Edward Miguel

Professor; Oxfam Chair in Environmental and Resource Economics

Dept of Economics

Faculty URL

http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~emiguel/

Contact

emiguel@berkeley.edu

(510) 642-4361

(510) 642-6615

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ORCID

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6927-709X

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Research Expertise and Interest

Africa, education, development economics, human capital, health, ethnic divisions, social capital, civil conflict, war, pre-analysis plans, water.

Research Description

Ted's main research focus is African economic development, including work on the economic causes and consequences of violence; the impact of ethnic divisions on local collective action; interactions between health, education, environment, and productivity for the poor; and methods for transparency in social science research. He has conducted field work in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and India.

In the News

women in Bangladesh in a crowded line await COVID-relief aid

Pandemic caused ‘staggering’ economic, human impact in global south, study says

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year led to a devastating loss of jobs and income across the global south, threatening hundreds of millions of people with hunger and lost savings and raising an array of risks for children, according to new research co-authored at the University of California, Berkeley.

School worker gives a de-worming pill to a young student at a school in Western Kenya

Treating children for worms yields long-term benefits, says new study

COVID-19 in the global south: Economic impacts and recovery

COVID-19 is threatening the health and economic security of communities around the world, with dire implications for those living in poverty. As the pandemic unfolds, the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) is committed to sharing practical insights that can support evidence-based responses in the Global South.

Nine faculty elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Nine UC Berkeley faculty members from a wide range of disciplines have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), a 240-year-old organization honoring the country’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists and leaders.

The driver of a motorcycle taxi in Kenya wears a makeshift mask to protect against the COVID19 virus. [AP photo by Patrick Ngugi]

Africa faces grave risks as COVID-19 emerges, says Berkeley economist

The first cases of COVID-19 emerged in China last November, and the virus has since moved inexorably to Europe and the United States. The virus didn’t arrive in Africa — home to 1.2 billion people — until the end of February, when a case emerged in Nigeria.

UC Berkeley economist Ted Miguel in western Kenya, where he has studied the impact on deworming programs on children's health and education outcomes.

Economist Ted Miguel awakens to Nobel Prize dream — well, almost

UC Berkeley economist Ted Miguel awoke before dawn on Monday, Oct. 14, to the buzzing of dozens of texts and emails. As he blearily scanned his smartphone, a scenario that virtually every scholar and scientist dreams about gradually came into focus.

New Opportunity Lab to focus on policy for poverty, inequality

If anything can save the country from its current political dysfunction, it is “good, policy-oriented research,” Christina Romer, a UC Berkeley economist and former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Study finds climate change will reshape global economy

The average person will suffer economic harm, often dramatic harm, by 2100 if climate change continues on its current course, new research shows.

The Economics of Change

Philomathia Innovation Seed Fund recipient Edward Miguel applies the tools of economics to such social issues as access to affordable energy and the possible links between climate and conflict.

Warmer climate strongly affects human conflict and violence worldwide, says study

Shifts in climate are strongly linked to human violence around the world, and according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University, even relatively minor departures from normal temperatures or rainfall can substantially increase the risk of conflict.

Treasury official who spotted $2 trillion error is recent economics Ph.D.

John Bellows may not have the household-name recognition of Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke or Christina Romer. But the U.S. Treasury Department’s acting assistant secretary has generated widespread buzz in finance and policy circles since finding a $2 trillion error in the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) calculations it used to support a historic decision to downgrade the nation’s credit rating.

Symposium to report ROI on programs investing in girls

Positive outcomes and lessons to be learned from new approaches to help girls and women struggling in developing countries will be explored at an April 28 symposium to be hosted by the Center for Evaluation of Global Action (CEGA), based at UC Berkeley.

Climate change could boost incidence of civil war in Africa, study finds

Climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by over 50 percent within the next two decades, according to a new study led by a team of researchers at University of California, Berkeley, and published in the online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Featured in the Media

Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.

