Abstract Regression discontinuity designs (RDD) are increasingly being employed in agricultural and environmental economics to identify causal effects. Here, we showcase recent applications, best practices, discuss commonly invoked identifying assumptions show how these can be tested. We basic empirical issues more advanced topics, including exploit the availability of panel data, models explai...

This paper addresses the question of how uncertainty in costs and benefits affects the difficulty of reaching a voluntary agreement among sovereign states. A measure of “difficulty” is constructed relating to side-payments necessary to make an agreement a Pareto-improving move. Using a simple model, it is shown that uncertainty actually makes agreement easier. * Donald Bren Professor of Environ...

This paper presents an empirical study of population growth and environmental change using cross-sectional district-level data from South, Central and West India. Environmental change is measured using a satellite-based “greenness” index. Unlike prior work, the analysis treats population and environmental change as jointly determined, distinguishes between rural and urban populations, and ident...