Research

Working Papers

Ten Years of Relational Power: the Long-Run Effects of Negotiation Skills to Adolescent Girls
(Nava Ashraf; Natalie Bau; Corinne Low; and Xiaoyue Shan)
October 2025, Conditionally Accepted, American Economic Review: Insights |[PDF]

Learning to See the World’s Opportunities: Memory, Mental Experiencing, and the Economic Lives of the Vulnerable
(Nava Ashraf; Gharad Bryan; Alexia Delfino; Emily A. Holmes; Leonardo Iacovone; Christian Johannes Meyer; and Ashley Pople)
July 2025, Working Paper

Meaning at Work
(Nava Ashraf; Oriana Bandiera; Virginia Minni; and Luigi Zingales)
May 2025, R&R Quarterly Journal of Economics

Gender Gaps across the Spectrum of Development: Local Talent and Firm Productivity
(Nava Ashraf; Oriana Bandiera; Virginia Minni; and Victor Quintas-Martínez)
April 2025, R&R Review of Economics and Statistics  | [PDF]

Learning to Teach by Learning to Learn.
(Nava Ashraf; Abhijit Banerjee; and Vesall Nourani)
December 2024, R&R Quarterly Journal of Economics | [PDF]

Female Entrepreneurship and Trust in the Market
(Nava Ashraf; Alexia Delfino; and Edward Glaeser)
October 2024,  R&R Journal of Political Economy | [PDF]

Journal Articles

Gendered Spheres of Learning and Household Decision Making Over Fertility
(Nava Ashraf; Erica Field; Alessandra Voena; and Roberta Ziparo)
December 2025, Forthcoming, Review of Economic Studies| [PDF]

Water, Health and Wealth: The Impact of Piped Water Outages on Disease Prevalence and Financial Transactions in Zambia.
(Nava Ashraf; Edward Glaeser; Abraham Holland; and Bryce Millett Steinberg)
March 2021, Economica 88: 755-781 | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

Losing Prosociality in the Quest for Talent? Sorting, Selection, and Productivity in the delivery of Public Services.
(Nava Ashraf; Oriana Bandiera; Edward Davenport; and Scott S. Lee)
May 2020, American Economic Review 110(5): 1355-94 | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Negotiating a Better Future: How Interpersonal Skills Facilitate Inter-Generational Investment.
(Nava Ashraf; Natalie Bau; Corinne Low; and Kathleen McGinn)
May 2020, Quarterly Journal of Economics 135, no. 2: 1095–1151 | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [Appendix] | [BibTeX]

The Distinctive Value of Bankers.
(Nava Ashraf; Oriana Bandiera; and Alexia Delfino)
May 2020, AEA Papers and Proceedings 110: 167-71 | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [BibTeX]

Bride Price and Female Education.
(Nava Ashraf; Natalie Bau; Nathan Nunn; and Alessandra Voena)
February 2020, Journal of Political Economy 128 (2): 591-641 | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [Online Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Social Incentives in Organizations.
(Nava Ashraf and Oriana Bandiera)
May 2018, Annual Review of Economics 10:1, 439-463 | [PDF] | [Appendix] | [Supplemental Figure] | [BibTeX]

Altruistic Capital.
(Nava Ashraf and Oriana Bandiera)
May 2017, American Economic Review 107(5): 70-75 | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [BibTeX]

Traditional Beliefs and Learning about Maternal Risk in Zambia.
(Nava Ashraf; Erica Field; Giuditta Rusconi; Alessandra Voena; and Roberta Ziparo)
May 2017, American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 107 (5) | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [Online Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Savings in Transnational Households: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador.
(Nava Ashraf; Diego Aycinena, Claudia Martinez A., and Dean Yang)
May 2015, Review of Economics and Statistics 97 (2): 332-351 | [PDF] | [Online Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia.
(Nava Ashraf; Erica Field, and Jean Lee)
July 2014, American Economic Review 104 (7) | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [Online Appendix] | [BibTeX]

No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Public Services Delivery.
(Nava Ashraf; Oriana Bandiera; and B. Kelsey Jack)
December 2014, Journal of Public Economics 120: 1-17 | [PDF] | [Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Awards Unbundled: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment.  
(Nava Ashraf; Oriana Bandiera; and Scott S. Lee)
April 2014, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 100: 44–63 | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

Information and Subsidies: Complements or Substitutes?
(Nava Ashraf; B. Kelsey Jack; and Emir Kamenica)
April 2013, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 88: 133–139 | [PDF] | [Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Can Higher Prices Stimulate Product Use? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Zambia.
(Nava Ashraf; James Berry; and Jesse M. Shapiro)
December 2010, American Economic Review no. 5: 2383–2413 | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines.
(Nava Ashraf; Dean Karlan; Wesley Yin)
March 2010, World Development 38 (3): 333–344 | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

Spousal Control and Intra–Household Decision Making: An Experimental Study in the Philippines.
(Nava Ashraf)
September 2009, American Economic Review 99 (4): 1245–1277 | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Decomposing Trust and Trustworthiness.
(Nava Ashraf; Iris Bohnet; and Nikita Piankov)
September 2006, Experimental Economics 9: 193–208 | [PDF] | [Online Appendix] | [BibTeX]

Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines.
(Nava Ashraf; Dean Karlan; and Wesley Yin)
May 2006, Quarterly Journal of Economics 121, no. 2: 635–672 | [PDF] | [Data/Code] | [BibTeX]

  • Winner of TIAA–CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award Certificate of Excellence For an outstanding research publication containing ideas that the public and private sectors can use to maintain and improve America’s lifelong financial well-being presented by TIAA–CREF Institute.

Deposit Collectors.
(Nava Ashraf; Dean Karlan; and Wesley Yin)
2006, Art. 5. Special Issue on Field Experiments. Advances in Economic Analysis & Policy 6, no. 2. | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist.
(Nava Ashraf; Colin Camerer, and George Loewenstein)
Summer 2005, Journal of Economic Perspectives 19, no. 3: 131–145.  | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

Other Publications and Book Chapters

 

SEED: A Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines.
(Nava Ashraf; Dean Karlan; and Wesley Yin)
December 2004, Policy Paper | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

Testing Savings Product Innovations Using an Experimental Methodology.
(Nava Ashraf; Dean Karlan; and Wesley Yin)
November 2003, ERD Technical Note | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

A Review of Commitment Savings Products in Developing Countries.
(Nava Ashraf; Nathalie Gons; Dean Karlan; and Wesley Yin)
July 2003, ERD Working Paper | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

Evaluating the Effects of Large Scale Health Interventions in Developing Countries: The Zambian Malaria Initiative.
(Nava Ashraf; Gunther Fink; and David N. Weil)
2016, African Successes, Volume II: Human Capital, edited by Sebastian Edwards, Simon Johnson and David N. Weil, Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 13-58 | [PDF] | [BibTeX]

Rx: Human Nature: How Behavioral Economics Is Promoting Better Health Around the World. 
(Nava Ashraf)
April 2013, Harvard Business Review 91 (4): 119–125. | [PDF] | [BibTeX]