Erlend Berg

Senior Lecturer in Economics
University of Bristol

Email: erlend.berg@bristol.ac.uk
Post: Department of Economics, Priory Road Complex, Bristol BS8 1TU, United Kingdom
Office: 3C5 in the Priory Road Complex
Office hour (no appointment needed): Tuesday 14:30-15:30 during term

My main research interests are in social protection, household risk management and policy evaluation in developing countries. Several of my projects involve randomised-controlled trials or field experiments.

After obtaining my PhD from the London School of Economics, I was the Acting Research Network Director of the International Growth Centre and subsequently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford. I am affiliated with the Centre for Market and Public Organisation and the Centre for the Study of African Economies.

I currently lecture microeconomics for second-year undergraduates and development economics for master's students. I also have experience teaching econometrics, mathematics, statistics and programming.

Working Papers

• Risk sharing and the demand for insurance: Theory and experimental evidence from Ethiopia. Revise and resubmit, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
  With Michael Blake and Karlijn Morsink.
  
• Cellfare: Delivering self-targeted welfare using mobile phones
  With D Rajasekhar and R Manjula.
  CSAE Working Paper 2017-14.

Publications

• Pushing welfare: Encouraging awareness and uptake of social benefits in South India
  With D Rajasekhar and R Manjula. Accepted for publication, Economic Development and Cultural Change.
• Motivating knowledge agents: Can incentive pay overcome social distance?
  [WP]
  With Maitreesh Ghatak, R Manjula, D Rajasekhar and Sanchari Roy.
  Economic Journal, 2019, 129(617):110–142.
• Can public works increase equilibrium wages? Evidence from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee
  [WP]
  With Sambit Bhattacharyya, Rajasekhar Durgam and Manjula Ramachandra.
  World Development, March 2018, 103:239–254.
• Does participation lead to on-going infrastructure maintenance? Evidence from Caribbean landslide mitigation projects
  With Liz Holcombe, Sarah Smith, Malcolm Anderson and Niels Holm-Nielsen.
  Journal of Development Studies, 2018, 54(8):1374–1391.
• Funeral Insurance: An Inter-Generational Commitment Device?
  [WP]
  Journal of African Economies, 2018, 27(3):321–346.
• Are poor households credit-constrained or myopic? Evidence from a South African panel
  [WP]
  Journal of Development Economics, 2013, 101:195–205.
• Implementing health insurance: The rollout of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in Karnataka
  With Maitreesh Ghatak, R Manjula, D Rajasekhar and Sanchari Roy.
  Economic and Political Weekly, 2011, 46(20):56–63.
• The youngest children in each school cohort are over-represented in referrals to mental health services
  [WP]
  With S Berg.
  Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2014, 75(5):530–534.