–1295. doi:10.3368/jhr.56.4.1018-9805R1

   PRESS: VoxDev

  Online appendix with detailed information on methods to facilitate use in other applications

  Open acces Replication data

 

Reconciling yield gains in agronomic trials with returns under African smallholder conditions (with Rachid Laajaj, Cargele Masso, Moses Thuita, and Bernard Vanlauwe), Scientific Reports, 10, 14286 (2020).

   PRESS: Forbes, Voxdev talk Podcast

   Open access Replication data 

  

Experimental Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood and School-Age Exposure to a Conditional Cash Transfer Program (with Teresa Molina Millan, John Maluccio and Luis Tejerina), 2020, Journal of Development Economics, 143(102385), lead article. doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.102385

   PRESS: Foreign Affairs

 

Challenges to Capture the Big Five Personality Traits in non-WEIRD populations (with Rachid Laajaj, Daniel Alejandro Pinzon Hernandez, Omar Arias, Samuel Gosling, Jeff Potter, Marta Rubio-Codina, and Renos Vakis), 2019. Science Advances, 5(7): eaaw5226. 

   PRESS: NPR (National Public Radio), Discover Magazine, New Scientist, ORF, N+1, VoxDev,

                 De Morgen, Medical Xpress, De Volkskrant, Spektrum, Parsing Science (podcast)

    Open access Replication data

 

Long Term Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers: Review of the Evidence (with Teresa Molina-Millan, Tania Barham, John Maluccio, Marco Stampini), 2019. World Bank Research Observer, 34: 119-159.

 

Farmers’ Demand and the Traits and Diffusion of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries, 2019. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 11, 483-499.

 

How can Randomized Control Trials help improve the design of Common Agricultural Policy? (with Luc Behaghel and Julie Subervie), 2019. European Review of Agricultural Economics, 46(3): 473-493. 

  

Sustaining Impacts When Transfers End: Women Leaders, Aspirations and Investment in Children (with Renos Vakis), 2019. in Barret, CB, MR Carter and JP Chavas, The economics of poverty traps, NBER.

 

Comment on “Estimating the Productivity Impacts of Technology Adoption in the Presence of Misclassification”, 2019. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.101(1), 17-18.

 

Preschool and Parental Response in a Second Best World: Evidence from a School Construction Experiment (with Adrien Bouguen, Deon Filmer and Sophie Naudeau), Journal of Human Resources, 2018. 53(2): 474-512.

 

Women’s Political Reservation, Early Childhood Development and Learning in India (with Yuvraj Pathak), Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2017. 65(4): 741-766.

 

“Wealth Gradients in Early Childhood Cognitive Development in Five Latin American Countries” (with Norbert Schady Jere Behrman, Maria Caridad Araujo, Rodrigo Azuero, Raquel Bernal, David Bravo, Florencia Lopez-Boo, Daniela Marshall, Christina Paxson, and Renos Vakis). Journal of Human Resources, 2015, 50(2): 446-463.

 

“Changing Households’ Investment Behavior through Social Interactions with Local Leaders: Evidence from a randomized transfer program” (with Renos Vakis), Economic Journal, 2014, 124 (May), 607–633.

 

“Boys’ Cognitive Skill Formation and Physical Growth: Long-term Experimental Evidence on Critical Ages for Early Childhood Interventions”, (with Tania Barham and John Maluccio), American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2013, 103(3): 467–471.

   PRESS: The Guardian

 

“Cash Transfers, Behavioral Changes, and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment” (with Norbert Schady and Renos Vakis), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2012, 4(2): 247–273.

 

“Increasing Inequality and Civil Conflict in Nepal”, Oxford Economic Papers, 2011, 63(1): 1-26 (lead article).

 

“Insecurity of Property Rights and Social Matching in the Tenancy Market” (with Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet), European Economic Review, 2010, 54(7): 880-899.