February 9, 2021

A Survey of 30,000 Household Reveals COVID-19's Economic Toll in the Developing World

Vox

Kelsey Piper

Even in the richest countries in the world, the pandemic has devastated millions. Developing countries have faced the same challenges with far fewer resources to absorb them with. How have their people fared? A new paper aims to solve that problem in the most direct way possible by surveying tens of thousands of people in developing countries about what COVID-19 has been like for them. The paper, co-authored by UC Berkeley's Edward Miguel gives us a new window into what it has been like to live through 2020 in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, the Philippines, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News.

FullStory

August 6, 2020

A New Study Finds That Giving Kids Deworming Treatment Still Benefits Them 20 Years Later

Vox

Kelsey Piper

Twenty years after a mass effort in Kenyan schools to treat children for common intestinal parasites, researchers including UC Berkeley's Edward Miguel returned to the original Kenyan sample where they'd first discovered the potentially life-changing impacts of mass deworming campaigns. Following up with the original participants 20 years later, they wanted to answer the question: Are the benefits they initially discovered from childhood deworming treatment - which included more time in school and higher adult incomes - still showing up? For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News.

FullStory

August 4, 2020

Treating Children For Worms Yields Long-Term Benefits

Xinhua

Children who receive sustained treatment against common parasitic infections grow up to achieve a higher standard of living, with long-lasting health and economic benefits extending to communities, according to research released this week by the University of California, Berkeley. "We found that, in Kenya, this modest investment led to significant improvements in the lives of infected individuals and for whole communities, and the benefits are long-lasting," said lead author Edward Miguel, a UC Berkeley development economist. For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News.

FullStory

December 2, 2019

Goats and Soda: Researchers Find a Remarkable Ripple Effect When You Give Cash to Poor Families

NPR

Nurith Aizenman

Every dollar of unconditional cash aid provided to households in a poor, rural area of Kenya by the GiveDirectly nonprofit increased total economic activity in the area by $2.60, according to a study led by environmental and resource economics professor Edward Miguel, faculty director of Berkeley's Center for Effective Global Action. Professor Miguel and his colleagues analyzed the benefits of the charity's distribution of $1,000 to 10,500 randomly selected households. "That's a really big income transfer," he says. "About three-quarters of the income of the [recipient] households for a year on average." Speaking of the way those infusions benefited the entire community, he says: "The cash transfers were something like 17% of total local income -- local GDP. ... That money goes to local businesses. ... They sell more. They generate more revenue. And then eventually that gets passed on into labor earnings for their workers." Link to audio. Stories on this topic have appeared in dozens of sources around the world, including Vox, Mother Nature Network, and Daily Kos.

FullStory

November 26, 2019

Helicopter money: Unconditional handouts benefit recipients -- and their neighbours too

The Economist

Unconditional cash transfers now form 70% of the welfare programs used by 142 countries, and a new working paper co-authored by environmental and resource economics professor Edward Miguel, faculty director of Berkeley's Center for Effective Global Action, and graduate economics students Dennis Egger and Michael Walker, is easing some doubts economists have had about their effectiveness in reducing poverty. Looking at the benefits of the GiveDirectly charity's distribution of $1,000 to 10,000 randomly selected households in rural Kenya between 2014 and 2017, the authors found that consumption rose by 13% not just among the households that received the grants, but also among their neighbors, who'd not received any money. The researchers estimated that the local GDP rose by $2.60 for every dollar awarded.

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December 18, 2018

The creative ways foreign aid groups are boosting rural economies

Fast Company

Sachin Waikar

In some developing countries -- such as Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and Liberia -- large-scale foreign-aid efforts fail to reach people in rural areas, and a new study co-authored by economics professor Edward Miguel compared different strategies to overcome that shortfall. According to the lead author of the report: "Community-driven development was supposed to be transformational. ... The idea of empowering the poorest people to take more control over local governance was inspiring. But research showed it wasn't having as much effect as everyone hoped. Not surprisingly, it turns out that restructuring political hierarchies that have been in place for a very long time isn't something outsiders can do easily." But a more focused strategy identifying and encouraging the use of talented "technocrats" who are not part of the ruling elite has proven more effective, as well as less expensive, in underserved regions.

FullStory