I use applied microeconomic methods to study overlapping issues in international development, agriculture, health, nutrition, and cannabis policy.
Development Economics
Research focuses on poverty, food security, and household decision making. Previous work includes leading large evaluations of food assistance and social protection programs in Ethiopia and Yemen, and an RCT in Bangladesh evaluating risk and credit constraints in agricultural storage technology decisions. Recent work has focused on digital technologies in agriculture, and methodological innovations in measurement.
Published papers
Ijaz, A.*, Yu, J., Schwab, B. and J Cho. (2025). Quality signaling and willingness-to-pay: An experimental assessment. Marketing Letters 36: 341-353
Schwab, B & J. Yu. (2024) Guaranteed storage? Risk and credit constraints in the demand for postharvest technology and rice seed storage decisions in Bangladesh Oxford Economic Papers [MWIEDC 2023 version]
Peterson-Wilhelm, B & B. Schwab. (2024) How does recall bias in farm labor impact separability tests? Food Policy, 128:102669. [preprint]
Yao, B., Shanoyan, A., B. Schwab, & V. Amanor-Boadu. (2023) “The role of mobile money in household resilience: Evidence from Kenya.” World Development, 165(C)
Yao, B., Shanoyan, A., B. Schwab & V. Amanor-Boadu.. (2022) “Mobile money, transaction costs, and market participation: Evidence from Cote d’Ivoire and Tanzania.” Food Policy, 112:102370.
Hodjo, M., Schwab, B., Kere, M., Milougo, V., & A. Sririvastava (2021). “Demand for agriculture mechanization in the Hauts-Bassins Region (HBR) in Burkina Faso”, Journal of Agribusiness, 39(1): 39-64
Peterman, A., Schwab, B., Roy, S., Hidrobo, M., and D. Gilligan. (2021). Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen. World Development. 141 (May) [open access]
Schwab, B., Janzen, S., Magnan, N., and W. Thompson. “swindex: Constructing a summary index using the standardized inverse covariance weighted average of indicators.” Stata Journal. 204(4): 952-964 [files]
Schwab, B. (2020) In the form of bread? A randomized comparison of cash and food transfers in Yemen. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 102(1): 91-113 [replication files]
Kang, M., Schwab, B. , and J. Yu. (2020). “Gender differences in the relationship between land ownership and managerial rights: Implications for intrahousehold farm labor allocation.” World Development. 125 (January)
Schwab, B. (2019) Comparing the Productive Effects of Cash and Food Transfers in a Crisis Setting: Evidence from a Randomised Experiment in Yemen, The Journal of Development Studies, 55:sup1, 29-54
Hoel, J., Schwab, B. and J. Hoddinott. (2016). “Self-control fatigue, cognitive function, and the expression of time preference: Experimental results from Ethiopia.” Journal of Economic Psychology. 52: 136-146
Pearson, R. Afaw. S., Baschieri, A., …. Schwab, B… (and 18 others). (2016) “The role of the Tigray Pilot Social Cash Transfer programme and its evaluation in the evolution of the Tigray Social Protection Policy,” in Davis, B., Handa, S., Hypher, N., Rossi, N. W., Winters, P., and Yablonski, J. (Eds.). From evidence to action: the story of cash transfers and impact evaluation in sub Saharan Africa. Oxford University Press: pp. 168-196
Heathers, J., Hoel, J., Wegerif, S., Schwab, B., Ledlie, N., Abay, K., & J. Hoddinott (2014). “Smartphone platform survey-scale heart rate collection: a performance evaluation in Ethiopia.” Proceedings of Wireless Health 2014, October.
Working Papers/ In-progress
Peterson-Wilhelm, B., Schwab, B., Hemachandra, D. & D. Headey. “Social desirability in program evaluation: The case of a childhood nutrition program in Sri Lanka”.
Peterson-Wilhelm, B. & B. Schwab, “List experiments over the phone – A proof of concept.” Working Paper.
Schwab, B. & M. Hodjo. Who Has the Time? The Gendered Division of Agricultural Labor and Demand for Mechanized Services in Ethiopia
Cannabis Production, Land Use and Policy
An ongoing research program examines the implications of changing cannabis policy on agriculture, the environment, and rural land use and values. Ongoing projects include an examination of cannabis formalization and compliance in California, hemp adoption and decision making in Kansas, and the selection of medical providers into the medical marijuana system in three states.
Published Papers
Ebert, K., Hoch, B., Taylor, H., & B. Schwab. (2020). “From the ground up: A look at Kansas’ first year of industrial hemp production.” Western Economics Forum, 18(2), December.
Schwab, B. (2020). Media Review: What happens when a state grows way too much weed? American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 102(3): 1050-1052.
Schwab, B., A. Wartenberg and V. Butsic. (2019). Characteristics of farms applying for cannabis cultivation permits. California Agriculture, 73(3): 128-135
Butsic, V., Schwab, B., Baumann, M., and J.C. Brenner (2017). Inside the Emerald Triangle: Modeling the placement and size of cannabis production in Humboldt County, CA USA. Ecological Economics, 142: 70-80.
Brandt, J., Butsic, V., Schwab, B., Radloff, V. and T. Kuemmerle. (2015). The relative effectiveness of protected areas, a logging ban, and sacred areas for old-growth forest protection in southwest China. Biological Conservation. 181: 1-8
Working Papers/In-Progress
Schwab, B. and V. Butsic. Green Acres: Cannabis agriculture, formalization and rural land values in Northern California. Revise and Resubmit, American Journal of Agricultural Economics
Popular Press
Schwab, B. (2021). “Governor Kelly needs to get medical marijuana right in Kansas. Don’t make Ohio’s mistake” Kansas City Star. Op-ed. February 11, 2021.
Agriculture, Health and Nutrition
Research focuses on health and labor market rewards in the US, as well as cross-cutting issues in food safety and nutrition across the globe.
Published Papers
Namingit, S., Blankneau, W. and B. Schwab. Sick and Tell: A field experiment analyzing the effects of an illness-related employment gap on the callback rate. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 185(May): 865-882 [Working Paper version]
Schwab, B., and R. Armah. (2019). Can food safety shortfalls disrupt ‘Ag for Nutrition’ gains? Evidence from Eid al Adha. Food Policy. 83(C): 170-179
Cowan, B. and B. Schwab. (2016). Employer sponsored health insurance and the gender wage gap. Journal of Health Economics. 45(1): 103-114
Cowan, B. & B. Schwab. (2011). The Incidence of the healthcare costs of smoking, Journal of Health Economics 30(5): 1094-1102
Gajigo, O. & Schwab, B. The rhythm of the rains: Seasonal effects on child health in The
Gambia.
Embaye, Weldensie T.,Bergtold, J., Schwab, B., Zereyesus, Y. A. Modeling farm productivity for heterogeneous farm households in developing countries
Schwab, B. Nutrition, education and development: The case of Vitamin D milk.
Schwab, B. Maternal fasting during Ramadan and child health: Evidence from 40 countries.
Benjamin Schwab 