Edward Miguel

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Edward Miguel
Born1974 (age 49–50)
NationalityAmerican
Academic career
FieldDevelopment economics
Environmental economics
Health economics
Political economy
Institution
Alma mater
Doctoral
advisor		Michael Kremer • Abhijit Banerjee • Alberto Alesina
Doctoral
students		Chris Blattman • Manisha Shah • Eva Vivalt • Solomon Hsiang • Suresh Naidu
AwardsFrisch Medal (2024)
Sloan Fellowship (2005-2007)
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Edward "Ted" Andrew Miguel (born 1974) is an American development economist currently serving as the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the founder and faculty director of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), a Berkeley-based hub for research on development economics.

Miguel's research focuses on economic development, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has pursued projects on the causes and consequences of conflict, the effects of early life health and educational interventions, and research transparency in the social sciences. Alongside Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Dean Karlan, and Michael Kremer, Miguel has pioneered the use of randomized controlled trials and other forms of impact evaluation to test the effects of social interventions in the developing world. In 2019, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer for "their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty", citing Miguel and CEGA as additional actors linking "experimental research to policy change and advice."[1]

Miguel is the recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship, and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research and Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development.

Education

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Miguel attended Tenafly High School in Tenafly, New Jersey, from which he graduated as the valedictorian of the class of 1992.[2]

He earned S.B. degrees in economics and mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996, where he was a Truman Scholar. In 2000 he completed a PhD in economics at Harvard University with a thesis entitled Political Economy of Education and Health in Kenya under the supervision of Michael Kremer,[3] Abhijit Banerjee, Alberto Alesina, and Lawrence F. Katz where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.

Career

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After finishing his PhD, Miguel joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, where has remained a professor since 2000. Since 2012, he has been the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics, with joint appointments in UC Berkeley's Department of Economics and Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Since 2009, he has been a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

In 2002, Miguel co-founded the Working Group in African Political Economy (WGAPE), a network of US and Africa-based researchers that meet bi-annually to provide structured feedback on in-progress research papers related to the theme of African political economy.

In 2004, Edward Miguel and Michael Kremer published the results of an impact evaluation[4] on school-based deworming in Kenya.[5] They determined that deworming is a cost-effective way to increase school attendance rates and improve community health. Their findings helped lead to the establishment of Deworm the World, a non-profit that works directly with governments and other organizations to expand school-based deworming worldwide in the following capacities: policy and advocacy with governments; prevalence surveying and mapping; program planning and management; public awareness and mobilization; monitoring and evaluation; training and distribution cascade; drug management and coordination. Deworm the World and the government initiatives it supports have treated over 280 million children in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Subsequent work has shown long-term positive impacts of deworming on labor market outcomes,[6] including new research that shows children who received an additional 2 to 3 years of deworming earn higher wages, have higher household consumption and are more likely to live in urban areas. Their research was covered by several news outlets including The New York Times,[7][8][9] The Boston Globe,[10] the Chicago Tribune,[11] NPR,[12] and Vox.[13] This included a piece by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times on the importance of impact evaluations in determining policy.[14]

Miguel and co-authors Shankar Satyanath and Ernest Sergenti published a seminal 2004 research article that used annual variation in rainfall to estimate the impact of economic conditions on the civil war in sub-Saharan Africa.[15] The study shows that a 5 percent negative growth shock increases the likelihood of civil conflict the following year by more than one half, suggesting that economic conditions are a critical determinant of civil war.

Miguel and Raymond Fisman published a study in 2006, which compared the number of parking violations per UN diplomat in New York to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.[16] The results found a strong correlation between political corruption and parking tickets, highlighting the role of cultural norms and legal enforcement in corruption. The results were covered in The Economist,[17] Forbes,[18] The New York Times,[19] NPR,[20] The Guardian,[21] CNN,[22] and more. In 2008 Miguel and Fisman co-authored the book, Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations.[23][24] It has been translated into eleven languages including Chinese, Persian, and German and Kristof praised it as "smart and eminently readable".

Miguel, Solomon Hsiang, and Marshall Burke published a study in 2013 that found strong causal evidence linking climatic events to human conflict across all major regions of the world. This paper garnered national and international media attention from sources including Time magazine,[25] The Economist,[26] and The Washington Post.[27] Miguel also presented the results of the study in a Ted talk in 2014.[28] In 2015, Miguel, Hsiang, and Burke published a study quantifying the effect of temperature on economic production across countries. The study was cited in a 2017 article in Science[29] on combating climate change written by U.S. President Barack Obama. Both studies have been influential in climate policy and were cited in a special report[30] on the impacts of global warming by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In 2012 Miguel helped launch the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS), which aims to promote transparency in empirical social science research. BITSS engages researchers through participatory forums on critical issues surrounding data transparency and encourages the use of study registries, pre-analysis plans, data sharing, and replication. In 2012, Miguel and co-authors published one of the first Economics research papers based on a pre-analysis plan.[31] In 2014, Miguel and co-authors published a piece in Science that makes the case for better research transparency practices in the social sciences.[32] In 2015, Miguel and co-authors published another price in Science on the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) guidelines.[33] In 2019, Miguel, Garret Christensen, and Jeremy Freese published Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research, a textbook on tools for increasing the rigor and credibility of social science research. Miguel gave a talk[34] on the book at the 2019 National Bureau of Economic Research Summer Institute Methods Lecture.

