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This chapter describes the research by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer, who pioneered the experimental approach to understanding poverty alleviation, for which they were awarded the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Economic well-being doubled in the poorest countries between 1995 and 2018. Child mortality has been cut in half relative to 1995, and the proportion of children attending school has gone up from 56 to 80 percent. Any post-intervention differences in the outcome of interest can thus be solely attributed to the treatment. Studies using field experiments are therefore characterized by high internal validity. A key issue is whether experimental results can be generalized to other contexts, whether or not they are externally valid. In the mid-1990s, Michael Kremer and colleagues conducted the first field experiments within development economics in rural Western Kenya.

This chapter describes the research by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer, who pioneered the experimental approach to understanding poverty alleviation, for which they were awarded the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Economic well-being doubled in the poorest countries between 1995 and 2018. Child mortality has been cut in half relative to 1995, and the proportion of children attending school has gone up from 56 to 80 percent. Any post-intervention differences in the outcome of interest can thus be solely attributed to the treatment. Studies using field experiments are therefore characterized by high internal validity. A key issue is whether experimental results can be generalized to other contexts, whether or not they are externally valid. In the mid-1990s, Michael Kremer and colleagues conducted the first field experiments within development economics in rural Western Kenya.

Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien har beslutat dela ut årets Ekonomipris till Paul Milgrom och Robert Wilson, båda från Stanford University, USA, för ”förbättringar av auktionsteorin och uppfinningar av nya auktionsformat”. Årets pristagare har i sin forskning sammanfört teori och praktik, till nytta för enskilda individer, företag och samhällen världen över.

We study the consequences of mothers' and fathers' job loss for parents, families, and children. Rich Swedish administrative data allow us to identify workplace closures and account for non-random selection of displaced workers. Our main conclusion is that effects on children are limited, although parents and families are negatively affected in terms of parental health, labour market outcomes and separations. We find no effects of parental job loss on childhood health. While educational and early adult outcomes are unaffected by paternal job loss, we find small negative effects of maternal job loss, which contradicts some of the earlier evidence. Limited effects on family disposable income suggest that welfare institutions successfully insure families, in particular, those with low income, thus protecting the family environment. A dual earner norm and strong incentives for female labour supply may contribute to the absence of positive effects of maternal job loss.

In this paper, we investigate whether voters' reactions to tax changes depend on their preferences for public spending, in order to increase our understanding of the relationship between accountability and the formation of public policy. Utilizing high‐quality survey data, we find that voters who, ex ante, prefer a small public sector punish incumbents who raise taxes, while voters who prefer a large public sector reward tax hikes. Our results indicate that Swedish voters do not necessarily consider tax hikes to be an indication of misbehaving incumbents and that public policy is formed as a result of competing interests between voters with different policy preferences, rather than only as a conflict between rent‐seeking politicians and voters.

Kungl Vetenskapsakademien har beslutat dela ut årets ekonomipris till Abhijit Banerjee, MIT, Ester Duflo, MIT och Michael Kremer, Harvard University ”för deras experimentella ansats för att mildra global fattigdom”. Pristagarnas ansats har på bara tjugo år helt stöpt om forskningen i utvecklingsekonomi. Den nya forskningen levererar en stadig ström av konkreta resultat som bidrar till att lindra de globala fattigdomsproblemen.

We study the consequences of mothers’ and fathers’ job loss for parents, families, and children. Rich Swedish register data allow us to identify plant closures and account for non-random selection of workers to closing plants by using propensity score matching and controlling for pre-displacement outcomes. Our overall conclusion is positive: childhood health, educational and early adult outcomes are not adversely affected by parental job loss. Parents and families are however negatively affected in terms of parental health, labor market outcomes and separations. Limited effects on family disposable income suggest that generous unemployment insurance and a dual-earner norm shield families from financial distress, which together with universal health care and free education is likely to be protective for children.