Jessica Goldberg

About

Dr. Jessica A. Goldberg is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She created and serves as the faculty director of a program for undergraduate students called Promoting Achievement and Diversity in Economics (PADE). Dr. Goldberg is a development economist whose research interests include rural labor markets, strategies and obstacles to financial inclusion, and the role of social networks in economic decisions. She is currently working on field experiments about credit and savings in Uganda and Zambia, women's participation as providers and consumers of mobile money services in Bangladesh, and the role of social networks in outreach to treat communicable disease in India. She is a faculty affiliate of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL) and the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and a faculty research fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Additionally, she serves as a Co-Editor of the Journal of Human Resources and an Associate Editor of the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of Development Economics.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Business
• Economics
• Econometrics
• Finance
• Pathology
• Family medicine
• Actuarial science
• Environmental health
• Economic growth

Selected publications

• Facilitating Savings for Agriculture: Field Experimental Evidence from Malawi

  Economic Development and Cultural Change · 2015-11-10 · 216 citations

  article

  We implemented a randomized intervention among Malawian farmers aimed at facilitating formal savings for agricultural inputs. Treated farmers were offered the opportunity to have their cash crop harvest proceeds deposited directly into new bank accounts in their own names, while farmers in the control group were paid harvest proceeds in cash (the status quo). The treatment led to higher savings in the months immediately before the next agricultural planting season and raised agricultural input u…

  PublisherDOI

• Revising Commitments: Field Evidence on the Adjustment of Prior Choices

  The Economic Journal · 2016-04-26 · 112 citations

  articleOpen access

  Peer Reviewed

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Kwacha Gonna Do? Experimental Evidence about Labor Supply in Rural Malawi

  American Economic Journal Applied Economics · 2015-12-21 · 92 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  I use a field experiment to estimate the wage elasticity of employment in the day labor market in rural Malawi. Once a week for 12 consecutive weeks, I make job offers for a workfare-type program to 529 adults. The daily wage varies from the tenth to the ninetieth percentile of the wage distribution, and individuals are entitled to work a maximum of one day per week. In this context (the low agricultural season), 74 percent of individuals worked at the lowest wage, and consequently the estimated…

  PublisherDOI

• Direct and indirect effects of Malawi's public works program on food security

  Journal of Development Economics · 2017-04-18 · 84 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Savings defaults and payment delays for cash transfers: Field experimental evidence from Malawi

  Journal of Development Economics · 2017-06-28 · 43 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Dean Yang

  56 shared

• Mario Macis

  William Carey University

  45 shared

• Xavier Giné

  43 shared

• Pradeep K. Chintagunta

  University of Chicago

  39 shared

• Dan Silverman

  Arizona State University

  28 shared

• Lasse Brune

  8 shared

• Kathleen Beegle

  6 shared

• Emanuela Galasso

  6 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Economics

  University of Maryland

  2009

• B.A., Economics

  University of California, Berkeley

  2003

Similar researchers at University of Maryland, College Park

• John C. Haltiwangerh-99
• Maureen Cropperh-61
• Sebastian Galianih-54