Dates
Nov 6–7, 2025
Venue
World Bank HQ, Washington, D.C.
Keynote
Seema Jayachandran, Princeton University
Hosts
World Bank DECDI · KDI School
Keynote speaker
Seema Jayachandran
Professor of Economics, Princeton University
Program
Times shown are session start times; sessions ran back-to-back.
Day 1 · Thursday, November 6
08:30Registration & coffee
09:00Opening remarksArianna Legovini, Director, Development Impact Group, World Bank · Joon-Kyung Kim, Dean, KDI School
09:30JobsChair: Yoonyoung Cho (World Bank)Brian Jabarian (UChicago)Voice AI in Firms: A Natural Field Experiment on Automated Job InterviewsJennifer Kades (RAND)Soft Skills and HiringJohanna Roth (Sciences Po)Reaching Marginalized Job Seekers through Public Employment Services: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia
10:35Coffee break
10:50LaborChair: John Loeser (World Bank)Shreya Chandra (UC Berkeley)Flexible Work Arrangements and Firm Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from IndiaTrinh Pham (KDIS)Who Benefits from Industrialization? Labor Market Adjustments and Household Welfare in Vietnam
11:55Urban Environment and EnergyChair: Remi Jedwab (George Washington)Maulik Jagnani (Tufts)High Returns, Low Adoption: Air Purifiers in Bangladeshi FirmsNarae Lee (World Bank)Electrifying Paratransit? Experimental Evidence on Vehicle Access Contracts, Labor Productivity, and Driver-Firm IncidenceSvetoslava Milusheva (World Bank)The Congestion Impacts of Curfews and Externalities on Road Traffic Crashes
13:00Lunch
14:00Lightning sessionsSunny Jaiwon Lee (Yonsei)Cleaner Air through Cheaper Transfers? The Case of an Integrated Fare SystemAyah Bohsali (Pompeu Fabra)Conflict, Forced Displacement and Growth: Evidence from UgandaRicardo Pommer Muñoz (Columbia)Information Frictions and the Market for Climate AdaptationAnirudh Sankar (Stanford)How Mechanistic Explanations Reshape Learning and Behavior: Evidence from a Fertilizer Choice Experiment in Eastern UgandaGabriella Fleischman (Harvard)Economic and Psychological Returns to Social Relationships: Alleviating Constraints to Network Formation in MalawiAlejandra Quintana (Columbia)Shaped by Stories: Migration Inflows and Higher Education Decisions of Natives
15:00Coffee break
15:15EducationChair: Luis Benveniste (World Bank)Benedetta Lerva (World Bank)An Apple a Day: The Impact of Healthier School Meals on Children in JordanFelipe Barrera-Osorio (Vanderbilt)Public-Private Partnerships in Education: Experimental Evidence from ColombiaAxel Eizmendi Larrinaga (Tufts)Cash and Cognition: The Impact of Transfer Timing on Standardized Test Performance and Human Capital
16:20HealthChair: Damien de Walque (World Bank)Carlos Paramo (Stanford)Who Calls the Shots? Financial Incentives and Provider Influence in the Adoption of a New Health TechnologyEmma Smith (Georgetown)Stigma and Social Cover: A Mental Health Care Experiment in Refugee NetworksMariel Bedoya (Columbia)The Making of a Public Sector Worker: The Causal Effects of Temporary Work Assignments to Poor Areas
17:30Reception
Day 2 · Friday, November 7
09:00Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentChair: Paul Christian (World Bank)Joshua Deutschmann (UChicago)Long-Run Impacts of Increased Access to Asset-Collateralized LoansMatteo Ruzzante (Northwestern)Price Regulation and the Adoption–Innovation Trade-OffIshani Chatterjee (Analysis Group)A Road for All Seasons: Market Access and Inter-Temporal Arbitrage in Rural IndiaXavier Gine (World Bank)Autonomy and Technology Adoption
10:30Coffee break
11:00GenderChair: Michael B. O’Sullivan (World Bank)Geetika Nagpal (World Bank)The Cost of Gender on Rent for Single Women in South AsiaSofia Amaral (World Bank)Debiasing the Workplace: Evidence from an Expressive Arts Intervention in India with Law EnforcementKatherine Vyborny (World Bank)Women’s Mobility and Labor Supply: Experimental Evidence from PakistanEric Edmonds (Dartmouth)Talk Therapy and Human Capital in Adolescence: Evidence from a Low-Resource Setting
12:30Lunch
13:30Keynote — Seema JayachandranProfessor of Economics, Princeton University
14:30Coffee break
14:45EntrepreneurshipChair: Miriam Bruhn (World Bank)Moritz Poll (Brown)Poverty Alleviation at High FrequencyDavid Sungho Park (KDIS)Misperceptions and Product Choice: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in ZambiaPedro Felipe Magaña Sáenz (Wisconsin–Madison)Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Digital Receipts in the Ugandan Dairy Chain
15:55Governance and FCVChair: Arturo Herrera Gutierrez (World Bank)Luca Stanus-Ghib (World Bank)The State of Maintenance: Can Government and Citizens Cooperate for Improved Water Access?Dongil Lee (KDIS)Electronic Payroll System and Intra-Civil Service Corruption: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of CongoChungeun Yoon (KDIS)Natural Disasters, Local Economic Impacts and Migration: Evidence from the 2004 Tsunami in Sri Lanka