In 2016, Miguel co-founded the Berkeley Opportunity Lab,[35] which generates rigorous evidence on critical issues surrounding poverty and inequality in the United States and other countries.

In 2019, Miguel, Dennis Egger, Johannes Haushofer, Paul Niehaus, and Michael Walker released a high-profile study on the effects of an unconditional cash transfer program by the nonprofit organization GiveDirectly in rural Kenya. The study found positive effects for cash transfer recipients, in addition to large positive spillover effects for non-recipients. Co-authors estimate a local transfer payments multiplier greater than 2. These results were covered in The Washington Post,[36] The Economist,[37] NPR,[38] and Vox.[39]

Center for Effective Global Action

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In 2008, Miguel founded the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), a research network and funder based at UC Berkeley that supports research in global health and development focused on impact evaluation. The network currently includes over 160 affiliated faculty at UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, and a number of other universities based on the west coast of the United States. CEGA supports research in development economics that leverages randomized controlled trials or other rigorous methods aimed at evaluating the causal effect of interventions on health and well-being in low and middle income countries. Since 2009, the network has distributed over $52 million in competitive grants, and supported over 535 studies across 57 countries.

Awards

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  • 2024 Winner of the Frisch Medal for his outstanding paper "General equilibrium effects of cash transfers: experimental evidence from Kenya" together with Dennis Egger, Johannes Haushofer, Paul Niehaus, & Michael Walker. Award granted by the Econometric Society
  • 2020 Elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences[40]
  • 2015 Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award[41]
  • 2014 Chancellor's Award for Public Service for Research in the Public Interest
  • 2012 UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award[42]
  • 2010 Kiel Institute Excellence Award in Global Economic Affairs[43]
  • 2005 Kenneth J. Arrow Award for the best paper in health economics (entitled "Worms: Identifying impacts on education and health in the presence of treatment externalities"),[44] presented by the International Health Economics Association
  • 2005 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship
  • 2003–04 UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award, Social Sciences Division
  • 1995 Truman Scholarship (NJ)

Selected publications

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  • Hamory, Joan, Edward Miguel, Michael Walker, Michael Kremer, and Sarah Baird. (2020). "Twenty Year Economic Impacts of Deworming", NBER Working Paper No. 27611. doi:10.3386/w27611
  • Lee, Kenneth, Edward Miguel, and Catherine Wolfram. (2020). "Experimental Evidence on the Economics of Rural Electrification", Journal of Political Economy, 128 (4): 1523–1565. doi:10.1086/705417
  • Christensen, Garret, Jeremy Freese, and Edward Miguel. (2019). Transparent and Reproducible Social Science Research: How to Do Open Science. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvpb3xkg
  • Egger, Dennis, Johannes Haushofer, Edward Miguel, Paul Niehaus, and Michael Walker. (2019). "General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Kenya", NBER Working Paper No. 26600. doi:10.3386/w26600
  • Baird, Sarah, Joan Hamory Hicks, Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel. (2016). "Worms at Work: Long-run impacts of a child health investment", Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(4): 1637–1680. doi:10.1093/qje/qjw022
  • Burke, Marshall, Solomon Hsiang, and Edward Miguel. 2015. "Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production", Nature. doi:10.1038/nature15725
  • B. A. Nosek, G. Alter, G. C. Banks, D. Borsboom, S. D. Bowman, S. J. Breckler, S. Buck, C. D. Chambers, G. Chin, G. Christensen, M. Contestabile, A. Dafoe, E. Eich, J. Freese, R. Glennerster, D. Goroff, D. P. Green, B. Hesse, M. Humphreys, J. Ishiyama, D. Karlan, A. Kraut, A. Lupia, P. Mabry, T. A. Madon, N. Malhotra, E. Mayo-Wilson, M. McNutt, E. Miguel, E. Levy Paluck, U. Simonsohn, C. Soderberg, B. A. Spellman, J. Turitto, G. VandenBos, S. Vazire, E. J. Wagenmakers, R. Wilson, and T. Yarkoni. "Promoting an Open Research Culture: Author guidelines for journals could help to promote transparency, openness, and reproducibility", Science, 2015, 26 June 2015 348(6242): 1422–1425. doi:10.1126/science.aab2374
  • E. Miguel, C. Camerer, K. Casey, J. Cohen, K. M. Esterling, A. Gerber, R. Glennerster, D. P. Green, M. Humphreys, G. Imbens, D. Laitin, T. Madon, L. Nelson, B. A. Nosek, M. Petersen, R. Sedlmayr, J. P. Simmons, U. Simonsohn, M. Van der Laan. 2014. "Promoting Transparency in Social Science Research". Science. doi:10.1126/science.1245317
  • Hsiang, Solomon M., Marshall Burke, and Edward, Miguel. 2013. "Quantifying the Influence of Climate Change on Human Conflict". Science. doi:10.1126/science.1235367
  • Casey, Katherine, Rachel Glennerster, and Edward Miguel. 2012. "Reshaping Institutions: Evidence on Aid Impacts Using a Pre analysis Plan". Quarterly Journal of Economics 127 (4): 1755–1812. doi:10.1093/qje/qje027
  • Kremer, Michael, Jessica Leino, Edward Miguel, and Alix Peterson. 2011. "Spring Cleaning: Rural Water Impacts, Valuation, and Property Rights Institutions". Quarterly Journal of Economics 126 (1): 145–205. doi:10.1093/qje/qjq010
  • Blattman, Christopher, and Edward Miguel. 2010. "Civil War". Journal of Economic Literature 48 (1): 3-57. doi:10.1257/jel.48.1.3
  • Kremer, Michael, Edward Miguel, and Rebecca Thornton. (2009). "Incentives to Learn". The Review of Economics and Statistics. 91 (3): 437–456.
  • Miguel, Edward. Africa's Turn?. Boston Review Books, 2009.
  • Miguel, Edward and Raymond Fisman. Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations, Princeton University Press, 2008.
  • Kremer, Michael, and Edward Miguel. 2007. "The Illusion of Sustainability". Quarterly Journal of Economics 112 (3): 1007–1065. doi:10.1162/qjec.122.3.1007
  • Fisman, Raymond, and Edward Miguel. 2007. "Corruption, Norms and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets". Journal of Political Economy 115 (6): 1020–1048. doi:10.1086/527495
  • Miguel, Edward. 2005. "Poverty and Witch Killing". The Review of Economic Studies. 72 (4): 1153–1172. doi:10.1111/0034-6527.00365
  • Miguel, Edward, and Michael Kremer. 2004. "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities". Econometrica 72 (1): 159–217. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0262.2004.00481.x
  • Miguel, Edward, Shanker Satyanath, and Ernest Sergenti. 2004. "Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: An Instrumental Variables Approach". Journal of Political Economy 112 (4): 725–753. doi:10.1086/421174

