Regulating technology prices can facilitate diffusion yet deter innovation. In India, price controls on genetically engineered (GE) cotton seeds induced this trade-off. Leveraging the policy’s differential timing across states, we show that mandated price reductions accelerated diffusion of GE seeds among farmers. Although seed supply kept pace, innovation stalled: fewer new varieties were introduced. Using newly assembled data from experimental field trials across India, we show that agronomic yields of new varieties fell in price-controlled states. To quantify the overall welfare implications of price and quality responses, we develop and estimate a structural model of demand and supply for seeds with endogenous product attributes. While the policy raised farmers’ surplus, especially among the poor, ignoring quality adjustments in equilibrium vastly overstates their welfare gains. We use the estimated model to assess alternative policies that better balance diffusion and innovation incentives. For a given public budget, incentives for seed developers based on the productivity of new varieties achieve the highest aggregate welfare.
Supported by the Center for Economic History and the EconLab at Northwestern University, an International Research Travel Grant from the Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, and a Graduate Research Grant from the Graduate School at Northwestern University.
[Abstract] [Draft coming soon]
Natural soil endowments have historically constrained agricultural productivity and population growth. The 19th century witnessed technological breakthroughs, such as nitrogenous fertilizers, which alleviated these constraints and paved the way to intensive farming. This paper studies the introduction and rapid diffusion of guano in 19th-century England. We first establish that nitrogen deficiency shaped cropping patterns prior to guano's arrival. Drawing on newly digitized data and leveraging the discovery of Peruvian guano as a natural experiment, we show that nitrogen-poor areas reallocated their production toward nitrogen-demanding, more profitable crops. These same areas also experienced increases in livestock, consistent with a shift to "high farming". The effects are driven by areas with (i) initially lower agricultural productivity, and (ii) higher distance to input markets, consistent with convergence. We evaluate the welfare gains from guano through a quantitative spatial model of agricultural trade within England. While guano raised welfare substantially, the "converging" nature of the technological shock reduced gains from trade across regions.
We study the optimal design of agricultural input subsidies using an experiment in Mozambique that cross-randomized subsidy rates for small and for large input quantities. Increased subsidy rates for small quantities increase payouts to poorer farmers, but divert farmers from large input quantities. While they do not reach poorer farmers, increased subsidy rates for large quantities increase agricultural production by 36% by increasing input use by more marginally productive farmers, overcoming both informational and financial constraints. We derive and estimate sufficient statistics to quantify how planner preferences over productivity, transfers, and equity shape optimal agricultural input subsidies.
Maximum Wages and Organizational Performance: Evidence from the Liberian Public Sector (with [Erika Deserranno](https://sites.google.com/site/erikadeserranno/home), [Jennifer Ljungqvist](https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/ljungqvist.jennifer), [Vincent Pons](https://www.vincentpons.org/), and [Daniel Rogger](https://danrogger.com/))
publications
2025
Brigandage and the Political Legacy of Monarchical Legitimacy in Southern Italy
Matteo Ruzzante, and Cristoforo Pizzimenti
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2025
Political legitimacy plays a pivotal role in securing the effectiveness and longevity of a governing system, yet it can be eroded by the way rulers handle popular uprisings. This paper studies whether a historical shock in the legitimacy of monarchic rule can have long-term, intergenerational consequences on political attitudes. The unification of Italy ignited a violent reaction against the new ruler in its southern provinces known as the "Great Brigandage". We use fixed effects regressions with a wide set of controls and an instrumental variable approach based on military suitability of the terrain in order to show that, ceteris paribus, municipalities exposed to brigandage in the 1861-1870 period had lower turnout in the 1946 Institutional Referendum and were significantly less likely to vote for the survival of the monarchy. Heterogeneity analysis leveraging a spatial discontinuity in martial law suggests that anti-monarchic sentiment likely stemmed from the collective memory of brigandage repression. We interpret our findings as evidence that latent preferences toward political systems are endogenously shaped by historical events and can be brought to the surface by changes in the institutional environment.
@article{ruzzante2025brigandage,title={Brigandage and the Political Legacy of Monarchical Legitimacy in Southern Italy},author={Ruzzante, Matteo and Pizzimenti, Cristoforo},journal={Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization},volume={235},pages={107000},year={2025},publisher={Elsevier},doi={10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107000},}
2024
Teacher-Led Innovations to Improve Education Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from Brazil
We provide experimental evidence from an education program in Brazil that empowers public school teachers, through a combination of technical assistance and earmarked funding, to design and introduce locally adapted pedagogical innovations. While the study encompasses grades 5, 6, and 10, we find consistent and pronounced impacts on learning and school progression in 6th grade, a critical transition year from primary to lower-secondary education. Positive effects are concentrated in schools where teachers are most affected and where the rate of in-school project implementation was highest. We argue that program components are likely complementary and that education projects designed to tackle multiple constraints simultaneously can improve service delivery and child outcomes.
@article{piza2024teacher,title={Teacher-Led Innovations to Improve Education Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from Brazil},author={Piza, Caio and Zwager, Astrid and Ruzzante, Matteo and Dantas, Rafael and Loureiro, Andre},journal={Journal of Public Economics},volume={234},pages={105123},year={2024},publisher={Elsevier},doi={j.jpubeco.2024.105123},}
2022
Do Private Consultants Promote Savings and Investments in Rural Mozambique?
Advice from management professionals can help small‐ and medium‐sized firms reach complex financial goals in low‐ and middle‐income countries. We apply lessons learned in the firm literature to determine the degree in which farmer associations face constraints to management and planning capacity that can be alleviated by the provision of advice from external consultants. In particular, we conducted a randomized control trial in 42 water user associations (WUAs) in Mozambique to examine whether more intensive attention from financial consultants through repeated follow‐up visits prompts households to save and invest in agricultural equipment. All WUAs received a financial literacy training and were eligible to receive a matching grant. Twenty‐one WUAs were randomized into the treatment group that additionally were visited by private consultants quarterly, who tailored their advice to meet individuals’ own savings and investment objectives. We find the follow‐up visits increase ‘hidden savings’ in the form of new capital investments on farmers’ own account. Thus, the visits may have changed savings’ habits by leading farmers to invest in technologies that were not directly subsidized. Our ability to detect an additional effect on the type of investments farmers targeted through the matching grant and, hence, the savings for the respective investments is limited given the power of our study design. Although the proportion of households saving increased, the intervention was likely less cost‐effective than other modalities aimed to enhance the proclivity to save.
@article{christian2022private,title={Do Private Consultants Promote Savings and Investments in Rural Mozambique?},author={Christian, Paul and Glover, Steven and Kondylis, Florence and Mueller, Valerie and Ruzzante, Matteo and Zwager, Astrid},journal={Agricultural Economics},volume={53},number={1},pages={22--36},year={2022},publisher={Wiley Online Library},doi={10.1111/agec.12672},}
2020
Psychological Factors Influencing Pro-environmental Behavior in Developing Countries: Evidence from Colombian and Nicaraguan Students
Manuel Francisco Díaz , Andrés Charry , Stefania Sellitti , Matteo Ruzzante, Karen Enciso , and Stefan Burkart
Identifying the determinants of human behavior is useful to adjust interventions and lead the civil society toward a stronger commitment to climate change (CC) mitigation and adaptation objectives, achieving greater support for successfully implementing environmental policies. Existing research has largely focused on case studies of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in developed economies but there is very little evidence for developing countries. This study provides estimations of the effect of internal factors, such as sociodemographic variables, and four psychological dimensions (CC knowledge, environmental attitudes, self-efficacy, and trust in sources of environmental information) on PEBs. Data were obtained through a survey applied with future decision makers – university students – from Colombia (n = 4,769) and Nicaragua (n = 2,354). Indices were generated for PEBs and the psychological dimensions using z-scores and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Partial correlations were evaluated through the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. Our results suggest that, in order to reach the planned emission reduction targets, policy approaches should more strongly focus on educating and motivating citizens and prepare them for contributing to the environmental cause, as well as provide individual solutions to combat CC, rather than providing only information on its causes and consequences.
@article{diaz2020psychological,title={Psychological Factors Influencing Pro-environmental Behavior in Developing Countries: Evidence from Colombian and Nicaraguan Students},author={D{\'i}az, Manuel Francisco and Charry, Andr{\'e}s and Sellitti, Stefania and Ruzzante, Matteo and Enciso, Karen and Burkart, Stefan},journal={Frontiers in Psychology},volume={11},pages={580730},year={2020},publisher={Frontiers Media SA},doi={10.3389/fpsyg.2020.580730},}
policy briefs and reports
**São Paulo Development and Access to Markets Project** (with [Isabela Furtado](https://blogs.worldbank.org/team/isabela-furtado), [Caio Piza](https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/people/c/caio-piza), and [Astrid Zwager](https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/people/a/astrid-zwager))
**Perceptions on Climate Change in Colombia and Nicaragua: Evidence from Higher Education Students** (with Stefan Burkart, Manuel F. Díaz, Karen Enciso, and Stefania Sellitti)
