Conference Presentations: AGEW 2024, WB/GU Poverty Conference 2023, Fourth SANEM-World Bank  North America Discussion Forum 2023, CES North America Conference 2023, AMIE 2nd Workshop in Applied Microeconomics 2022, ADE 2022, YES 2022, 14th Joint IOS/APB/EACES Summer Academy, ICDE 2022, NOVAFRICA 2022, NCDE 2022, SEHO 2022, DEVPEC 2022, PACDEV 2022, ACLEC Poster Session 2021

Do household members hide employment income from one another? Consistent with income hiding within the household, I find that respondents in Kenya and Indonesia underestimate labor income of other household members, and underreport own income when other household members are present. Households with measured hiding consume more private goods and transfer more to extended families. I develop and test a household model where each member can strategically underreport income, increasing private consumption at the expense of household efficiency. In equilibrium, cooperation is endogenous and incomplete, as household members collectively allocate reported income, but total income is not allocated efficiently.

Despite the prevalence of economic shocks that children face in developing countries, there is a limited understanding of what contributes to resilience. We use a longitudinal dataset to study the effect of economic shocks in the household on the development of cognitive and noncognitive skills in Ethiopian adolescents. We find that economic shocks cause a weak reduction in cognitive test scores but a significant increase in noncognitive skills, including generalized self-efficacy, self-esteem, and internal locus of control. Our result indicates a remarkable level of resilience among Ethiopian adolescents and suggests the importance of incorporating noncognitive skills into the education system.