References

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  1. ^ "Scientific Background: Understanding development and poverty alleviation". Nobel Prize. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  2. ^ Edward Miguel CV, University of California, Berkeley. Accessed December 26, 2015. "Tenafly High School, Tenafly NJ. Valedictorian 1992"
  3. ^ "The political economy of education and health in Kenya / a thesis presented by Edward Andrew Miguel". Harvard HOLLIS Catalog. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  4. ^ Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities Archived September 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Penguin, 2006)
  6. ^ Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of a Child Health Investment
  7. ^ Are the Poor Really Helped?
  8. ^ "Opinion | Attack of the Worms (Published 2007)". The New York Times. July 2, 2007.
  9. ^ Making Economics Relevant Again
  10. ^ Free Money
  11. ^ Shining Light on a Neglected Disease
  12. ^ Could Giving Kids A 50-Cent Pill Massively Boost Their Income Years Later?
  13. ^ "A new study finds that giving kids deworming treatment still benefits them 20 years later". Vox. August 6, 2020. Archived from the original on May 24, 2023.
  14. ^ "Opinion | Getting Smart on Aid (Published 2011)". The New York Times. May 19, 2011. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021.
  15. ^ "Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: An Instrumental Variables Approach" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 25, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  16. ^ "Corruption, Norms, and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Ticket" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 25, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  17. ^ Diplomats and Parking Fines
  18. ^ Reforming Tony Soprano's Morals
  19. ^ "The Diplomat-Parking-Violation Corruption Index"
  20. ^ "Corruption Loves Company"
  21. ^ "A fine mess: how diplomats get away without paying parking tickets"
  22. ^ "Study: Diplomats whose countries dislike U.S. less likely to pay fines"
  23. ^ Freakonomics Developnomics
  24. ^ Arrested Development
  25. ^ As Temperatures Rise, Empires Fall
  26. ^ Cloudy with a Chance of War
  27. ^ Will global warming lead to more war?
  28. ^ Climate, conflict, and African development
  29. ^ The irreversible momentum of clean energy
  30. ^ The irreversible momentum of clean energy
  31. ^ Reshaping Institutions: Evidence on Aid Impacts Using a Preanalysis Plan
  32. ^ Promoting Transparency in Social Science Research
  33. ^ Impacts of 1.5°C global warming on natural and human systems
  34. ^ Research Transparency and Reproducibility
  35. ^ Berkeley Opportunity Lab
  36. ^ What would happen if we randomly gave $1,000 to poor families? Now we know.
  37. ^ Unconditional handouts benefit recipients—and their neighbours too
  38. ^ "Researchers Find A Remarkable Ripple Effect When You Give Cash To Poor Families". NPR. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023.
  39. ^ A charity dropped a massive stimulus package on rural Kenya — and transformed the economy
  40. ^ New Members Elected in 2020
  41. ^ Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award
  42. ^ Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award
  43. ^ Kiel Institute Awards Prize for Excellent Research in Global Economic Affairs to Young Economists
  44. ^ Miguel, Edward; Kremer, Michael (2004). "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities". Econometrica. 72 (1): 159–217. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.372.7792. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0262.2004.00481.x.
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