Jessica Leight
Research Fellow, IFPRI
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D., Economics, 2013
Oxford University, M.Phil., Economics, 2008
Yale College, B.A., summa cum laude, Ethics, Politics and Economics, 2006
Fields of Specialization
Development economics, health economics
Publications in economics journals
Besley, Timothy, Jessica Leight, Rohini Pande and Vijayendra Rao. 2016. “Long-Run Impacts of Land Regulation: Evidence from Tenancy Reform in India." Journal of Development Economics 118: 72-87.
Leight, Jessica. 2016. "Reallocating Wealth? Insecure Property Rights and Agricultural Investment in Rural China." China Economic Review 40: 207-227.
Leight, Jessica. 2017. "Sibling Rivalry: Ability and Intrahousehold Allocation in Gansu Province, China." Economic Development and Cultural Change 65 (3): 457-493.
Leight, Jessica. 2018. “The Impact of Positive Agricultural Income Shocks on Rural Chinese Households” World Bank Economic Review 34(1): 210-231. On-line appendix
Leight, Jessica and Elaine Liu. 2018. "Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-cognitive Characteristics in Rural China." Forthcoming, Economic Development and Cultural Change. On-line appendix
Erten, Bilge, Jessica Leight and Fiona Tregenna. 2019. "Trade Liberalization and Local Labor Market Adjustment in South Africa." Journal of International Economics 118: 448–467.
Leight, Jessica and Elana Safran. 2019. “Increasing Immunization Compliance Among Schools and Day Care Centers: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial.” Journal of Behavioral Public Administration 2(2): 1-15.
Erten, Bilge and Jessica Leight. 2019. "Exporting out of Agriculture: The Impact of WTO Accession on Structural Transformation in China." Forthcoming, Review of Economics and Statistics.
Leight, Jessica and Nicholas Wilson. 2020. Framing Flexible Spending Accounts: A Large-Scale Field Experiment on Communicating the Return on Medical Savings Accounts. Health Economics 29:195–208
Leight, Jessica, Dana Foarta, Rohini Pande and Laura Ralston. 2020. “Value for Money: Vote-Buying and Politician Accountability.” Journal of Public Economics 120: 104227.
Publications in health journals
Sharma, Vandana, Willa Brown, Muhammad Kainuwa, Jessica Leight, and Martina Bjorkman Nyquist. 2017. “High Maternal Mortality in Jigawa State, Northern Nigeria Estimated Using the Sisterhood Method.” BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 17 (163).
Sharma, Vandana, Jessica Leight, Fatima Abdulaziz, Nadege Giroux and Martina Bjorkman Nyqvist. 2017. “Illness Recognition, Decision-making and Care-seeking for Maternal and Newborn complications: A Qualitative Study in Jigawa State, Northern Nigeria.” Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition 36 (Suppl 1) 46: 59-96.
Leight, Jessica, Vandana Sharma, Willa Brown, Laura Costica, Fatima Abdulaziz Sule, and Martina Björkman Nyqvist. 2018. “Associations Between Birth Kit Use and Maternal and Neonatal Health Outcomes in Rural Jigawa State, Nigeria: A Secondary Analysis of Data from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.” PLOS One 13 (12): e0208885.
Sharma, Vandana, Jessica Leight, Nadège Giroux, Fatima Abdulaziz, and Martina Björkman Nyqvist. “That's a Woman's Problem”: A Qualitative Analysis to Understand Male Involvement in Maternal and Newborn Health in Jigawa State, Northern Nigeria.” 2019. Reproductive Health 16 (143).
Sharma, Vandana, Jessica Leight, Fabio Verani, Samuel Tewolde, and Negussie Deyessa. “Effectiveness of a Culturally Appropriate Intervention to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Transmission Among Men, Women and Couples in Rural Ethiopia: Findings from a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial.” PLoS Medicine 17 (8): e1003274 Unite for a Better Life Overview
Leight, Jessica, Negussie Deyessa, Fabio Verani, Samuel Tewolde, and Vandana Sharma. 2020. “An Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Intervention for Men, Women and Couples in Ethiopia: Additional Findings on Substance Use and Depressive Symptoms from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.” PLoS Medicine 17 (8): e1003131.
Unite for a Better Life Overview
Research Papers
Economy of China and agricultural economics
Misallocation, Selection and Productivity: A Quantitative Analysis with Panel Data from China (Joint with Tasso Adamopoulos, Loren Brandt and Diego Restuccia) Revision submitted, Econometrica
The Impact of an Integrated Value Chain Intervention on Household Poultry Production in Burkina Faso: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial (Joint with Josué Awonon, Abdoulaye Pedehombga, Rasmané Ganaba, Elena Martinez, Jessica Heckert, and Aulo Gelli) Under review
Export Expansion, Human Capital Investment and the Urban-Rural Educational Gap: Evidence from China (Joint with Yao Pan) Under review
Human capital
Advancing the Agency of Adolescent Girls (Joint with Eric Edmonds and Benjamin Feigenberg) Revision requested, Review of Economics and Statistics Project page
Like Father, Like Son, Like Mother, Like Daughter: Intergenerational Transmission of Intrahousehold Gender Norms in Ethiopia Revision submitted, World Development
Short-Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Contraceptive Access and Utilization in Mozambique (Joint with Liza Ali, Marcos Chissano and Catherine Hensly) Revision requested, PLoS One
Intimate Partner Violence and Maternal Health Services Utilization: Evidence from 36 National Household Surveys (Joint with Nicholas Wilson) Revision requested, BMC Public Health
Community Health Educators and Maternal Health: Experimental Evidence from Northern Nigeria Under review
Can Grants for Community Service Foster Social and Economic Integration for Youth? A Randomized Trial in Kazakhstan (Joint with Syon Bhanot, Benjamin Crost, Eric Mvukiyehe and Bauyrzhan Yedgenov) Under review
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of an Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Intervention Targeting Men, Women and Couples in Rural Ethiopia: Evidence from Unite for a Better Life (Joint with Vandana Sharma and Negussie Deyessa) Under review Unite for a Better Life Overview
Community-level Spillover Effects of an Intervention to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence and HIV transmission in Rural Ethiopia: Findings from Indirect Beneficiaries in a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (Joint with Vandana Sharma, Negussie Deyessa, Samuel Tewolde, and Fabio Verani) Under review
Perceived Challenges and Successes of Delivering a Community Health Worker Program in Jigawa state, Northern Nigeria: A Qualitative Study. (Joint with Vandana Sharma, Nadège Giroux, Fatima Abdulaziz, and Martina Björkman Nyqvist)
Research in Progress
Human capital
Can Entertainment Education be Used to Prevent Alcohol and Drug Use by Young People? (Joint with Laura Costica and Victor Orozco)
Increasing Effectiveness of Family Planning Promoters in Mozambique through an SMS Interventione (Joint with Catherine Hensly, Julian Jamison, and Elana Safran)
Agricultural economics
Impact Evaluation of the Strengthen PSNP4 Institutions and Resilience (SPIR) Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) (Joint with Harold Alderman, Fantu Bachewe, Daniel Gilligan, Melissa Hidrobo, Gayathri Ramani and Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse)