2021 Theses Doctoral

Essays on Development Economics

Weiner, Scott

This dissertation consists of three essays, each covering very distinct topics under the broad umbrella of Development Economics, each set in a different region of the developing world (Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia). The one element that loosely ties them together is that they each seek to add, in a small way, to our understanding of factors that contribute to, and in some cases may entrap people in, poverty: factors such as (lack of) geographic mobility, hunger, and disease. In the first chapter, I use the natural experiment of military conscription in Argentina, which randomly assigned not only military service, but also the location of service, to study the effect of this temporary displacement on long-run migration rates. I then use a rich source of administrative earnings and employment data to investigate the labor-market implications of conscription and, in particular, displacement. I find that conscription on the whole caused a small increase in the likelihood of appearing in the formal labor force, and a small increase in earnings particularly for those who were assigned to serve in the Navy. Assignment to military service outside of one's province of origin increased the likelihood of living outside the province of origin by 2.5 percent, and while the net effects of this displacement on earnings and employment are imprecisely estimated, the evidence suggests that there are modest long-term benefits of conscription in Argentina that are not fully attributable to displacement. In the second chapter, I investigate the effects of Ramadan on calorie consumption and labor supply among Muslim households in rural Malawi. Across four rounds of household survey data, I find no evidence of a decrease in calorie consumption during Ramadan on average. I do, however, find evidence that working-age people reduce their weekly work by about three hours, or nearly 20 percent, on average. This finding on calories shows substantial variation across the different rounds of data. The evidence presented calls into question the hypothesis that consumption during Ramadan should fall more dramatically when the holiday overlaps with the harvest (when baseline consumption levels are relatively high compared to the rest of the year), compared to when Ramadan falls near the annual hunger season (when baseline consumption levels tend to be much lower). I discuss potential implications of this variation for our understanding of seasonal consumption patterns. The third and final chapter, which is authored jointly with Kaivan Munshi and Nancy Luke, discusses a randomized intervention conducted in rural South India aimed at improving rates of treatment completion for tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (TB), despite being a highly treatable disease, kills well over 1 million people every year, with 95 percent of cases and deaths appearing in developing countries. India bears the largest TB burden of any country, with more than 25 percent of the world's total yearly cases. A key factor for successful management of TB is ensuring that patients complete the full six-month (or more) treatment regimen: missing even a few doses of the prescribed medications increases the likelihood of relapse and development of a drug-resistant strain of TB, which is much more difficult and costly to treat effectively. We conduct an intervention allowing patients to select a community member to serve as a Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) provider to help ensure compliance with the full treatment regimen. Although patients assigned a Community DOT provider report significantly more frequent visits and higher rates of satisfaction compared to our control group, we do not find any significant improvement in treatment outcomes among those assigned this intervention. We explore several potential explanations for this finding and suggest potential avenues for future research.

Geographic Areas

  • India, South
  • Development economics
  • Poverty--Research
  • Food consumption--Research
  • Tuberculosis--Treatment

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(2021) PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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The first chapter of this thesis leverages micro data from 179 reproductive health surveys to shed light on a macro puzzle: fertility rates are exceptionally high in sub-Saharan Africa conditional on GDP per capita. The paper first establishes an important empirical fact: the relationship between wealth and desired fertility is, on average, steeper in sub-Saharan Africa. It then explores the links to the relative scarcity of salaried employment opportunities in these countries. A quantity-quality trade-off model of fertility choice featuring a fixed human capital requirement for entry into salaried employment predicts that a feedback loop can arise, where poorer families get stuck in a high fertility - informal occupation equilibrium in which they also under-invest in their children’s education. Rich micro data assembled from reproductive health surveys, censuses and household expenditure surveys provide empirical support for the model’s key assumptions and predictions. The findings suggest that differences in occupational choice sets across the income distribution represent an important driver of sub-Saharan Africa’s exceptional fertility trend. The second chapter exploits variation in exposure to the reform across birth cohorts and locations to evaluate the impacts of primary school fee abolition on female education, employment and fertility outcomes in Malawi, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania. The findings suggest that fee elimination improved educational attainment among cohorts most exposed to the reform: the effects range from a 5% increase in years of schooling in Malawi to a 17% increase in Ghana. The probability of completing primary school also increased in Tanzania, Ghana and Uganda, but not Malawi, for which I find a small but negative effect. The FPE reform is also associated with an increase in employment and a reduction in fertility. In Malawi, the increase in women’s labor market participation is concentrated in the education sector, with a small share of women shifting away from agriculture. In Tanzania, employment effects are driven by increased participation in the education sector and self-employed retail. In Ghana and Uganda, the share of women engaging in self-employed non-agricultural activities increases. The employment effects are largest in Ghana, where they are driven by entry into self-employed retail, manufacturing and food/accommodation services. Correlational evidence suggests that heterogeneity in policy impact may be partly attributable to differences in schooling productivity before the reform and in how the governments accommodated the enrolment increase. The third chapter is joint work that leverages a randomized experiment to study the diffusion of the impacts of an agronomy training program through the social and geographic networks of coffee farmers in Rwanda. We find no evidence of diffusion through geographic networks or from the treatment group to the control group. Our results suggest a reinforcement of treatment effects within the treatment group, concentrated around leaf health improvements. This is driven by farmers who attended the training sessions with people to whom they already had a social connection at baseline. The program also caused a re-sorting of social networks: we find that both treatment and control group households increased social links to individuals trained in their village.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information: © 2021 Céline Zipfel
Library of Congress subject classification:

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Supervisor: Bandiera, Oriana and Bryan, Gharad and Burgess, Robin and Meager, Rachael
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134 Economics Thesis Topics: Ideas for Outstanding Writing

development economics thesis

Writing a thesis is not an easy task. For most of the students, it can be even intimidating, especially when you do not know where to start your research.

Here, we have provided an economics thesis topics list. After all, everyone knows that choosing the right idea is crucial when writing an academic paper. In economics, it can combine history, math, social studies, politics, and numerous other subjects. You should also have solid foundations and a sound factual basis for a thesis. Without these elements, you won’t be able to master your research paper.

The issue is:

It is not always clear what could be seen as an excellent economics thesis topic. Our experts can assist you with this challenge. This list contains some outstanding examples to get you started.

  • ⭐ Thesis in Economics
  • 🔥 Supreme Thesis Topics
  • 👍 Bachelor’s Thesis
  • 😲 Master’s Thesis

📊 Microeconomics

📈 macroeconomics.

  • 🤔 Developmental
  • 👨‍💼 Behavioral
  • 💼 Financial
  • 🌱 Agricultural
  • 🤝‍ Sociology
  • 📚 Ph.D. Topics
  • 📝 How to Pick a Topic

⭐ What Does a Thesis in Economics Look Like?