 

 

 

Menstrual Stigma, Hygiene, and Human Capital: Experimental Evidence from Madagascar (with Julieta Vera and Duncan Webb)

  • More information on the JPAL website, and on CARE (our partner)’s website
  • Info sur les resultats en francais: Note de synthèse
  • Article on the dissemination of results in Madagascar (in english, en francais)

 

The Complexity of Multidimensional Learning in Agriculture (with Rachid Laajaj), 2024. CEPR discussion paper 19009

   R&R, Econometrica

 

Education, Income and Mobility: Experimental Impacts of Childhood Exposure to Progresa after 20 Years (with M. Caridad Araujo), 

   R&R American Economic Review

   Video of VDEV/BREAD/CEPR webinar

   PRESS: Voxdev talk: Podcast 

  

Second Generation Effects of an Experimental Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Early Childhood Human Capital in Nicaragua (with Tania Barham, Oscar Díaz, John A. Maluccio, and Julieta Vera Rueda) Economics and Human Biology, conditional accept

 

Texting Parents about Early Childhood Development: Behavioural Changes and Unintended Social Effects (with Oscar Barrera, Patrick Premand and Renos Vakis), World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9492.

 

Social Learning in Agriculture: Does Smallholder Heterogeneity Impede Technology Diffusion in Sub-Saharan Africa? (with Luc Behaghel and Jeremie Gignoux), CEPR Discussion Paper 15220. 

   PRESS: Voxdev

  

  

I have conducted field research in Sub Sahara Africa, Latin America and Asia, working with a variety of stakeholders (national and regional governments, NGOs, bilateral and multilaterals agencies).

 

Some Selected Work-in-progress

 

Human Capital

Menstrual Stigma, Hygiene, and Human Capital: Experimental Evidence from Madagascar (with Julieta Vera and Duncan Webb)

 

 

Cost-effectiveness study of early childhood parenting programs in Cote d’Ivoire.

 

 

Long-term Impact evaluations of randomized early childhood interventions in Nicaragua

 

Early childhood text messaging program in Nicaragua: see results here

 

 

Agriculture

Two-sided Subsidies to Support Biofortified Crop Adoption in Guatemala (with Paola Mallia and Jessica Rudder). More information in AEA RCT registry.

 

Skills, heterogeneous quality of agricultural commercial inputs and learning through experimentation – Kenya (with Rachid Laajaj). More information here and here in the AEA RCT registry.

 Paper and online appendix.

 

Dissemination of new agricultural technologies in Africa: making extension work – Uganda (with Luc Behaghel, Jeremie Gignoux, Monica Karuhanga Beraho, Jane Kugonza, Judith Odiol, and Margaret Najjingo Mangheni). More information in AEA RCT registry. 

 

Adoption of improved seed varieties in DRC: experimental evidence on the role of supply constraints, targeting and intra-household decision making (with Tanguy Bernard, Sylvie Lambert, Margaux Vinez). More information here.

 

Long-term impacts of dissemination of biofortified crops in Uganda (with Julius Okello and Paola Mallia)

 

 

 

Social Protection 

Long-term impacts of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico

 

Long-term impacts of productive safety net program in Nicaragua. More information in AEA RCT registry. 

  

More information on these and some of my other projects

PSE courses

 

Econometrics 1: M1, master PPD, Paris School of Economics

 

Applications of Impact Evaluation in Development Micro-economics: M2, masters APE, Paris School of Economics

 

Doctoral course in Development Economics, Doctoral Program, Paris School of Economics

 

Social Policies in low and middle income countries: M1, master PPD, Paris School of Economics

 

 

 

PhD students

 

Finished – with first placement and current position (if different)

Alejandro del Valle (assistant & associate prof, Georgia State University)
Teresa Molina Millan (postdoc Nova University Lisbon; assistant prof, University of Alicante)

Diana Lopez-Avila (impact specialist 3ie, senior economist CGIAR)
Olivia Bertelli (assistant prof University of Lancaster, maître de conf. Paris-Dauphine)

Iva Trako (economist World Bank)

Margaux Vinez, co-supervision with Sylvie Lambert (YPP, senior economist World Bank)
Irene Clavijo (consultant UNICEF, World Bank)

Juan Diego Luksic (postdoc Paris-Dauphine, economist Housing and Urban Development Ministry Chile)

Julieta Vera (postdoc University College London, economist World Bank) 

Ismael Yacoubou Djima (economist World Bank)

Duncan Webb (postdoc Princeton University, assistant prof Nova University Lisbon)

Kelsey Wright (economist World Bank)

 

Ongoing 

 

Eric Teschke, co-supervision with Luc Behaghel

Paola Mallia

Marcelo Gantier Mita

Oscar Mauricio Diaz Botia

Balasai Vanukuri, co-supervision with Oliver Vanden Eynde

Vrinda Sharma

Kim Lan Mallon, co-supervision with Liam Wren-Lewis

Mariachiara Iannuzzi

Matheus Hoch de Proença