Virtual Workshops

Friday, September 25, 2026 – 10:00 AM (Central Daylight Time, US)

Title: Not Whether, but Where: How Political Incentives Reshape Firms' Mandated CSR Allocation

Speaker: June Huang, University of Texas at Dallas

Abstract: We examine how political incentives reshape firms' allocation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) under India's CSR mandate. In voluntary settings, firms choose whether to engage in CSR—a mandate fixes this extensive margin and shifts the firm's decision to where CSR is allocated. Leveraging staggered state elections and granular CSR data, we find that firms reallocate CSR towards districts represented by the state’s majority political party during election years. The reallocation favors visible projects, such as health and education, offset by cuts to less visible projects, such as central-government funds, in opposition districts. Firms directing more election-year CSR to a district subsequently obtain greater credit from local bank branches, consistent with reallocation cultivating political benefits. Incumbents win more seats in districts receiving more CSR, and majority districts experience measurable improvements in living standards. Overall, mandatory CSR shifts strategic behavior from participation decisions to allocation choices.

Friday, August 28, 2026 – 10:00 AM (Central Daylight Time, US)

Title: Thinking Like a Small Firm

Speaker: Jonathan J. Morduch, New York University

Topic: Small firms often operate in unsteady environments. Two related projects—the Global Small Firm Diaries and the US Small Firm Diaries—document business decisions driven by concern with profit and revenues in the face of instability and liquidity constraints. The need for flexible cash management strategies makes structured loan contracts and formalization less appealing. Instability makes short-term labor contracts and piece rates more appealing. As a result, many firms remain optimally informal or semi-formal, and workers absorb much of the firms’ risk.

Friday, September 25, 2026 – 10:00 AM (Central Daylight Time, US)

Title: Not Whether, but Where: How Political Incentives Reshape Firms' Mandated CSR Allocation

Speaker: June Huang, University of Texas at Dallas

Abstract: We examine how political incentives reshape firms' allocation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) under India's CSR mandate. In voluntary settings, firms choose whether to engage in CSR -- a mandate fixes this extensive margin and shifts the firm's decision to where CSR is allocated. Leveraging staggered state elections and granular CSR data, we find that firms reallocate CSR towards districts represented by the state’s majority political party during election years. The reallocation favors visible projects, such as health and education, offset by cuts to less visible projects, such as central-government funds, in opposition districts. Firms directing more election-year CSR to a district subsequently obtain greater credit from local bank branches, consistent with reallocation cultivating political benefits. Incumbents win more seats in districts receiving more CSR, and majority districts experience measurable improvements in living standards. Overall, mandatory CSR shifts strategic behavior from participation decisions to allocation choices.

PART A: Friday, October 9, 2026 – 10:00 AM (Central Daylight Time, US)

PART B: Friday, October 16, 2026 – 10:00 AM (Central Daylight Time, US)

Title: Why Accounting? Origins, Evolution, and Implications for Development

Speaker: Sudipta Basu, Temple University

Topic: Accounting is one of humanity's oldest technologies, yet most empirical research treats it as a feature of modern, machine-readable economies. This two-session workshop steps back to ask foundational questions: Why was accounting invented? Where and when did it first appear, and what did access to it change? Why did double-entry bookkeeping emerge thousands of years later, and what made it superior to what came before? Drawing on archaeological data from Mesopotamia, a cross-country cross-time ethnographic sample, and a working paper on the origins of double-entry, the speaker argues that the history of accounting is directly relevant to development today—particularly for rural economies where literacy and numeracy are limited and simple, well-designed accounting systems could meaningfully improve decision-making among the poor. A secondary aim is to introduce ADF participants to archaeological, ethnographic, experimental, and neuroscientific methods that accounting researchers rarely use but that open promising avenues for interdisciplinary research.

Friday, December 11, 2026 – 10:00 AM (Central Standard Time, US)

Title: Corporate Tax Policy in Developed Countries and Economic Activity in Africa

Speaker: Rebecca Lester, Stanford University

Abstract: We study whether corporate tax policies in developed countries generate investment in developing economies. Exploiting a major U.K. corporate tax cut, we document a 20% increase in African subsidiaries of U.K. multinational firms relative to similar non-U.K. firms following the reduction of the corporate tax rate. Using nighttime lights and household surveys, we estimate an approximately 5% increased local economic activity and employment near U.K.-owned subsidiaries relative to areas near non-U.K. subsidiaries. Effects are concentrated in lower-skilled jobs and are not accompanied by gains in educational attainment. The findings highlight that developed-country tax policy can spur economic activity abroad, while immediate changes in broader socioeconomic outcomes appear limited.

Workshop organizers:

Marcela Aguilar, kma6@rice.edu

Fred Asante, faa48@cornell.edu

Samuel Chang, samuel.chang@chicagobooth.edu