A good thesis in economics is a blend between an empirical paper and a theoretical one. One of the essential steps in choosing a topic in economics is to decide which one you will write.

You may write, research, analyze statistical data and other information. Or build and study a specific economic model.

Or why not both!

Here are some questions you can ask when deciding what topic to choose:

  • What has already been written on this topic?
  • What economic variables will my paper study?
  • Where should I look for the data?
  • What econometrics techniques should I use?
  • What type of model will I study?

The best way to understand what type of research you have to do is to write a thesis proposal. You will most probably be required to submit it anyway. Your thesis supervisor will examine your ideas, methods, list of secondary and primary sources. At some universities, the proposal will be graded.

Master’s thesis and Bachelor’s thesis have three main differences.

After you get the initial feedback, you will have a clear idea of what to adjust before writing your thesis. Only then, you’ll be able to start.

🔥 Supreme Economics Thesis Topics List

  • Fast fashion in India.
  • The UK housing prices.
  • Brexit and European trade.
  • Behavioral economics.
  • Healthcare macroeconomics.
  • COVID-19’s economic impact.
  • Global gender wage gap.
  • Commodity dependence in Africa.
  • International trade – developing countries.
  • Climate change and business development.

👍 Economics Bachelor’s Thesis Topics

At the U.S. Universities, an undergraduate thesis is very uncommon. However, it depends on the Department Policy.

The biggest challenge with the Bachelor’s Thesis in economics concerns its originality. Even though you are not required to conduct entirely unique research, you have to lack redundant ideas.

You can easily avoid making this mistake by simply choosing one of these topics. Also, consider visiting IvyPanda essays database. It’s a perfect palce to conduct a brainstorming session and come up with fresh ideas for a paper, as well as get tons of inspiration.

  • The impact of the oil industry on the economic development of Nigeria. The oil industry is vital for the economic development of Nigeria. In this thesis, students can discuss the notion of the resource curse. Analyze the reasons why general people are not benefiting from the oil industry. Why did it produce very little change in the social and economic growth of the country?
  • Sports Marketing and Advertising: the impact it has on the consumers.
  • Economic opportunities and challenges of investing in Kenya .
  • Economic Development in the Tourism Industry in Africa. Since the early 1990s, tourism significantly contributed to the economic growth of African countries. In this thesis, students can talk about the characteristics of the tourist sector in Africa. Or elaborate on specific countries and how their national development plans look like.
  • Globalization and its significance to business worldwide .
  • Economic risks connected to investing in Turkey .
  • The decline in employment rates as the biggest American economy challenge .
  • The economics of alcohol abuse problems. In this thesis, students can develop several essential issues. First, they can examine how poverty is connected to alcohol abuse. Second, they can see the link between alcohol consumption and productivity. To sum up, students can elaborate on the economic costs of alcohol abuse.
  • Causes and solutions for unemployment in Great Britain.
  • Parallel perspective on Global Economic Order: China and America. This thesis can bring a comparative analysis of the economies to a new level. China and The US are the world’s two largest economies. These two countries have a significant impact on the global economic order. So, looking at the set of institutions, policies, rules can be constructive.
  • The new international economic order after COVID-19
  • Financial stability of the banking sector in China.
  • New Electronic Payment Services in Russia.
  • The influence of culture on different entrepreneurial behaviors.
  • The impact of natural cultural practices on entrepreneurial activity.
  • The relationships between national culture and individual behavior.
  • The main reasons for salary inequalities in different parts of the U.S.

😲 Economics Master’s Thesis Topics

Student life can be fascinating, but it comes with its challenges. One of which is selecting your Master’s thesis topic.

Here is a list of topics for a Master’s thesis in economics. Are you pursuing MPhil in Economics and writing a thesis? Use the following ideas as an inspiration for that. They can also be helpful if you are working on a Master’s thesis in financial economics.

  • The impact of visual aid in teaching home economics.
  • The effect of income changes in consumer behaviors in America.
  • Forces behind socio-economic inequalities in the United States. This thesis can explore three critical factors for socio-economic differences in the United States. In the past 30 years, social disparities increased in the United States. Some of the main reasons are technology, trade, and institutions.
  • The relationships between economic growth and international development.
  • Technological innovations and their influence on green and environmental products.
  • The economics of non-solar renewable energy .

Renewable energy is beneficial for various economic reasons.

  • The economic consequences of terrorism . Terrorism not only takes away lives and destroys property but also widely affects the economy. It creates uncertainty in the market, increases insurance claims, slows down investment projects, and tourism. This thesis can address all of the ways in which terrorism can affect economies.
  • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation in the Oil and Gas Industry in Africa.
  • Use of incentives in behavioral economics.
  • Economic opportunities and challenges of sustainable communities .
  • Economics of nuclear power plants.
  • Aid and financial help for emerging markets. This topic is very versatile. Students can look at both the positive and the adverse effects that funding has on the development. There are plenty of excellent examples. Besides, some theories call international help a form of neocolonialism.
  • Multinational firms impact on economic growth in America .
  • The effect of natural disasters on economic development in Asia.
  • The influence of globalization on emerging markets and economic development.

📑 More Economics Thesis Topics: Theme

For some students, it makes more sense to center their search around a certain subject. Sometimes you have an econ area that interests you. You may have an idea about what you want to write, but you did not decide what it will be.

If that’s the case with you, then these economics thesis topics ideas are for you.

  • An analysis of the energy market in Russia.
  • The impact of game theory on economic development.
  • The connection between minimum wage and market equilibrium.
  • Gender differences in the labor market in the United States. This topic can shed light on gender differences in the labor market in the United States. In the past years, the overall inequality in labor in the markets decreased. However, there is still a lot of work that can be done.
  • Economic reasons that influence the prices of oil .
  • Relationship between the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient.
  • Challenges of small businesses in the market economy.
  • The changes in oil prices: causes and solutions . Universal economic principles do not always apply to the sale and purchase of the oil. The same happens with its cost. In the thesis, talk about what affects the prices. What are the solutions that can be implemented?
  • The economic analysis of the impact of immigration on the American economy.

Immigration has a little long-run effect on Americans’ wages.

  • Economic inequality as a result of globalization . Economic inequality becomes even more apparent on the global level. There is a common belief that globalization is the cause of that. Discuss what can be the solutions to these problems. This topic is vital to minimize the gap between the rich and the poor.
  • The economic explanation of political dishonesty .
  • Effect of Increasing Interest rates costs in Africa .
  • The connection between game theory and microeconomics.
  • Marketing uses in microeconomics.
  • Financial liability in human-made environmental disasters.
  • Banks and their role in the economy. Banks are crucial elements of any economy, and this topic covers why. You can explain how banks allow the goods and services to be exchanged. Talk about why banks are so essential for economic growth and stability.
  • Inflation in the US and ways to reduce its impact.
  • The connection between politics and economics.
  • Income Dynamics and demographic economics.
  • US Market Liquidity and macroeconomics.
  • Macroeconomics and self-correction of the economy .
  • The American economy, monetary policy, and monopolies .
  • The importance of control in macroeconomics. One of the central topics in macroeconomics is grouped around the issue of control. It is quite reasonable that control over money and resources should become a topic of discussion.
  • Analysis of Africa’s macroeconomics and its performance.
  • Economics of education in developing markets.
  • Problems and possible solutions for Japan macroeconomics .
  • Comparative analysis of British macroeconomics concerning the US .
  • Public policies and socio-economic disparities.
  • The world problems through macroeconomic analysis. Indeed, macroeconomics is very complicated. There are many influences, details, and intricacies in it. However, it allows economists to use this complex set of tools to examine the world’s leading problems today.

There are four main problems in macroeconomics.

  • The connection between employment interest and money.

🤔 Development Economics

  • Economics of development . This topic is very rich in content. First, explain what it is. Then pay particular attention to domestic and international policies that affect development, income distribution, and economic growth.
  • The relation between development and incentive for migration.
  • The impact of natural disasters on the economy and political stability of emerging markets.
  • The economic consequences of population growth in developing countries.
  • The role of industrialization in developing countries . The industrialization has been connected with the development. It promotes capital formation and catalyzes economic growth in emerging markets. In this thesis, you can talk about this correlation.
  • Latin American economic development.
  • Gender inequality and socio-economic development .
  • Problems of tax and taxation in connection with economic growth.
  • The economic impact of terrorism on developing markets.
  • Religious decline as a key to economic development. Not everyone knows, but a lot of research has been done in the past years on the topic. It argues that decreased religious activity is connected with increased economic growth. This topic is quite controversial. Students who decide to write about it should be extra careful and polite.

👨‍💼 Behavioral Economics

  • Risk Preferences in Rural South Africa.
  • Behavioral Economics and Finance .
  • Applied behavioral economics in marketing strategies. If you want to focus your attention on marketing, this topic is for you. Behavioral economics provides a peculiar lens to look at marketing strategies. It allows marketers to identify common behaviors and adapt their marketing strategies.
  • The impact of behavioral finance on investment decisions.
  • Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs in North Texas.
  • Guidelines for Behavioral Economics in Healthcare Sector.
  • Cognitive and behavioral theories in economics .
  • Cross-cultural consumer behavior and marketing communication. Consumers are not only affected by personal characteristics, but also by the culture they are living in. This topic focuses on the extent it should determine marketing strategy and communication.
  • Behavior implications of wealth and inequality.

The richest population holds a huge portion of the national income.

  • Optimism and pessimism for future behavior.

💼 Financial Economics

  • Financial Economics for Infrastructure and Fiscal Policy .
  • The use of the economic concept of human capital. Students can focus on the dichotomy between human and nonhuman capital. Many economists believe that human capital is the most crucial of all. Some approach this issue differently. Therefore, students should do their research and find where they stand on this issue.
  • The analysis of the global financial crisis of 2020s. Share your thoughts, predictions, ideas. Analyze the economic situation that affects almost everyone in the world. This thesis topic will be fresh and original. It can help to start a good and fruitful conversation.
  • The big data economic challenges for Volvo car.
  • The connection between finance, economics, and accounting.
  • Financial economics: Banks competition in the UK .
  • Risk-Taking by mutual funds as a response to incentives.
  • Managerial economics and financial accounting as a basis for business decisions.
  • Stock market overreaction.

🌱 Agricultural Economics

  • Agricultural economics and agribusiness.
  • The vulnerability of agricultural business in African countries.
  • Agricultural economics and environmental considerations of biofuels .
  • Farmer’s contribution to agricultural social capital.
  • Agricultural and resource economics. Agricultural and resource economics plays a huge role in development. They are subdivided into four main characteristics which in this topic, students can talk about: – mineral and energy resources; – soil resources, water resources; – biological resources. One or even all of them can be a focus of the thesis.
  • Water as an economic good in irrigated agriculture.
  • Agriculture in the economic development of Iran.
  • The US Agricultural Food Policy and Production .
  • Pesticides usage on agricultural products in California.

The region of greatest pesticide use was San Joaquin Valley.

  • An analysis of economic efficiency in agriculture. A lot of research has been done on the question of economic efficiency in agriculture. However, it does not mean there is no place for your study. You have to read a lot of secondary sources to see where your arguments can fit.

🤝‍Economic Sociology

  • Theory, approach, and method in economics sociology.
  • Economic sociology of capitalism. While economists believe in the positive effect capitalism has on the economy, the social effect is quite different. The “economic” part of the issue has been studied a lot. However, the sociology of it has been not. This thesis can be very intriguing to read.
  • Political Economy and Economic Sociology.
  • Gender and economic sociology .
  • Progress, sociology, and economics.
  • Data analysis in economics, sociology, environment .
  • Economic sociology as a way to understand the human mind.
  • Economic sociology of money.
  • Economics, sociology, and psychology of security.
  • Major principles of economic sociology. In the past decade, economic sociology became an increasingly popular field. Mainly due to it giving a new view on economics, human mind, and behavior. Besides, it explores relationships between politics, law, culture, and gender.

📚 The List of Ph.D. Topics in Economics

If you decide to go to grad school to do your Masters, you will likely end up getting a Ph.D. as well. So, with this plan in mind, think about a field that interests you enough during your Masters. Working with the same topic for both graduate degrees is easier and more effective.

This list of Ph.D. Topics in Economics can help you identify the areas you can work on.

  • Occupational injuries in Pakistan and its effect on the economy. Injuries are the leading cause of the global burden of disability. Globally, Pakistan was ranked 9th populated country with a large number of unskilled workers. In this dissertation, consider the link between occupational injuries and their effects on the economy.
  • The study of the Philippines’ economic development.

The Philippine economy is projected to continue on its expansionary path.

  • Financial derivatives and climate change .
  • Econometric Analysis of Financial Markets.
  • Islamic Banking and Financial Markets .
  • Health economics and policy in the UK.
  • Health insurance: rationale and economic justification. In this dissertation, students can find different ways to explain and justify health insurance. Starting to philosophical to purely economic grounds. In the past years, there was a lot of discussion regarding the healthcare system for all. What are some of the economic benefits of that?
  • Colombian economy, economic growth, and inequality.
  • Benefits of mergers and acquisitions in agribusiness.
  • Methods to measure financial risks when investing in Africa.
  • The significance of financial economics in understanding the relationship between a country’s GDP and NDP.
  • Network effects in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are not new anymore. However, it is still an original subject for a dissertation. Students can decide to choose several crypto coins and evaluate the importance of the network effect. This effect is particularly significant for Bitcoin. Explain why.
  • The comparison of the Chinese growth model with the American growth model.
  • An economic justification versus political expediency.
  • Pollution Externalities Role in Management Economics .

📝 How to Select an Economics Thesis Topic

As your academic journey is coming to an end, it’s time to pick the right topic for your thesis. The whole academic life you were preparing to undertake this challenge.

Here is the list of six points that will help you to select an economics thesis topic:

  • Make sure it is something you are genuinely interested in. It is incredibly challenging to write something engaging if you are not interested in the topic. So, choose wisely and chose what excites you.
  • Draw inspiration from the previous student’s projects. A great place to start is by looking at what the previous students wrote. You can find some fresh ideas and a general direction.
  • Ask your thesis advisor for his feedback. Most probably, your thesis advisor supervised many students before. They can be a great help too because they know how to assess papers. Before meeting with your professor, do some basic research, and understand what topic is about.
  • Be original, but not too much. You do not want to spend your time writing about a project that many people wrote about. Your readers will not be interested in reading it, but your professors as well. However, make sure you do not pick anything too obscure. It will leave you with no secondary sources.
  • Choose a narrow and specific topic. Not only will it allow you to be more original, but also to master a topic. When the issue is too broad, there is just too much information to cover in one thesis.
  • Go interdisciplinary. If you find yourself interested in history, philosophy, or any other related topic, it can help you write an exceptional thesis in economics. Most of your peers may work on pure economics. Then, the interdisciplinary approach can help you to stand out among them.

Some universities ask their students to focus on topics from one discipline.

Thank you for reading the article to the end! We hope this list of economics thesis topics ideas could help you to gather your thoughts and get inspired. Share it with those who may find it useful. Let us know what you think about it in the comment section below.

🔗 References

  • Economics Thesis Topics List: Seminars Only
  • How To Pick A Topic For Your Economics Research Project Or Master’s Thesis: INOMICS, The Site for Economists
  • What Do Theses and Dissertations Look Like: KU Writing Center, the University of Kansas
  • Writing Economics: Robert Neugeboren with Mireille Jacobson, University of Harvard
  • Economics Ph.D. Theses: Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School, IDEAS_RePEc
  • World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018: United Nations
  • Undergraduate Honors Theses: Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
  • Economics Department Dissertations Collection: Economics Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Topics for Master Theses: Department of Economics, NHH, Norwegian School of Economics
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The dilemma I faced in getting Thesis proposal for my M Phil programme is taken away. Your article would be a useful guide to many more students.Thank you for your guidance.

Thanks for the feedback, John! Your opinion is very important for us!

I wants it for msc thesis

These are very helpful and concise research topics which I have spent days surfing the internet to get all this while. Thanks for making research life experience easier for me. Keep this good work up.

Thank you, Idris!

Glad to hear that! Thank you for your feedback, Idris!

Excellent research

For research

A very well written, clear and easy-to-read article. It was highly helpful. Thank you!

Thanks for your kind words! We look forward to seeing you again!

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What’s the latest in development economics research? Microsummaries of 150+ papers from NEUDC 2018

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  • The saturation rate of communities with planting material for highly nutritious crop technologies (vitamin-A-rich orange sweet potato and high-iron biofortified beans) substantially increases the average probability of adopting the crops and increased spillovers to neighboring households by 16-19 percent. A treatment in which opinion leaders were invited to promote the technologies did not lead to no more diffusion of either technology. ( Baird, Gilligan, and McNiven ) #RCT
  • How much are women willing to sacrifice to avoid sexual harassment? In India (Delhi), “women  are  willing  to  choose  a  college  in  the  bottom  half  of  the  quality  distribution over  a  college  in  the  top  quintile  in  order  to  travel  by  a  route  that  is  perceived  to  be  one  standard deviation safer.” ( Borker )
  • Getting married one year later in India results in “a significant decline in physical violence, although it has no impact on sexual or emotional violence.” ( Dhamija & Roychowdhury )
  • The opening of all women police stations in India “increased reported crime against women by 22 percent. This is due to increases in reports of female kidnappings and domestic violence.” ( Amaral, Bhalotra, & Prakash )
  • A multi-year intervention that “engaged adolescents in classroom discussions about gender equality” improved gender attitudes and reported gender-equitable behavior (e.g., “boys report helping out more with household chores”). ( Dhar, Jain, & Jayachandran ) #RCT
  • Does your daughter think she’s bad at math? It’s probably because of her classmates’ parents. Evidence from China. ( Eble & Hu )
  • In recent years in Bangladesh, researchers find “a pro-female bias in enrollment decision but a pro-male bias in the decisions on the conditional expenditure and core share in education expenditure.” A program providing stipends to females helped with enrollment but didn’t overcome gender bias overall. ( Xu, Shonchoy, & Fujii )
  • Cash transfers in Kenya reduced physical violence against wives regardless of whether the husband or wife received them, but they reduced sexual violence against wives only when the wives received them. ( Haushofer et al. )
  • Participants in a lab experiment in Ethiopia “are ten percent less likely to follow the same advice from a female leader than an otherwise identical male leader, and female-led subjects perform .33 standard deviations worse as a result.” ( Ayalew, Manian, & Sheth )
  • Across 42 countries, what are the differences in infant feeding patterns by wealth, parental education, and community infrastructure? ( Choudhury, Headey, & Masters )
  • Teaching mothers how to improve children’s diets improved children’s diets in Ethiopia, but providing vouchers for them to afford more food did not. Combining the two was the most effective. ( Park, Han, & Kim ) #RCT
  • Give a multi-layered child nutrition program or its equivalent in cash? Mixed bag in Rwanda. But giving a lot more cash makes a real difference. ( McIntosh & Zeitlin ) #RCT
  • “Mothers who received free meals during primary school are less likely to have stunted children compared to mothers who did not receive free meals” in India. ( Chakrabarti et al. )
  • “Women exposed to cow slaughter bans” in India “in their year of birth have lower levels of hemoglobin (Hb) and are up to 10% more likely to be anemic in their prime reproductive ages between 15 and 35, particularly those who have not completed primary schooling or who come from poorer families.” ( Dasgupta, Majid, & Orman )
  • What’s the optimal level of health insurance subsidy? In Ghana, a one-time partial subsidy affects long-term health care service use more than a one-time full subsidy. This seems to be due to selection – sicker people opted into the partial subsidy program. ( Asuming, Kim, & Sim ) #RCT
  • Public anti-malaria investments in Senegal did not crowd out household investments in health. ( Rossi & Villar )
  • “Peers are… more effective than health workers in bringing in new suspects for testing” for tuberculosis in India. “Low-cost incentives of about $3.00 per referral considerably increase the probability that current patients make referrals.” ( Goldberg, Macis, & Chintagunta ) #RCT
  • The cost of low effort among clinicians in Nigeria is about US$350 million annually. Peer monitoring increases effort. ( Okeke )
  • A soda tax in Mexico increased gastrointestinal disease because of low-quality drinking water. ( Gutierrez & Rubli )
  • “Piped water at home reduces childhood” obesity in Morocco and the Philippines. ( Ritter )
  • Providing double-fortified salt to primary school children in India reduced anemia but didn’t affect test scores on average. However, for the kids who complied best with treatment, test scores did rise. ( Krämer, Kumar, & Vollmer )
  • In China, regulating salt to make sure it contained iodine resulted in higher test scores for girls but not for boys, reducing the math ability gap. ( Deng & Lindeboom )
  • Games in Kenya show that spouses don’t totally trust each other. Letting them communicate increase trust a bit. ( Castilla, Masuda, & Zhang ) #LabInField
  • When a carpet manufacturer offered jobs to women in India, their likelihood of taking the job was unchanged whether they received the offer directly or their husbands got the information to share with their wives. When couples discussed the opportunity together, women were less likely to take the job. ( Lowe & McKelway ) #RCT
  • Households differ in who makes decisions but also in why that person makes the decisions. Among farmers in Senegal, “households achieve greater milk production, higher hemoglobin levels among children, and more satisfaction with decisions when the most informed member or members of the household make the relevant decision.” ( Bernard et al. )
  • In Bangladesh, “women, children, and the elderly face significant probabilities of living in poverty even in households with per-capita expenditure above the poverty threshold.” ( Brown, Calvi, & Penglase )
  • “A drop of 1 percentage point in the earnings gap” between husbands and wives in Mexico led to “an increase in the divorce rate of 2 percent.” ( Davila )
  • Christian missionaries settled in healthier, safer and more developed locations in 43 sub-Saharan African countries (early 20 th century) and in Ghana (18 th -20 th century) – this endogeneity led to an overly optimistic account of the importance of colonial missions for long-term development. ( Jedwab, Meier zu Selhausen, and Moradi ) #RDD
  • Greater suitability for opium cultivation in India under British Rule is associated with lower present-day literacy outcomes and a lower rate of public good provision. In opium-growing districts, the Colonial administration spent less on education and health, while spending more on police forces. ( Lehne ) #RDD
  • The United Fruit Company (UFCo), active in Costa Rica from 1889 to 1984, had positive, large and persistent effects even after it stopped production: households in former UFCo areas have better housing, sanitation, education, and consumption capacity. UFCo invested in physical and human capital, such as sanitary and health programs, housing for its employees, and vocational training. ( Méndez-Chacón and Van Patten ) #RDD
  • In locations where plantation estates were ruled by private, foreign enterprises during the Dutch colonial period in Java (Indonesia) weaker economic outcomes and institutions persist to this day. ( Fetzer and Mukherjee )
  • A novel index of ethnic segregation – taking into account both ethnic and spatial distances between individuals and computed for 159 countries - reveals that countries where ethnically diverse individuals lived far apart, have higher-quality government, higher incomes and higher levels of trust. ( Hodler, Valsecchi, and Vesperoni )
  • Information can break the political resource curse: Giving information - related to a recent discovery of natural gas in Mozambique - only to community leaders increases elite capture and rent-seeking, while information targeted at the general population increases mobilization, trust, demand for political accountability and decreases conflict.  ( Armand et al.)  
  • Group size of minorities has no relation with its representation in national government under proportional electoral systems, while it shows an inverted-U shaped relationship in majoritarian electoral systems (i.e., if “too small” or “too large” they suffer a disadvantage against the majority group) based on 421 ethno-country minority groups across 92 democracies spanning the period 1946–2013. ( Chaturvedi and Das )
  • The majority of citizens in Bangladesh prefer taking common decisions via democratic and inclusive institutions, and these positive evaluations of participatory governance are reinforced by the exposure to a Community-Driven Development program. ( Cocciolo ) #LabInField
  • Rewarding politicians by making their political effort more visible to citizens - either through public recognition or by increasing their access to public funds - improves citizens’ wellbeing in south Indian state Tamil Nadu.  ( Mansuri et al. )
  • Caste quotas lead to political candidates with lower wealth, lower criminal records, but similar education levels. Quotas also increase women’s representation in politics. There is no difference in the level of public goods between quota-bound and non-quota-bound areas. ( Jogani ) #RDD
  • Presence of political opposition in the city council improves mayors’ performance in Brazil: it increases legislative oversight, reduces corruption, increases the probability that a physician will be present at the local health clinic, and decreases the infant mortality rate by 3.4 per 1000 births for uneducated mothers. ( Poulsen and Varjão ) #RDD
  • Registered citizens in Tanzania are more likely to work in the formal economic sector, have higher education, bank accounts, and pay taxes. ( Bowles ) #IV
  • A land certification program in Zambia improved perceptions of tenure security, but it had no impact on investment. ( Huntington and Shenoy ) #RCT
  • Improved schools increased satisfaction with government’s education policy, voter registration and vote share for incumbent representatives in Liberia. Electoral gains were concentrated in places where test score gains were largest, suggesting that voters perceive and reward school quality. ( Romero, Sandefur, and Sandholtz )
  • An alcohol ban led to an increase in crime in the Indian State of Bihar. Since state capacity and supply of police is fixed, diverting law enforcement resources towards implementing the alcohol ban effectively reduces capacity to prevent crimes. ( Dar and Sahay )
  • But wait! Alcohol regulation policies in the Indian State of Bihar led to a 0.21 standard deviation reduction in the incidence of violent crimes but had no significant impact on non-violent crimes. ( Chaudhuri et al. )
  • Brazil’s 2007 voter re-registration reform, intended to curb voter-buying, increased political competition and healthcare expenditures, which in turn led to better health outcomes: a 6.6 percent increase in prenatal visits, a 15 percent decrease in the incidence of low birthweight, and 5.3 percent reduction in the infant mortality rate.  ( Karim ) #RDD
  • Electing “parachuters” (those who have hereditary/dynastic background) leads to 0.2 percentage point lower GDP growth per year compared to constituencies where “climbers” are elected (those who have made their way up on their own). Impact is likely driven by misallocation of bureaucratic resources. ( Dar ) #RDD
  • Workers will privately accept jobs at a wage below the prevailing norm in India, but not when other workers can observe them making the choice. “Workers give up 38% of average weekly earnings in order to avoid being seen as breaking the social norm.” ( Breza, Kaur, & Krishnaswamy )
  • A youth training intervention subsidizing skills training and employment placement services in Nepal showed increased non-farm employment, hours worked and earnings one year after the program. The effects are mainly driven by women, who engage in non-farm self-employment activities carried out inside (but not outside) the house.  ( Chakravarty et al .) #RDD
  • The decline in Mexican net migration from 2006 to 2012 reduced employment for lower educated men and increased wages for higher education men and women. Informality does not change, and women switch from unpaid to salaried jobs (likely because of reduced remittances). ( Conover, Khamis, and Pearlman ) #IV
  • Fear of sexual assault reduces women’s labor market participation in India: a one standard deviation increase in sexual assault reports within one’s own district reduced women’s employment probability by 0.36 percentage points, especially among highly educated married urban women. There is no effect of lagged physical assault reports on employment outside home. ( Siddique )
  • Tax rate changes do not increase formal employment in Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. ( McKay, Pirttilä, and Schimanski )
  • Risk averse children in Kenya are more likely to make an independent decision to work, as opposed to being sent by or negotiating with parents over the decision. This suggests a strategic decision by risk averse children who face a risky outside option in semi-nomadic pastoralism. ( Walker and Bartlett ) #LabInField
  • Effects of local labor demand shocks can differ significantly by gender. In 1991-2010 Brazil, male labor demand shocks, relative to equivalent female shocks, lead to larger increases in population (migration), own-gender wages, and the gender economic gap, particularly for those without high school education. ( Chauvin )
  • In the short run, job application workshops and transport subsidies increase the probability of finding employment for young job seekers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The workshop also helped young people access stable jobs with an open-ended contract. Four years later, the workshop has a large and significant impact on earnings, while the effects of the subsidy have dissipated. ( Abebe et al. ) #RCT
  • Decision-making responsibilities shift towards women during the seasonal migration period in Bangladesh. Seasonal migration brings clear changes in some beliefs with respect to gender and income inequality, but no accompanying behavioral change. ( Mobarak, Reimão, and Shenoy ) #RCT
  • Migration generates bilateral cultural convergence even if migrants are excluded from the pool of respondents (hence eliminating social mixing). International migration appears as a stronger and more robust driver of cultural convergence than trade. ( Rapoport, Sardoschau, and Silve )
  • In the agrarian sector in the Philippines, self-selection effects accounts for 60% of the productivity difference between fixed wage and individual piece rate contracts. Social norms significantly alter the decision-making by workers: Guilt aversion and kinship taxation discourage workers to choose the remunerative option, whereas enviousness facilitates them to opt for it. ( Goto et al. )
  • Employment Protection Laws decreased employment of the disabled by 9 percentage points, particularly for women and employees. Employers reduce their demand for disabled labor to avoid the cost of workplace accommodations for disabled workers. ( Palmer and Williams )
  • What happens when a single sector is hit with a negative shock? The EU ban on black tiger shrimp pushed some workers out of the industry in Thailand, increasing incomes of those who stayed. But those who were pushed out also received a benefit in their children’s education. ( Banternghansa & Giannone )
  • “Countries’ dollar-denominated net external debt (dollar debt) helps explain the large differences in risk premia across currencies and how U.S. monetary policy affects the global economy.” ( Wiriadinata )
  • With novel data from Mexico, “larger firms (in terms of sales and employees) tend to use more interfirm trade credit relative to bank credit… These firms use interfirm trade credit as a mechanism to smooth variations in their prices. All else equal, firms with a higher trade-to-bank credit ratio tend to lower prices.” ( Shapiro et al. )
  • In China, the road network veers towards the birthplaces of top officials who were in power when it was built. ( Alder & Kondo )
  • When the poorest households in a cash transfer program in Kenya experience monetary penalties failing to comply with conditions, consumption drops significantly. Less poor households are better able to avoid getting fined in the future. ( Heinrich & Knowles )
  • A new model suggests the existence of a network-level poverty trap. “Transfer programs can be made more cost-effective by targeting communities at the threshold of the aggregate poverty trap.” Based on data in Bangladesh. ( Advani )
  • Not all marginalized groups in India are catching up! Mobility in India has remained the same overall since before the early 1990s, but in fact it has risen among some groups (the traditionally lowest castes) and fallen among others (Muslims). ( Asher, Novosad, & Rafkin )
  • Cash transfers in Indonesia decreased suicides by 18%. ( Christian, Hensel, & Roth )
  • How to incorporate ordinal measures (e.g., ranked positions rather than levels of income) into multidimensional poverty measurement. ( Seth & Yalonetsky )
  • Introducing formal insurance can crowd-out private redistributive transfers in Ethiopia’s rural communities. To donors, new information based on insurance decisions allows them to place recipients of private funds in a different light, and reduce their support. ( Anderberg and Morsink )
  • Increases in the generosity of in-kind food subsidies led to lower labor supply and higher wages, mostly in the low-skilled casual labor market in India. ( Shrinivas, Baylis, and Crost )
  • Insurance is an important factor in explaining effort supply and fertilizer use. Going from no sharing to full insurance, effort supply decreases by more than six times and fertilizer use drops by almost 50 percent in rural India. ( Pietrobon )
  • A large-scale HIV prevention program in public secondary schools in Malawi provided free circumcision and transport subsidies to clinics. Demand for circumcision increased in addition to positive peer effects among untreated students. In the long run, the preventive effect of circumcision is mitigated through risk compensation behavior in the group that got circumcised due to the intervention, but not for those induced by peer effects. ( Kim et al. ) #RCT
  • Access to a new financial product, offering guaranteed credit access after a shock, improves household welfare in Bangladesh through two channels: an ex-ante insurance effect where households increase investment in risky production and an ex-post effect where households are better able to maintain consumption and asset levels after a shock.  ( Lane ) #RCT
  • Without financial incentives such as discounts or rebates, farmers in Bangladesh do not use insurance to manage production risk during the monsoon season, even at actuarially-favorable prices. Purchasing insurance yields both ex ante risk management effects as well as ex post income effects on production practices ( Hill et al. ) #RCT
  • In India, the association between yield losses and rainfall index losses are stronger for large deviations. Therefore, demand for commercially priced rainfall insurance is more likely to be positive when coverage is restricted to extreme losses. ( Negi and Rawasmani )
  • A large-scale environmental disaster in 2016, when toxic industrial waste contaminated the marine ecosystem of Vietnam’s central coast, reduced fishing activities by 23 percent and fishermen’s income by 45 percent. ( Hoang et al. )
  • Do you want practical advice for your farm? Go to your local church or mosque! In Kenya, “shared attendance of two peers at” a religious institution “increases the likelihood of seeking out and receiving advice from their peer by 33 percentage points.” ( Murphy, Lee, & Nourani )
  • Based on a field experiment in Ethiopia, “conventional job referrals through social networks can reinforce labour market inequalities and prevent less socially connected individuals from getting access to jobs. However, when given referral opportunities, individuals can manage to escape exclusion.” ( Witte ) #RCT
  • Matching employers and employees using social networks can lead to bad matches, particularly among “less productive, poorer workers and firms” in Ethiopia. ( Matsuda & Nomura )
  • Business training for micro-entrepreneurs in Uganda rewires social networks, as entrepreneurs who don’t receive the training seek to network with trained peers. ( Stein )
  • When the social network is not completely informative, any self-report which is not supported by a third party must be discarded. ( Bloch and Olckers )
  • In Filipino villages with high social fragmentation, workers earn higher wages and occupations are disproportionately less likely to be dominated by a single social group. ( Caria and Labonne )
  • Households which experience climate shocks tend to invest more in family-caste (formal and informal) and vertical network relationships. Those networks bring benefits which are key to mitigating the impact of negative climate shocks. ( Ramsawak )
  • Income shocks facilitate altruistic giving that better targets the least well off within one’s network in Ghana. ( Barrett et al. )
  • What does major bridge construction do for economic activity (in Bangladesh)? In the formerly disconnected area, workers move from agriculture to services, population grows, and agricultural productivity rises. ( Blankespoor et al. )
  • Big, surprising oil and gas discoveries lead to lots of additional foreign direct investment (FDI). In Mozambique, each FDI job leads to between 4.4 and 6.5 additional other jobs. ( Toews & Vézina )
  • India’s Freight Equalization Scheme “contributed to the decline of industry in eastern India” but it took time. But repealing it reversed the decline, at least in some states. ( Firth & Liu )
  • In Brazil, trade with China reduced unemployment for areas exporting stuff and increased unemployment for areas importing stuff. ( Brummond & Connolly )
  • In Indonesia, “each percentage point of additional agriculture-driven poverty reduction also corresponds to around three percent of district area in forest loss since 2000.” ( Edwards )
  • New state-built formal housing on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is popular among slum dwellers, despite longer, and slightly more expensive commutes. Moving to formal housing on the outskirts of the city has no effects on labor supply and earnings. ( Franklin )
  • Public housing projects in South Africa decrease close-by formal residential home prices by 16 percent. While there is greater access to services and improved home quality within project areas, surrounding neighborhoods experience substantial growth in informal housing which exacerbates congestions and generate declines in formal home prices.  ( Bradlow, Polloni, and Violette ) #DiD
  • Air pollution substantially lowers productivity among industries with labor intensive technology while industries that rely less on labor inputs are less affected. ( Hansen-Lewis ) #IV
  • The TransJakarta Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, a public transport initiative designed to improve mobility for the greater Jakarta metropolitan area, did not increase transit ridership and exacerbated congestion on the routes it served, leading to increased travel times for other modes. Motorcycle vehicle ownership increased substantially. ( Gaduh, Gračner, and Rothenberg )
  • Two light-touch psychological interventions – one that helped women improve planning and another that helped reduce impatience – both had impacts on sanitation behavior and health outcomes after ten weeks in Kenya. ( Haushofer, John, & Orkin ) #RCT
  • After training street food vendors in India on food safety, vendors knew a lot more but didn’t change what they actually did. ( Daniele, Mookerjee, & Tommasi ) #RCT
  • Providing subsidies lead more households to purchase latrines in India. “A household becomes more likely to invest if a larger fraction of its community are also offered a subsidy.” ( Guiteras, Levinsohn, & Mobarak ) #RCT
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    The University of Chicago The Law School

    Innovation clinic—significant achievements for 2023-24.

    The Innovation Clinic continued its track record of success during the 2023-2024 school year, facing unprecedented demand for our pro bono services as our reputation for providing high caliber transactional and regulatory representation spread. The overwhelming number of assistance requests we received from the University of Chicago, City of Chicago, and even national startup and venture capital communities enabled our students to cherry-pick the most interesting, pedagogically valuable assignments offered to them. Our focus on serving startups, rather than all small- to medium-sized businesses, and our specialization in the needs and considerations that these companies have, which differ substantially from the needs of more traditional small businesses, has proven to be a strong differentiator for the program both in terms of business development and prospective and current student interest, as has our further focus on tackling idiosyncratic, complex regulatory challenges for first-of-their kind startups. We are also beginning to enjoy more long-term relationships with clients who repeatedly engage us for multiple projects over the course of a year or more as their legal needs develop.

    This year’s twelve students completed over twenty projects and represented clients in a very broad range of industries: mental health and wellbeing, content creation, medical education, biotech and drug discovery, chemistry, food and beverage, art, personal finance, renewable energy, fintech, consumer products and services, artificial intelligence (“AI”), and others. The matters that the students handled gave them an unparalleled view into the emerging companies and venture capital space, at a level of complexity and agency that most junior lawyers will not experience until several years into their careers.

    Representative Engagements

    While the Innovation Clinic’s engagements are highly confidential and cannot be described in detail, a high-level description of a representative sample of projects undertaken by the Innovation Clinic this year includes:

    Transactional/Commercial Work

    • A previous client developing a symptom-tracking wellness app for chronic disease sufferers engaged the Innovation Clinic again, this time to restructure its cap table by moving one founder’s interest in the company to a foreign holding company and subjecting the holding company to appropriate protections in favor of the startup.
    • Another client with whom the Innovation Clinic had already worked several times engaged us for several new projects, including (1) restructuring their cap table and issuing equity to an additional, new founder, (2) drafting several different forms of license agreements that the company could use when generating content for the platform, covering situations in which the company would license existing content from other providers, jointly develop new content together with contractors or specialists that would then be jointly owned by all creators, or commission contractors to make content solely owned by the company, (3) drafting simple agreements for future equity (“Safes”) for the company to use in its seed stage fundraising round, and (4) drafting terms of service and a privacy policy for the platform.
    • Yet another repeat client, an internet platform that supports independent artists by creating short films featuring the artists to promote their work and facilitates sales of the artists’ art through its platform, retained us this year to draft a form of independent contractor agreement that could be used when the company hires artists to be featured in content that the company’s Fortune 500 brand partners commission from the company, and to create capsule art collections that could be sold by these Fortune 500 brand partners in conjunction with the content promotion.
    • We worked with a platform using AI to accelerate the Investigational New Drug (IND) approval and application process to draft a form of license agreement for use with its customers and an NDA for prospective investors.
    • A novel personal finance platform for young, high-earning individuals engaged the Innovation Clinic to form an entity for the platform, including helping the founders to negotiate a deal among them with respect to roles and equity, terms that the equity would be subject to, and other post-incorporation matters, as well as to draft terms of service and a privacy policy for the platform.
    • Students also formed an entity for a biotech therapeutics company founded by University of Chicago faculty members and an AI-powered legal billing management platform founded by University of Chicago students.
    • A founder the Innovation Clinic had represented in connection with one venture engaged us on behalf of his other venture team to draft an equity incentive plan for the company as well as other required implementing documentation. His venture with which we previously worked also engaged us this year to draft Safes to be used with over twenty investors in a seed financing round.

    More information regarding other types of transactional projects that we typically take on can be found here .

    Regulatory Research and Advice

    • A team of Innovation Clinic students invested a substantial portion of our regulatory time this year performing highly detailed and complicated research into public utilities laws of several states to advise a groundbreaking renewable energy technology company as to how its product might be regulated in these states and its clearest path to market. This project involved a review of not only the relevant state statutes but also an analysis of the interplay between state and federal statutes as it relates to public utilities law, the administrative codes of the relevant state executive branch agencies, and binding and non-binding administrative orders, decisions and guidance from such agencies in other contexts that could shed light on how such states would regulate this never-before-seen product that their laws clearly never contemplated could exist. The highly varied approach to utilities regulation in all states examined led to a nuanced set of analysis and recommendations for the client.
    • In another significant research project, a separate team of Innovation Clinic students undertook a comprehensive review of all settlement orders and court decisions related to actions brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for violations of the prohibition on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices under the Consumer Financial Protection Act, as well as selected relevant settlement orders, court decisions, and other formal and informal guidance documents related to actions brought by the Federal Trade Commission for violations of the prohibition on unfair or deceptive acts or practices under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, to assemble a playbook for a fintech company regarding compliance. This playbook, which distilled very complicated, voluminous legal decisions and concepts into a series of bullet points with clear, easy-to-follow rules and best practices, designed to be distributed to non-lawyers in many different facets of this business, covered all aspects of operations that could subject a company like this one to liability under the laws examined, including with respect to asset purchase transactions, marketing and consumer onboarding, usage of certain terms of art in advertising, disclosure requirements, fee structures, communications with customers, legal documentation requirements, customer service and support, debt collection practices, arrangements with third parties who act on the company’s behalf, and more.

    Miscellaneous

    • Last year’s students built upon the Innovation Clinic’s progress in shaping the rules promulgated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) pursuant to the Corporate Transparency Act to create a client alert summarizing the final rule, its impact on startups, and what startups need to know in order to comply. When FinCEN issued additional guidance with respect to that final rule and changed portions of the final rule including timelines for compliance, this year’s students updated the alert, then distributed it to current and former clients to notify them of the need to comply. The final bulletin is available here .
    • In furtherance of that work, additional Innovation Clinic students this year analyzed the impact of the final rule not just on the Innovation Clinic’s clients but also its impact on the Innovation Clinic, and how the Innovation Clinic should change its practices to ensure compliance and minimize risk to the Innovation Clinic. This also involved putting together a comprehensive filing guide for companies that are ready to file their certificates of incorporation to show them procedurally how to do so and explain the choices they must make during the filing process, so that the Innovation Clinic would not be involved in directing or controlling the filings and thus would not be considered a “company applicant” on any client’s Corporate Transparency Act filings with FinCEN.
    • The Innovation Clinic also began producing thought leadership pieces regarding AI, leveraging our distinct and uniquely University of Chicago expertise in structuring early-stage companies and analyzing complex regulatory issues with a law and economics lens to add our voice to those speaking on this important topic. One student wrote about whether non-profits are really the most desirable form of entity for mitigating risks associated with AI development, and another team of students prepared an analysis of the EU’s AI Act, comparing it to the Executive Order on AI from President Biden, and recommended a path forward for an AI regulatory environment in the United States. Both pieces can be found here , with more to come!

    Innovation Trek

    Thanks to another generous gift from Douglas Clark, ’89, and managing partner of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, we were able to operationalize the second Innovation Trek over Spring Break 2024. The Innovation Trek provides University of Chicago Law School students with a rare opportunity to explore the innovation and venture capital ecosystem in its epicenter, Silicon Valley. The program enables participating students to learn from business and legal experts in a variety of different industries and roles within the ecosystem to see how the law and economics principles that students learn about in the classroom play out in the real world, and facilitates meaningful connections between alumni, students, and other speakers who are leaders in their fields. This year, we took twenty-three students (as opposed to twelve during the first Trek) and expanded the offering to include not just Innovation Clinic students but also interested students from our JD/MBA Program and Doctoroff Business Leadership Program. We also enjoyed four jam-packed days in Silicon Valley, expanding the trip from the two and a half days that we spent in the Bay Area during our 2022 Trek.

    The substantive sessions of the Trek were varied and impactful, and enabled in no small part thanks to substantial contributions from numerous alumni of the Law School. Students were fortunate to visit Coinbase’s Mountain View headquarters to learn from legal leaders at the company on all things Coinbase, crypto, and in-house, Plug & Play Tech Center’s Sunnyvale location to learn more about its investment thesis and accelerator programming, and Google’s Moonshot Factory, X, where we heard from lawyers at a number of different Alphabet companies about their lives as in-house counsel and the varied roles that in-house lawyers can have. We were also hosted by Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati and Fenwick & West LLP where we held sessions featuring lawyers from those firms, alumni from within and outside of those firms, and non-lawyer industry experts on topics such as artificial intelligence, climate tech and renewables, intellectual property, biotech, investing in Silicon Valley, and growth stage companies, and general advice on career trajectories and strategies. We further held a young alumni roundtable, where our students got to speak with alumni who graduated in the past five years for intimate, candid discussions about life as junior associates. In total, our students heard from more than forty speakers, including over twenty University of Chicago alumni from various divisions.

    The Trek didn’t stop with education, though. Throughout the week students also had the opportunity to network with speakers to learn more from them outside the confines of panel presentations and to grow their networks. We had a networking dinner with Kirkland & Ellis, a closing dinner with all Trek participants, and for the first time hosted an event for admitted students, Trek participants, and alumni to come together to share experiences and recruit the next generation of Law School students. Several speakers and students stayed in touch following the Trek, and this resulted not just in meaningful relationships but also in employment for some students who attended.

    More information on the purposes of the Trek is available here , the full itinerary is available here , and one student participant’s story describing her reflections on and descriptions of her experience on the Trek is available here .

    The Innovation Clinic is grateful to all of its clients for continuing to provide its students with challenging, high-quality legal work, and to the many alumni who engage with us for providing an irreplaceable client pipeline and for sharing their time and energy with our students. Our clients are breaking the mold and bringing innovations to market that will improve the lives of people around the world in numerous ways. We are glad to aid in their success in any way that we can. We look forward to another productive year in 2024-2025!

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